Autho: Kenneth Kai-chung Yung
Source: Global Intellectual History
Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23801883.2025.2487771
Abstract
The communist takeover in 1949 prompted many Chinese intellectuals to flee their motherland. Many of them were democratic socialists. They were in a position when two trends of thought radicalisation collided with each other in the 1950s.
First, Chinese intellectuals had been attracted by different political schools of thought since the late Qing period, which ultimately led to the rise of communism and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. Second, exiled intellectuals in Taiwan had long been opposed to Chiang Kai-shek’s dictatorship and found government intervention irritating. They began to turn to anti-utopianism that arrived from the West in the early Cold War years.
The moderate socialists stood in between. They were anti-communist and unwilling to stay in China. They were also boycotted by the anti-utopian liberals who dominated the intellectual circle in Taiwan. Although some democratic socialists sojourned in Taiwan, many of them went to Hong Kong where they could voice their opinions freely. In the British colony, they published magazines and books to promote their political ideals. On the surface, these people were able to continue their political endeavour. However, I argue that the democratic socialists were victims of thought radicalisation in the Cold War era.