Touches of History

Populist Protests and the Dynamic Zero-COVID Policy: (Re)emerging Pragmatic Populism in China

“…Interestingly, the emergence and utilization of pragmatic populism in China is linked to Dewey's visit to China during the protests in 1919 (Dewey, 1973;Treat, 1920). Dewey's arrival in China coincided with the preparations by the young Chinese intellectuals for the May Fourth Movement (1917Movement ( -1921) (Chen & Hockx, 2011). The rise of populist protests in China that were influenced by John Dewey are the protests and demonstrations during the 1919 May Fourth Movement (五四运动: Wu-ssu shih-chien) (Mitter, 2005), which led to the conceptualization of pragmatic populismor Chinese populism by John Dewey (1859Dewey ( -1952.…”

“…1 The May Fourth Movement 2 preceded the other populist protests in China, and played a considerable role in influencing the Cultural Revolution (1966)(1967)(1968)(1969)(1970)(1971)(1972)(1973)(1974)(1975)(1976) and the 1989 Chinese Democracy Movement (Dewey, 1939(Dewey, , 1973Naughton, 2007;Peng, 2020). However, populist protests have a massive role in the (re-)shaping of the political environment in China, especially the populist protests during the 1919 May Fourth Movement at the Tiananmen Square (Chen & Hockx, 2011). The 1919 May Fourth Movement led by the students and the intellectual class have had implications for the directions and policies undertaken by the Chinese State.…”

“…Accordingly, this was institutionalized through the Art. 156 of the Treaty of Versailles (Chen & Hockx, 2011), often connotated as the Shantung resolution (also known as the Shandong Question) (Treat, 1920). The issue spurred with the transfer of special privileges held by Germany in the Shandong Peninsula to Japan, which besides the Twenty-One Demands (presented by Japan back in 1915) flared up patriotic sentiments in China.…”

“…Stroud uses the recently discovered lecture notes written by Dewey and translations from the Chinese interpretations of his lectures to advance our understanding of Dewey as a rhetor and the theoretical grounds of the pragmatist rhetoric of experience and synthetic conflict (Stroud, 2013). Dewey's involvement in China during the period is considered as an 'intellectual revolution and social-political reform that occurred in the country against foreign imperialism and thus threatened the political legitimacy of the then Chinese government as well as its response to the Treaty of Versailles' (Chen & Hockx, 2011). Chinese intellectuals and social reformers have mainly been influenced by John Dewey's philosophy and conceptualization of pragmatism in populist protests.…”