Theory, History, Culture: Cultural Identity and the Politics of Theory in Twentieth-Century China

Abstract

This essay inquires into the relationship between theory, culture and history as it appears from a perspective at the end of the twentieth century. The substance of the essay consists of analyses two attempts to sinicize theory: the Maoist effort of the Yan an Period to make Marxism Chinese, and an effort by Chinese sociologists in the early eighties to make sociology Chinese. On this basis, the essay argues that the effort to confront theory by culture is by no means transparent, but has different meanings at different times. Such efforts may produce new theories, but any such production is likely to be quite ambivalent in its confrontation with culture, such changes are likely to qualify received theory but preserve it as the foundation for its modifications. Secondly, where culture acquires a strong voice in theory, the result is likely to be the disintegration of theory rather than its enrichment, or the broadening of its scope. This would seem to be the situation at the end of the century as evidence accumulates of the disintegration of received theories, which is articulated in postmodern/postcolonial

questionings not only of theory and culture but of history as well. An idea such as the sinicization of theory may no longer be relevant, the essay suggests, both because it is increasingly difficult to speak of a "Chinese" culture in the face of a proliferation of Chinese societies with different historical trajectories, but also because such an idea is parochial in ignoring other cultural traditions making their claims on theory. History itself has been challenged in recent years as a particularly modern Western way of knowing the past. The essay concludes nevertheless that there is much to be gained from viewing theory, culture, and the interactions between the two, historically.