Challenging the Mandate of Heaven: Social Protest and State Power in China

Social science theories of contentious politics have been based almost exclusively on evidence drawn from the European and American experience, and classic texts in the field make no mention of either the Chinese Communist revolution or the Cultural Revolution -- surely two of the most momentous social movements of the twentieth century. Moreover, China's record of popular upheaval stretches back well beyond this century, indeed all the way back to the third century B.C. This book, by bringing together studies of protest that span the imperial, Republican, and Communist eras, introduces Chinese patterns and provides a forum to consider ways in which contentious politics in China might serve to reinforce, refine or reshape theories derived from Western cases.

About the Author

Elizabeth J. Perry is Director of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research and Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government at Harvard University. Born in China, she was educated at William Smith College (B.A. summa cum laude), The University of Washington (M.A.), and the University of Michigan (Ph.D.). Before moving to Harvard, she taught at the universities of Arizona, Washington, and California (Berkeley). Professor Perry has written widely on Chinese popular movements from the nineteenth century to the present. Her previous books include Rebels and Revolutionaries in North China, 1845–1945 (1980); Shanghai on Strike: The Politics of Chinese Labor (1993); Proletarian Power: Shanghai in the Cultural Revolution (with Li Xun) (1997); and Popular Protest and Political Culture in Modern China (with Jeffrey Wasserstrom) (1994).