Reexamining the Intellectual and Chinese Communism

This chapter explains the approach, argument, and significance of the book. It introduces the following issues: (1) How did zhishifenzi (the intellectual) evolve from an obscure expression to a primary social identity of many within three decades? (2) How did individuals and organizations react to this metamorphosis of the intellectual? (3) What was the impact of the metamorphosis on the Chinese socialist revolution? The chapter builds upon research on social classification and describes the book’s analytical framework with official representation, local identification, and informal negotiation as central components. It explains how the Chinese socialist revolution normalized the intellectual as a classification of people and how the conversion of many into locally identifiable intellectuals influenced the revolution in structural, political, and cultural terms. The chapter concludes with an overview of the book.