The Cultural Revolution on trial : Mao and the Gang of Four / Alexander C. Cook, University of California, Berkeley.

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2016.

1 online resource (xv, 277 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University.

The trial of Cultural Revolution leaders, including Mao's widow and her Gang of Four, was the signal event in China's post-Mao transition. In its wake, Chinese socialism emerged from the rubble of the Cultural Revolution to create the China that we know today. This spectacular show trial was a curious example of transitional justice, marking a break from the trauma of the past, a shift to the present era of reform, and a blueprint for building a better future. In this groundbreaking reconstruction of the most famous trial in Chinese history, Alex Cook shows how the event laid the cornerstone for a new model of socialist justice; at the same time, a comparison of official political and legal sources with works of popular literature reveals the conflicted cultural dimensions of this justice. The result, Cook argues, saved Chinese socialism as ruling ideology, but at the cost of its revolutionary soul.

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 25 Nov 2016).

WWW

Print version:

Cambridge Core.

English

9780511980411 ebook
9780521761116 (hardback)
9780521135290 (paperback)

Monographs & Serials
Electronic Resources