Citizen Publications in China Before the Internet

This book presents the first panoramic study of minkan (citizen publications) in China before the Internet, from the 1950s to the 1980s. Drawing on theories of civil society and the public sphere, this study explores the creative practice of minkan as a revival of the concept of 'moveable words' in the Chinese print tradition. When examined against the backdrop of a much older history of Chinese print culture and its renaissance, this recent history of citizen publications also contributes to the reclamation of a lost past of resistance. It is an exercise in remembering a past that has been marginalized and excluded by official history and recovering thoughts and practices obliterated by state power. This book attempts to reconstruct the narrative of modern Chinese history by analyzing the development of a civil society that is independent of both the state elite and the new apolitical bourgeoisie in mainland China.