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New Youth in China - Dissent Magazine

dissentmagazine.org · 2,745 words · saved by 1 readers

On the hundredth anniversary of a youth movement that kickstarted the Chinese Communist Party, student activists are using Marxism to rebel against the party.

On September 15, 1915, the intellectual Chen Duxiu wrote a paean to the young people of China: “Youth are like the early spring, like the morning sun, like the blooming grass, like the sharp blade fresh off the grinding stone; youth is the most valuable time of life.” For Chen, young Chinese were “fresh, vigorous cells inside the human body,” primed to drive out the “rotten, corrupted cells” of the old guard. He wanted the youth to rebel against a sclerotic culture­­—the Confucian customs, feudal order, and corrupt politics­­—which he saw as holding China back from modernity ever since the Qin

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