The Anti-Revolutionary Views in Classical Chinese Literature and the Modern Chinese Aversion to the Fall of the Iron Curtain
The Anti-Revolutionary Views in Classical Chinese Literature and the Modern Chinese Aversion to the Fall of the Iron Curtain

Summary/Abstract: The present study aims at explaining the attitude of the Chinese state establishment and Chinese public perception towards the fall of the Iron Curtain and the demise of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, in the light of the Chinese past, considering the Chinese literary sources that were often invoked by modern day intellectuals and political figures as references to the idea of revolution. The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was an iconic event for the fall of communism worldwide and it had a very obvious impact on the events that unfolded in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square ones in China during the same year. For the present research, the study provides a thorough survey of those sources, relevant for tracing the arguments that some later intellectuals had in support or against the French Revolution, an event that marked the beginning of the modern era in Europe and affected China as well. As an avatar of the French Revolution, the Romanian one also ended in “regicide” with the execution of that person that acted as the head of a state, holder of an absolute power exercised in abusive manners. The outcome was the most shocking for the world at large, but especially for the Chinese establishment who had a traditional relationship with the fallen Romanian regime. The research shows that there was a profound fear of revolution in China, inherited from the past and encouraged by the old Chinese tradition and that the former imperial consciousness is actually a matter of pride that never lost relevance and was never discarded, regardless of the regime change in a country with a rich historical experience.

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