The Land Revolution in China from an academic history perspective: Changes of topics and paradigms

Abstract

The Land Revolution is considered to be the most important factor that led the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to the completion of its military mobilization and the final revolutionary victory in China. It is also a hot research subject with regards to the revolution in modern China from the standpoint of many disciplines, including law, economics, political science, history, sociology and anthropology. This article presents a critical review of the studies on the issues relating to the CCP’s Land Revolution that focuses on three facets of the research in this area: problematique, theoretical paradigms and specific topics. The review uses a new framework to look at four traditional lines of research: studies of China’s revolutionary history in America since the 1950s, studies of the history of the Chinese Communist Party since the founding of New China, studies of Chinese social and economic history since the 1930s, and studies of oral histories since the 1990s. Based on a careful review of the current literature related to the issues involved in the CCP’s Land Revolution, the article is critical in clarifying the problematique process of the Land Revolution from the angle of academic developmental history in order to learn what internal roadmaps and developmental paths operated within academia, explore the problems and limitations of various research traditions and theoretical perspectives, and lay the foundation for future research on the Land Revolution.