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From Beijing to Palestine: Zhang Chengzhi's Journeys from Red Guard Radicalism to Global Islam

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2016

Julia Lovell
Julia Lovell*
Affiliation:
Julia Lovell (ubra235@mail.bbk.ac.uk) is Reader in Modern Chinese History and Literature at Birkbeck College, University of London.
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Abstract

This article traces the intellectual evolution of Zhang Chengzhi (b. 1948), a contemporary Chinese poet, novelist, essayist, archaeologist, and ethnographer, from Mao-era radicalism to Islamic internationalism. Allegedly the inventor of the term “Red Guard” in the context of the Cultural Revolution, he has remained an unapologetic defender of Mao and of the “Red Guard spirit” since the 1960s. In 1987, meanwhile, Zhang converted to an impoverished and ascetic sect of Chinese Islam, the Jahriyya, and since the 2000s he has become one of China's most prominent spokesmen for global Islam. This article explores how Zhang has reconciled his zeal for Cultural Revolution Maoism, on the one hand, with Pan-Islamist positions on the other. Although Zhang's stance suffers from undoubted contradictions and inconsistencies, his career and beliefs illuminate the complexities of the legacy of Mao's and the Cultural Revolutions, of Chinese intellectual dissidence, and of the contemporary trajectories of Chinese internationalism and global Islam.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 75 , Issue 4 , November 2016 , pp. 891 - 911
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2016 

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References

1 Most of the refugees in the camp, originally from Gaza, remain some of the poorest of the Palestinian exile community. Although many have been there since the Six-Day War in 1967, Jordan has not given them citizenship or even work permits.

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4 Zhang has for decades championed the kind of “to-the-people” rhetoric promoted by Xi Jinping's administration since November 2012, and that has prompted speculation that Xi is orchestrating a return to Mao-style politics.

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21 Zhang Chengzhi, Koueihei no jidai [The Red Guard era], op. cit. note 8, 18–20, 91.

22 Ibid ., 24–26, 30.

23 Ibid ., 70.

24 Ibid ., 55.

25 Ibid ., 106.

26 Ibid ., 112–13.

27 Ibid ., 118.

28 Ibid ., 139.

29 Ibid ., 177–79.

30 Ibid ., 186.

31 Ibid ., 188.

32 Ibid ., 188, 193.

33 Yang, Guobin, The Red Guard Generation and Political Activism in China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016)Google Scholar.

34 Ibid .

35 Zhang Chengzhi, Koueihei no jidai [The Red Guard era], op. cit. note 8, 198–99.

36 See Garnaut, “Pen of the Jahriyya,” op. cit. note 14 for an excellent discussion of Zhang's relationship with the Jahriyya.

37 Zhang Chengzhi, Koueihei no jidai [The Red Guard era], op. cit. note 8, 202.

38 Zhang Chengzhi, “Wenxue yu Zhengyi” [Literature and righteousness], op. cit. note 3, 5–6.

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44 Zhang Chengzhi, Wuse de yiduan [Five colors of heresy], op. cit. note 39, 223–30; Jingzhong yu xibie: Zhi Riben [To cherish and respect: Japan], op. cit. note 40, 107–53.

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47 Zhang Chengzhi, Koueihei no jidai [The Red Guard era], op. cit. note 8, 102.

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50 Zhang Chengzhi, Wuse de yiduan [Five colors of heresy], op. cit. note 39, 53.

51 Ibid ., 280.

52 Ibid ., 21–41.

53 Ibid ., 8.

54 Ibid .

55 Chengzhi, Zhang, Koueihei no jidai [The Red Guard era], op. cit. note 8; Kaikyo kara mita Chugoku: Minzoku, shukyo, kokka [China seen through Islam: Ethnicity, religion, and the state] (Tokyo: Chuokoronsha, 1993)Google Scholar; “Mo Shuseki gurafiti” [Chairman Mao graffiti], Sekai 1 (1994): 210–16Google Scholar.

56 Zhang Chengzhi, Wuse de yiduan [Five colors of heresy], op. cit. note 39, 163.

57 Ibid ., 210.

58 Ibid ., 282.

59 Ibid ., 281–82.

60 Ibid ., 199.

61 Zhang Chengzhi, Jingzhong yu xibie: Zhi Riben [To cherish and respect: Japan], op. cit. note 40, 3–20.

62 Ibid ., 12.

63 Zhang Chengzhi, Wuse de yiduan [Five colors of heresy], op. cit. note 39, 212–13.

64 Zhang Chengzhi, “Wenxue yu Zhengyi” [Literature and righteousness], op. cit. note 3, 6.

65 Zhang Chengzhi, Jingzhong yu xibie: Zhi Riben [To cherish and respect: Japan], op. cit. note 40, 107–53.

66 Ibid ., 125.

67 Ibid ., 137–39.

68 Ibid ., 119.

69 Ibid ., 150, 148.

70 Ibid ., 145.

71 Ibid ., 112.

72 It seems that no public publisher dared take on the project, due to the book's radical religious message.

73 Zhang Chengzhi, “Wenxue yu Zhengyi” [Literature and righteousness], op. cit. note 3, 6.

74 Zhang Chengzhi, “Cong Qinghua yuan dao Balesitan” [From the campus of Qinghua to Palestine], op. cit. note 3.