Opinion: Modernization Revisited

 
China's modernization period has spanned more than a century since the Qing Dynasty, through the New Culture Movement of the 1910s and the Thought Liberation Movement of the 1980s. The former subverted long-term controls of Confucian rules and doctrines by introducing science and democracy, while the latter led to abandonment of Stalinist and Mao Zedong-style art and literature.

Each enlightenment movement bears great significance in China's history, for it offers evidence of social transition. However, each movement veered from its original route. The former was overwhelmed by "national salvation," while the latter's goal shifted to "making the people rich and the nation strong."