The “Original Spirit” of Chinese Civilization: Wang Huning and the Indigenization of Reform in Post-Mao China

Authors

• Chandler Rosenberger, Brandeis UniversityFollow

Keywords

original spirit; Chinese civilization; Mao; CCP

Abstract

For several centuries, modernizing intellectuals in China have struggled with the question of how to move their country forward against the inertia of a large peasant population rooted in millennia-old traditions. The Communist Party of Mao Zedong tried to fill that peasantry with revolutionary fervor, but grew fearful as chaos quickly destroyed traditions and reforms alike. In the last three decades, however, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seems to have found a way to engage the population in modernizing within their own familiar cultural framework. Guided by chief ideologist Wang Huning, the CCP has embraced a civilizational approach to reform that strongly resembles the paradigm Liah Greenfeld outlined in her later work.

Recommended Citation

Rosenberger, Chandler (2026) "The “Original Spirit” of Chinese Civilization: Wang Huning and the Indigenization of Reform in Post-Mao China," Comparative Civilizations Review: Vol. 95: No. 95, Article 12.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/ccr/vol95/iss95/12