An Ontological Exit for Chinese Democracy: Beyond the State-Society Divide

Title

An Ontological Exit for Chinese Democracy: Beyond the State-Society Divide

Author

Chih-yu Shih

Page

189-218

DOI

Abstract

Indeed Confucian societies including China are often seen as lacking in self- consistency. Lucian Pye, who makes this observation, argues that this lack is a cul- tural, not political, question. If this is true, then China's democratic prospect should be a matter of cultural reformation. This means that the assumed subjectivity in each Chinese citizen reflects more of a political advocacy than of reality. Therefore, democratization as a political discourse interferes in the creation of a "correct" sub- jectivity in Chinese citizens. In the following discussion, I will also explore the meaning of democratic sub- jectivity, based on the following works: literature by Lucian Pye, David Dewei Wang (a Taiwan-born literature critic in the United States), and the debate between the Chinese liberals and the so-called new leftists. I hope to open up the meaning of democracy to allow agency for every Chinese practicing and interpreting subjectivi- ty at the ontological level. In the end, this paper will attempt to provide an analytical scheme that pre- serves fluidity concerning the future relationship between the Chinese state and the society, thus testifying to a democracy, in the Confucian context, that cannot be de- fined.

Keyword

Democracy, Lucian Pye, Wang Dewei, New Left, Liberal, Liberalism, Subjectivity

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