Mao’s iconoclasm was a fuller expression of Liang Qichao’s ideas of destructivism, expressed early in his exile to Japan. Mao took these ideas to their limits, creating a Chinese version of Joseph Schumpeter’s “creative destruction.” Many years later, in a 1940 essay, Mao stated this contradiction most clearly in the famous line, “There is no… Read more »
Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) was born into a salt merchant family in Xikou, a town in the coastal province of Zhejiang. Chiang studied the classics early in life but never took an imperial examination. Instead, in 1905, Chiang cut off his Manchu-style queue and departed for Japan. Unlike other Chinese reformers in Japan at the time, Chiang’s goal… Read more »
Like his new idols Kang and Liang, Chen decided to continue his studies in Japan. There Chen became radicalized, cutting off his Qing-mandated queue, but was soon deported for aggressive behavior towards Qing agents in Japan. Back in China, he briefly joined an anti-Qing assassination squad. Chen soon decided, however, that China’s problems went deeper… Read more »