News under fire: China’s propaganda against Japan in the English-language press, 1928–1941

Abstract

pursued an imagined and ideal world in which neither nation nor family existed. In this new social and political order, family was put aside, and its responsibilities would instead be fulfilled through communal property, public discourse, and government. Thus, the family revolution not only reconstructed the old images of family but configured a future without family as well. This path was seen by many as against both Chinese tradition and Westernization. Intellectuals were dissatisfied with existing family patterns in China and the West; they considered it necessary to reconstruct the forms of social organization. Letting go of family helped socialize its functions, but the importance of familial love and trust for life and society was neglected. Discussion about abandoning marriage and pursuing free love helped to reconstruct the relationships that linked together sex, reproduction, and marriage. This not only denied the stability of sexual relations but also subverted people’s moral concepts. Here, by discussing the transition from Chinese to Western social patterns, and from the old to the new, the author has carefully examined different groups’ observations and approaches toward the family revolution. The book deepens our understanding of the family revolution’s essential importance for modern China. Is family an obstacle to individual development, social progress, and national prosperity? The question put forward by the author is worth considering.