Communication Patterns and the Chinese Revolution

Abstract

Styles of interpersonal communication are but one of a broad range of politically relevant behavioural patterns which are now seen to be shaped in part by the culture of a given society; together these patterns are called “political culture.” This analysis is an exploration of the childhood socialisation of attitudes and emotional concerns which have affected inter-personal communications in Chinese society and of some of the ways these culturally-based attitudes have influenced Chinese political behaviour. More specifically, the present discussion is intended to demonstrate something of the “political culture” analytical approach: data concerning Chinese habits of interpersonal and political communications are related to some of the leadership concepts and political institutions developed by the Chinese Communists. Socialisation experiences, however, are used as only one source of data for making inferences. What we have looked for is a generalpatternof personal attitudes and social or political institutions as manifest in individual interview records, studies of Chinese history and political life, and in the writings of Chinese who have taken on the tasks of political leadership.