Between Staying and Leaving: The Choices of Chinese Intellectuals in 1949

Jointly produced by Yijia Publishing + Dudaoshe

1949 was a pivotal year that marked a turning point, not an ordinary time marker. The choices made in this year would determine one's future destiny.

The book selects thirteen intellectuals of different ages, inclinations, and choices. These unique, unreplicable individuals, regardless of the choices they made, and no matter how different their scholarship, talent, life experiences, or even political beliefs were, their personal writings authentically record history, grasping the pulse of that era of great change and their individual life choices.

To understand the history of an era, official histories alone are far from enough. While grand national memories are unavoidable, history also needs (and perhaps even more so) private records imbued with individual warmth. This is not "unofficial history"; it is also part of official history. Only with these private records, imbued with the warmth of individual lives, their tears and laughter, their hesitation and determination, can our history be complete. The author says: I do not want to seek abstract historical explanations outside of personal records, but rather strive to find convincing evidence within personal records to answer the question in my heart: Why did history unfold this way?

2025-03-06

1 Plus Books

362

9781966814078