THE RISE AND DECLINE OF CHINESE ANARCHISM IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Abstract

At the beginning of the 20th century, the anarchist movement was one of the most influential in China, but it quickly became a marginalized and isolated phenomenon, and some of its representatives sided with the marxists. The article examines the external and internal factors of the formation and decline of anarchist ideas and the activities of individual Chinese anarchists. Despite the fact that the movement lost its influence in the 1930s, the ideas and concepts brought by anarchist organizations to the intellectual debate continued to develop in marxist thought of the time. Chinese anarchism had its origins in the late Qing dynasty as a socialist movement and quickly developed into an influential and large movement, mostly led by Chinese youth, inspired by the activities of foreign anarchists and nihilists. Some of the early anarchists advocated the use of terror to achieve their own goals, while considering the human being, the individual, to be the highest value. In addition to external influences on the formation and development of the movement, it is also important to take into account the internal factors and circumstances that developed in the early 20th century, which led to the intensification and spread of radical movements in China. In its heyday, the anarchist movement tried to get closer to marxists as ideologically close activists, and marxists, in turn, intended to convince anarchists to give up their fundamental anti-statist beliefs in favor of the common cause of social revolution and the overthrow of the old order. The decline of the anarchist movement in China is associated with several factors: the death of Liu Shifu, the most authoritative representative of the movement; cultural debates between anarchists and marxists; the radicalism and utopianism of the ideas propagated, which found less approval among the intelligentsia of the time; and the internal political situation under the rule of military leaders. The article reveals the main stages and directions of the anarchist movement, identifies the most important personalities representing it, the main factions and groups. Special attention is paid to the activities of Liu Shifu, a representative of the most influential group of anarchists in Guangzhou, and his anti-Marxist views.