The Twenty-First Century
Encyclopedia
The Twenty-First Century is a Hong Kong
intellectual journal, with a high standard of contributions both in the social sciences and the humanities, which played an important role in Chinese intellectual life from the early to the mid-1990s. After the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
, the intellectual scene within mainland China was enervated, both by the effects of political conditions on the possibilities for discourse and by a sizable intellectual exodus to the West. At first, The Twenty-First Century was the only journal available to the thinkers of the new diaspora
. It therefore became a very important site for debate (for example, on conservatism and radicalism in 20th-century Chinese thought, or on China’s state capacity), though it was difficult to obtain copies in the mainland. Aside from its importance in the maintenance and the progress of Chinese intellectual discourse during this time, The Twenty-First Century is also of historical importance as a document of the first stages of the internationalization of Chinese intellectual life during the 1990s. In the middle of the decade, it lost its influence to resurgent mainland journals.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
intellectual journal, with a high standard of contributions both in the social sciences and the humanities, which played an important role in Chinese intellectual life from the early to the mid-1990s. After the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
, the intellectual scene within mainland China was enervated, both by the effects of political conditions on the possibilities for discourse and by a sizable intellectual exodus to the West. At first, The Twenty-First Century was the only journal available to the thinkers of the new diaspora
New diaspora
A neo/new diaspora is a term used to describe the displacement, migration, and dispersion of individuals away from their homelands by forces such as globalization, neoliberalism, and imperialism...
. It therefore became a very important site for debate (for example, on conservatism and radicalism in 20th-century Chinese thought, or on China’s state capacity), though it was difficult to obtain copies in the mainland. Aside from its importance in the maintenance and the progress of Chinese intellectual discourse during this time, The Twenty-First Century is also of historical importance as a document of the first stages of the internationalization of Chinese intellectual life during the 1990s. In the middle of the decade, it lost its influence to resurgent mainland journals.
See also
- DushuDushuDushu is a monthly Chinese literary magazine. First published in April 1979 with its leading article No Forbidden Zone in Reading, it has great influence on Chinese intellectuals....
, one of the few other journals that was active and influential in the immediate post-Tiananmen period, in Dushus case because its content had been almost wholly apolitical during the late 1980s