The Dialogue between Ideals and Practices: Investigating Cantonese Anarchists' Activities at Home and abroad (1911-1927)

• Main Authors: Wang, Pei-Hsin, 王佩心
• Other Authors: Huang, Ko-Wu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/q83ku7

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 歷史學系 === 106 === During the intellectual transition of modern Chinese history, anarchism was a prevailing political theory, and it played an important role in New Culture Movement and the development of radical politics. Past scholarships mostly focused on the period of late Qing Dynasty and early Republic China, when the first generation of Chinese anarchists emerged as key figures in setting the tone of Chinese modernization project, with little notice on the people, theories and movement of the later anarchists. This thesis, however, aims to pay attention to the major players in the second generation of Chinese anarchists, the Cantonese anarchists, who were the disciples of Chinese anarchism–anarcho-communism and were responsible for bringing Chinese anarchism to its peak at the turn of 1920. From the aspects of networks, living philosophy, political culture and social movement, this thesis attempts to disclose the undercurrents of individual values and social construction in anarcho-communism. The thesis is divided into two main parts–ideals and practices. The ideals part has two sections, the first one serves as the introductory chapter, which delineates the interaction between anarchism and its time by discussing the changing concept of social revolution in anarchist theory. The following two chapters describe practices that reveal Cantonese anarchists’ trans-regional network and their activities in Zhangzhou, Guangzhou and the South China Sea. The final chapter returns to theoretical analysis by comparing the notion and the social foundation of constitutional power in its Western origin with that in Chinese context, with a special attention to Cantonese anarchists’ connotations of critical political terms “nation,” “government,” and “authority.” By juxtaposing the ideals and practices, this thesis not only aims to the present how did anarchists put their thoughts into practices, but also re-assesses the theoretical characteristics and historical significance of anarcho-communism from the aspect of its pragmatic gradualism.