DILEMMAS OF VICTORYJeremy Brown This illuminating work examines the social, cultural, political, and economic dimensions of the Communist takeover of China. Instead of dwelling on elite politics and policy-making processes, Dilemmas of Victory seeks to understand how the 1949-1953 period was experienced by various groups, including industrialists, filmmakers, ethnic minorities, educators, rural midwives, philanthropists, stand-up comics, and scientists. A stellar group of authors that includes Frederic Wakeman, Elizabeth Perry, Sherman Cochran, Perry Link, Joseph Esherick, and Chen Jian shows that the Communists sometimes achieved a remarkably smooth takeover, yet at other times appeared shockingly incompetent. Shanghai and Beijing experienced it in ways that differed dramatically from Xinjiang, Tibet, and Dalian. Out of necessity, the new regime often showed restraint and flexibility, courting the influential and educated. Furthermore, many policies of the old Nationalist regime were quietly embraced by the new Communist rulers. Based on previously unseen archival documents as well as oral histories, these lively, readable essays provide the fullest picture to date of the early years of the People’s Republic, which were far more pluralistic, diverse, and hopeful than the Maoist decades that followed. |
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areas Army bandit Beijing Bureau campaign capitalists Chen China Chinese Communist Committee Communist Party comrades counterrevolutionaries cultural Dagong Dalai Lama Dalian Deng Deng Xiaoping Duyi Duzhuang early elite factories Fang Shi film gongzuo Guizhou Hong Kong Huang Ibid Interrogation Report JFRB jiefang June Korea Korean War labor leaders leadership liberation Liu Hongsheng Liu Shaoqi Mao Zedong midwifery midwives Nationalist nese new-style official old-style organizations party cadres party’s Peking People's Republic pickets political reform regime Renda renmin chubanshe resistance revolution revolutionary ribao rural Shaanxi Shanghai sheng Shi Hui Sichuan Sino-Soviet social society soldiers southwest Soviet authorities Soviet Union struggle takeover Three-Anti Tianjin Tibet Tibetan tion troops United University Press urban Uyghur Wang Wenhua wenti women workers xiangsheng Xinjiang yuan Zhang Zhao Zhong gong Zhongguo zhongyang Zhou Zhou Enlai ziliao