“One country, two histories”: how PRC and western narratives of Chinese modernity diverge

Niv Horesh

doi:10.13169/jglobfaul.7.1.0114

Abstract

Held in October 2017, the 19th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Congress enshrined not just Xi Jinping's grip on power. It also re-coated its ideology with a medley of Socialist and traditionalist buzz words that had been marginalized in the 1980s. During the height of the reform era, these increasingly made way for ideas borrowed from market economies. Predictably enough, the ideological ferment surrounding the 19th Party Congress has since also played out in the realm of education. This article examines in detail the most current history textbooks used in PRC classrooms to construe China's recent past. To that end, included in my exploration will not just be changing PRC attitudes to Chinese modern history, but also PRC instruction of world history. In passing, I will also compare the school material with the latest authoritative Western scholarly studies of the same topics by way of eliciting how PRC official historical narratives of 19th–20th century events diverge from Western ones. A better understanding of those narratives is crucial to predicting how the PRC will behave on the world stage as an emerging global superpower.

Highlights

Held in October 2017, the 19th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Congress enshrined not just Xi Jinping’s grip on power
During the height of the reform era, these increasingly made way for ideas borrowed from market economies
During the height of the reform era, these increasingly made way – or so it seemed at the time – for ideas borrowed from market economies

Summary

The recent past

The First Opium War (1839–42) serves as a convenient rupture framing the approach of both Western and PRC historians to Chinese modernity. As more details emerge in the West about the “tragedy of liberation” – to cite Dikötter’s provocative term – it is worth recalling that the personal histories of Li Jishen and others attest to the popularity of the Communists in the early 1950s.35 When it comes to the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), the historical narrative gap between the PRC and the West seems to be partly closing. As Kirk Denton argues, the PRC media in the early 1950s published many articles about memorialization of the War.[44] What is less forthcoming in the Chinese narrative is appreciation for the huge sacrifice American (as well British and Indian) forces made, and for the decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as leading to Japan’s surrender. This victor narrative is not yet evident in the textbooks under review here, and it remains to be seen in what ways the furthering of Xi’s grip on power will change textbook tenor in the future

PRC annals

World annals

Conclusions