Xu Jilin on China’s Intellectuals and the Rise of the Private Sphere (Part 2)

"In my view, hope for the future lies not in [China's] public sphere, but primarily in its private sphere. A friend once said, 'Have grand ideals, but do small things'."

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Today’s edition opens with an introduction by David Ownby, founder of the wonderful Reading the China Dream blog and recently retired professor of history at the Université de Montréal. Few scholars in the English-speaking world have studied and engaged with Xu Jilin’s work as closely as David. He has very kindly agreed to introduce the second part of this particularly insightful and thought-provoking interview with Xu. Part one, which explores sexuality, boredom and political apathy among China’s youth, can be found here.— Thomas

Xu Jilin (b. 1957) is a prominent historian and public intellectual, a professor at East China Normal University in Shanghai. The discovery of his writings and his voice changed the course of my professional career, leading to a prolonged engagement with contempora…