Fanshen: A Documentary Of Revolution In A Chinese Village
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
In the turbulent years following World War II, a quiet revolution was reshaping the very foundations of Chinese rural life — and William Hinton was there to witness it firsthand. Fanshen, meaning to turn the body or to turn over, chronicles the sweeping land reform movement that transformed Long Bow, a small village in Shanxi Province, as Communist Party cadres dismantled centuries of feudal hierarchy, redistributing land, power, and dignity to the peasant poor. Drawing on meticulous notes taken during his time in China as an American farm technician, Hinton presents a granular, almost novelistic account of meetings, struggles, confessions, and triumphs that defined the Maoist revolution at the grass-roots level. A landmark work of political documentary writing, Fanshen stands as one of the most rigorous and empathetic Western accounts of the Chinese Communist Revolution, illustrating how ideology is lived and contested at the most intimate level of human community. Hinton's prose is unflinching yet deeply humane, capturing both the brutal contradictions of revolutionary justice and the genuine hope that animated millions of ordinary people. Decades after its first publication, the book continues to provoke debate among historians, political scientists, and anyone grappling with questions of power, land, and liberation — leaving the reader to wonder: what is the true cost of turning the world upside down?
Author: William Hinton
Format: Paperback
Genre: Asian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
In the turbulent years following World War II, a quiet revolution was reshaping the very foundations of Chinese rural life — and William Hinton was there to witness it firsthand. Fanshen, meaning to turn the body or to turn over, chronicles the sweeping land reform movement that transformed Long Bow, a small village in Shanxi Province, as Communist Party cadres dismantled centuries of feudal hierarchy, redistributing land, power, and dignity to the peasant poor. Drawing on meticulous notes taken during his time in China as an American farm technician, Hinton presents a granular, almost novelistic account of meetings, struggles, confessions, and triumphs that defined the Maoist revolution at the grass-roots level. A landmark work of political documentary writing, Fanshen stands as one of the most rigorous and empathetic Western accounts of the Chinese Communist Revolution, illustrating how ideology is lived and contested at the most intimate level of human community. Hinton's prose is unflinching yet deeply humane, capturing both the brutal contradictions of revolutionary justice and the genuine hope that animated millions of ordinary people. Decades after its first publication, the book continues to provoke debate among historians, political scientists, and anyone grappling with questions of power, land, and liberation — leaving the reader to wonder: what is the true cost of turning the world upside down?