I
After more than ten months of joint efforts by contributors, editors, translators, and manuscript polishers, the nine papers in this special issue finally become available. Before these papers enter the editing process at the Educational Philosophy and Theory editorial department, I, as one of the editors of this special issue on the theme of contemporary Marxism in China, would like to give a brief introduction to the cause, theme, planning and reading tips for readers of this special issue.
Around the beginning of 2021, Professor Michael A. Peters, editor-in-chief of Educational Philosophy and Theory, mentioned to me his comprehensive plan for a research project on contemporary Chinese Marxism: Some outstanding Chinese scholars would be invited to write two groups of collective pieces on contemporary Chinese Marxism first, and then develop some core ideas in those submitted short texts into full papers, with these two groups of papers published in the form of two special issues on the study of contemporary Marxism in China. After the completion of those special issues, if conditions permit, some contributors, mainly the authors already involved, would compile and write monographs on the study of contemporary Chinese Marxism and publish them in English at well-known publishing houses outside China. Moreover, we even can consider the possibility for establishing an academic platform for Chinese scholars to carry out dialogue and discussion with international scholars and readers who are interested in contemporary Chinese Marxism.
I am very glad to have the opportunity to take part in the project proposed by Professor Michael A. Peters. On the one hand, as a professional who has been engaged in philosophical research and teaching for more than 30 years, I am a bit better informed of the study of Marxism in China, and deeply feel it is necessary to push the study of contemporary Chinese Marxism forward to the international academic circles. On the other hand, the English journal Frontiers of Philosophy in China, for which I have been a part-time editor since 2011, has always attached great importance to the introduction of the study of contemporary Chinese Marxism to foreign academic circles. Naturally, I pay more attention to the release of the research results of contemporary Chinese Marxism in foreign academic journals. As far as I know, the well-known journals of philosophy and philosophy of education outside China scarcely publish specialized research papers written by contemporary Chinese Marxist experts. Although the Educational Philosophy and Theory has released quite a few papers relating to Marxism over the years, this will be the first time in my memory over decades that this journal publishes special issues on the contemporary study of Marxism exceptionally authored by Chinese scholars.
As some preparatory work for the whole research and publishing project, Professor Michael A. Peters and I spent several months in coauthoring on a paper titled ‘Contemporary Chinese Marxism: disciplines, teaching platforms and status quo of basic academic research’.Footnote1 We had planned to write a short introduction of merely a few hundred words at first. However, with the accumulation of literature reading and the expansion of ideas, we added more contents to the writing several times, and the length of the paper also increased again and again. In the end, the paper became thousands of words long. In the writing of this article, we contacted some scholars whom we thought might contribute to the two groups of papers. After careful selection and active communication with potential contributors, we invited more than thirty scholars to contribute short texts, and sixteen of them were submitted on time and passed the anonymous review. They are now published in two groups, which are known as the ‘Contemporary Chinese Marxism: Basic research orientations’Footnote2 and the ‘Contemporary Chinese Marxism: Social visions and philosophy of education – An EPAT collective project’,Footnote3 respectively. The former mainly reflects the academic study of contemporary Chinese Marxism in the field of humanities, especially of its foundational theory, while the latter focuses on the research progress of contemporary Chinese Marxism in the fields of social sciences and philosophy of education.
The first authors of all the papers in this special issue come from the two groups of short pieces mentioned earlier. The authors are all qualified professionals from universities and colleagues in mainland China. They are all the top or the better scholars in their fields. Some of them are professors of Marxist philosophy in the department of philosophy; some are professors at the schools of Marxism; some are experts at the study of Western Marxism; and some reflect on and analyze in reference to their own professions the influence and status of Marxism in their own fields of study.
After the completion of the two groups of short pieces, the authors immediately threw themselves into writing longer papers and completed manuscripts on time in accordance with the journal’s schedule. After that, the authors revised and improved their writings in light of the editors’ advices. In this process, the scholars taking part in the project formed a small academic community, and had serious and enthusiastic discussions on the problems encountered when they wrote and revised these papers. In the process of unifying the collection, translation, proofreading, annotation of this issue, I consulted with the editor-in-chief and managing editor of the journal many times on the technical requirements and technical indicators of the special issues, and obtained many key technical guidance from them.
As one of the participants of this special issue, I think the papers in this special issue have basically actualized the conception at the initiation of it. The completion of this issue has provided a good experience for the success of the next issue with the similar theme. I believe that it is the duty of the researchers of contemporary Chinese Marxism to present the rich research achievements of contemporary Chinese Marxism to the world. But it is also a quite challenging mission. This challenge comes from how to fully reflect the important academic status and influence of contemporary Chinese Marxism in China, and also from the difficulties in reading that the unique context, way of discourse and cultural tradition of contemporary Chinese Marxism bring to Western readers. Chinese Marxist researchers still need to do more work in the future to present the quintessence of contemporary Chinese Marxist research to readers and colleagues outside China more accurately and effectively.
II
Generally speaking, the nine papers accepted for this special issue study the foundational theory of contemporary Chinese Marxism from the perspective of humanities. They can be largely divided into five main categories:
First, the study of the basic views and theories of contemporary Chinese Marxism. ‘Contemporary Chinese Axiology Oriented towards the Practice of Reform and Opening Up’ studies the status and function of axiology and value philosophy in contemporary Chinese Marxist philosophy. It claims that the axiological research in contemporary Chinese Marxism has always oriented itself towards the practice of reform and opening up, profoundly expressing the practical logic of reform and opening up by way of the theoretical logic of axiology.
‘Textological Studies and A New Understanding of Marx’s Thought in Contemporary China’ points out that textology has gradually become an important and special research area in the overall pattern of Chinese Marxism since the beginning of the 21st century. Scholars have honed new explanations with new understandings concerning the relations between the origins of Marx’s thought and the Western cultural tradition, the continuity and essence of Marx’s thought through change, the complexity of Marx’s theory of capital and the arduousness of the criticisms against it, and the concrete contents of communism.
‘Winning the Hearts of the People with Artistic Masterpieces: An Aesthetic Tradition of Chinese Marxism’ is a study of Marxist literary theory in the contemporary Chinese academic context. It points out Chinese Marxism has gradually nurtured a new tradition of modern aesthetics. Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and Xi Jinping, among other leaders, acquired a deep understanding of Marxist aesthetics and incorporated it in their policy making.
Second, the case study of the influence of Marxism upon other humanities and the circuitous course of Sinicization of Marxism, which is an important part of the study of contemporary Chinese Marxism. The paper titled ‘One Hundred Years of Chinese Logic: An Academic History of Logic Relating to Contemporary Chinese Marxism’ is a case study of this category. It outlines those debates about dialectical logic in Chinese academic circles involve not only the problems of logic itself, but more importantly the understanding of Marxist philosophy.
Third, foreign Marxism has been an important part of the study of contemporary Chinese Marxism in recent decades in China, this special issue has therefore three papers relating to the study of structuralist Marxism in France, radical postmodernism in France, and new materialism in Britain. ‘The Implications of the Thinking Paradigms of British neo-Marxism’ is the article by Chinese Marxist scholars who are doing research on western Marxism. The authors think that British Neo-Marxism encompasses issues of history, culture, politics, society, technology, and outer space as it continues to broaden alternate critical research approaches. ‘Materialism as a Fatal Strategy: Jean Baudrillard’s Critical Path of Modernity’ believes that Jean Baudrillard took the object as the focus of his theory and construed it as the capital-O ‘Object’ that has escaped from the subject-object relationship. In this way, Baudrillard formulated a unique version of ‘materialism’. ‘Law and Reproduction: Louis Althusser’s Criticism of Capitalist Law’ points out that Althusser profoundly criticized the mechanism of capitalist law from the perspective of ‘reproduction’.
Fourth, in the era of globalization, comparative research is an indispensable approach of academic research. The paper ‘Chinese and Western Marxist Theories of Modernity: Comparing and Connecting’ in this special issue is a comparative study of the modernity theories both in Chinese and Western Marxism. According to this paper, modernity is not only the basic theoretical horizon of Chinese and Western Marxism, but also their theoretical object. The understanding of modernity has resulted in the characteristic Chinese and Western Marxist theories of modernity, respectively. These two Marxist theories of modernity are destined to come into dialogue and be fused into a new Marxist theory of modernity for the 21st century.
Fifth, adapting the basic tenets of Marxism to outstanding traditional Chinese culture is a major issue in the current and future development of Marxism in China. The paper ‘Adapting Marxism to Outstanding Traditional Chinese Culture: History, Consensus and Future’ in this issue is a valuable attempt at this aspect. This article attempts to sort out the historical relationship of ‘contradiction’ and ‘adaptation’ between Marxism and traditional Chinese culture in the process of development.
III
Here, I would like to offer some personal suggestions to readers, especially those outside mainland China, on how to read the essays in this issue.
Firstly, it is advisable for readers and colleagues to fully perceive the great role of Marxism in China in the changes of Chinese society, and to better understand the academic status and realistic influence of contemporary Chinese Marxism as an academic thought.
Secondly, contemporary Chinese Marxism as an academic thought has rich academic connotation. As I mentioned in the second part of this introduction, the nine papers in this special issue attempt to express such abundance from several perspectives. To be honest, however, these papers (as well as those in the planned second special issue) are at best merely some sketches of certain aspects of contemporary Chinese Marxism, far from a panoramic and in-depth depiction of contemporary Chinese Marxism. Therefore, I suggest readers and colleagues to expand their interpretation of relevant literature as much as possible when reading this group of papers. For example, they can refer to the papers related to the study of contemporary Chinese Marxism published in the Educational Philosophy and Theory, especially the pieces published by those authors before this program.
Thirdly, there are differences between contemporary Chinese Marxist researchers and contemporary Western Marxist experts in the use of some academic terms. Take ‘Western Marxism’ as an example. Chinese academic circles often differ from Western philosophers in understanding it. Footnote4Readers and colleagues are suggested to understand the different meanings of these technical terms in different contexts.
Acknowledgements
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Educational Philosophy and Theory, especially its editor-in-chief Professor Michael A. Peters, for his foresight in initiating this special issue; thank the managing editor of this journal Mr. Andrew Madjar and former editor Ms. Susanne Brighouse for their supports and assistances throughout the project; and thank all anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Chengbing Wang
Chengbing Wang (PhD) is a professor of philosophy in the School of Philosophy at Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China, and also one of the associate editors-in-chief of the English journal ‘Frontiers of Philosophy in China’. His main research fields are Pragmatism, postmodern philosophy and philosophy of identity. He has published ninety articles, twenty monographs and translations. His new publications are The Crisis of Identity in the Context of Modernity (2017) and The Themes of Postmodern Philosophy (edit.)(2020). He is currently heading a major national project ‘Translation of the Philosophical Works by William James’ which will be concluded before December, 2022.
Notes
1 See Wang Chengbing & Michael A. Peters, “Contemporary Chinese Marxism: disciplines, teaching platforms and status quo of basic academic research”, https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2021.1929171.
2 See Chengbing Wang & Michael A. Peters: “Contemporary Chinese Marxism: Basic research orientations”, https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2021.1981858.
3 See Michael A. Peters & Chengbing Wang, “Contemporary Chinese Marxism: Social visions and philosophy of education – An EPAT collective project”, https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2021.1993824.
4 For example, with regard to the meaning of “western Marxism”, there is a broader definition among the Chinese scholars. In the view of contemporary Chinese Marxism, the scope of “Western Marxism” should be extended to the “post-Marxist” thought that arose after the 1960s, including ecology, feminism and other postmodern radical Marxism. Both the anonymous reviewers of this special issue suggested that I should have a more clear definition on “Western Marxism” in the context of Chinese Marxism. I have quoted the definition from the third edition of the Encyclopedia of China, the readers may see Contemporary Chinese Marxism: Basic research orientations, https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2021.1981858.