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Abstract1919 was a year of change and upheaval the world over. The Great Powers conferred at Versailles on the design of a New World Order, even as they faced instability and discontent at home. The newly formed Soviet Union continued to be wracked by civil war two years after the October Revolution, while its future adversary, the United States, was in the throes of a Red Scare and struggling to reconcile the opposing currents of isolationism and Wilsonian internationalism. Across the Pacific, Korean nationalists launched an uprising against the forces of Japanese imperialism on 1 March. Although this rebellion failed, it reflected the new anti-colonial spirit which seemed to be sweeping across Asia and Africa and which would trigger further uprisings before years end. All across the globe, it seemed, unrest, transformation, and revolution were in the air.

AbstractThrough analysing the early 1950s Thought Reform campaign, this article suggests a new approach to studying Chinese intellectuals. I highlight the reification of this social category under Communist Party rule. The campaign universalized zhishifenzi (知识分子) as a social classification, absorbed a diversity of people into the category and established within it multiple subject positions. This reification of the Chinese intellectual, which persisted after Thought Reform, had serious impacts on central policies, local organization and individual behaviour. My analytical perspective can further the understanding of CCP rule, state–intellectual relations and the experience of so-called Chinese intellectuals.