New Party History: Reimagining Contemporary Chinese History Through Social Science
Yichensyd
2
8-8Mia: You know, when I think of contemporary history, I usually think of events that happened in my lifetime. But it seems for professional historians, the definition is surprisingly tricky.
Mars: It is, and it's a fundamental challenge. Professor Cao Shuji points out that while Contemporary Chinese History is a hot field, even specialists struggle to define its core concepts. For them, contemporary is basically post-1949, but practical access to archives often stops them at the 1980s.
Mia: So, events from the 90s or 2000s are almost too recent to be professionally studied? That's counterintuitive.
Mars: Exactly. It's this fascinating paradox where history is constrained by bureaucracy. The very definition of contemporary is shaped by what documents you're allowed to see.
Mia: I see. And Professor Cao argues that to understand this period, what he calls New Party History is absolutely central. He uses his own research on the Great Famine as a key example.
Mars: That's the core of his argument. He says you can't separate National History from Party History. The famine wasn't just a demographic event; it was driven by specific party policies. So to understand the nation's story, you have to analyze the Party's decisions and movements as the central axis. It redefines the entire approach.
Mia: So it's about shifting the focus to the root causes within the Party's structure. This seems to have led him to develop some really innovative research methods.
Mars: Well, his journey started with the famine statistics, but to understand the famine, he had to go back even further, studying things like traditional land ownership. It shows how social and economic history are really the building blocks for this New Party History.
Mia: I was blown away by the scale of their data collection—over four million pages from more than 50 county archives. But you're right, it's the methods that feel revolutionary. They're moving past just interpreting policy and are using storytelling, social science, and even natural science. Can you give an example of why bringing in something like engineering is so critical?
Mars: Absolutely, and this is where it gets really interesting. Take the Great Leap Forward's backyard steel campaign. A traditional view might just call it a failure. But one of his students, using an engineering perspective, analyzed the technical efforts of the engineers involved. It revealed this hidden layer of rational problem-solving and technical adaptation within a deeply flawed system. Without that engineering lens, you'd miss that nuance completely.
Mia: That makes perfect sense. It adds a whole new dimension. It’s not just about what happened, but the technical and human reality of how it happened.
Mars: Precisely. The same goes for agriculture. You can't truly analyze collectivization without understanding agronomy and the state's very real need for grain to fund industrialization. It shows that history isn't just about reading texts; it's about applying rigorous, scientific tools from other fields.
Mia: This really drives home his bigger point, then—what he calls the social scientification of history. He's arguing it's becoming less of a pure humanities field.
Mars: It's a critical shift. Historians are no longer just storytellers. They're becoming analysts, using theoretical frameworks and technical tools from sociology, economics, and even epidemiology to dissect the past with much greater precision.
Mia: So, to wrap this all up, it seems Professor Cao is really pushing the boundaries here. What would you say are the biggest takeaways from his approach?
Mars: I'd say there are three main things. First, he establishes New Party History as the essential core for understanding modern China. Second, he proves that true insight requires an interdisciplinary toolkit—pulling from engineering, data science, you name it. And finally, it’s all part of this bigger movement, the social scientification of history. In essence, his work is creating a new framework for reimagining contemporary Chinese history through the lens of social science.