Appunti lezione Cinese 2

Lezione 3 07/10/2026

Today, since ideology is obviously a very important aspect, we will also move on to examine the

main actors within the Party and the state. Today’s lecture is going to be quite straightforward. We

need to understand what the “New Era” is, why it is important, and how we can study it.

As usual, the lesson will be divided into two parts. In the first part, we will introduce the concept of

the “New Era.” In the second part, we will carry out a simple factual analysis of some aspects of the

Chinese ideological process. This analysis will help us become familiar with how Chinese politics

can be studied and analysed, while also allowing us to understand more concretely what the main

features of the New Era are.

(xīn shídài).

新时代

Those of you who study Chinese are probably already familiar with reading and translating this

expression. We have to understand what it actually means.

(xīn) means “new,”

新 (shídài) means “era,” “age,” or “period.”

时代

This distinction is important because, before the current leadership came to power, we more often

talked about a particular period. Today, however, the official terminology refers explicitly to

a “New Era.”

So, what does really mean? And what is the difference between a “period” and an “era”?

时代

When you encounter the word “era,” what immediately comes to mind? The distinction is important

because an era is generally understood as a historical period characterised by specific features that

distinguish it from earlier and later periods.

In other words, an era is defined by a set of characteristics that make it different from what

came before and what comes after it. This is also suggested by the word “new”: if something

新,

is described as a “new era,” it must, by definition, represent something different from the previous

one.

What ideas come to mind when you hear the word “era”?

If we make some immediate associations, the concept of an era is strongly connected to history. We

talk about historical periods, but we also talk about historical eras. The word therefore carries a

number of different meanings, particularly when we use it to describe a civilisation or a long

historical process.

In 2017, the advent of the New Era was officially announced. This immediately suggested that

something would change in fundamental ways and that something genuinely new was beginning.

One important aspect was the emergence of a new vision of China as a whole: China was

increasingly presented as a country that should become powerful and regain a position comparable

to that of other major powers.

This also raises an important question: what is the connection between the interpretation of

history and changes in ideology?

The way we interpret something that happened in the past can change the way we talk about it, and

this can, in turn, shape people's understanding of the present. For example, we can look at the way

historical events are presented in different countries. The interpretation of Japan's actions in

Manchuria, for instance, has changed over time, and different political contexts can produce

different ways of framing the same historical events.

So, when there is a new political leadership, there can also be a reinterpretation of history. And

through this reinterpretation, it is possible to influence and reshape the ideological framework

through which people understand their country's past and present.

This is something we already saw last week. In 1981, the Resolution on Certain Questions in the

History of Our Party since the Founding of the People's Republic of China provided a new

interpretation of Party history. More broadly, the Party reinterpreted the historical developments

that had taken place between 1921 and 1981 and established a new periodisation of its own history.

A new interpretation of history can therefore also function as a political tool. It can be used to

justify a change in ideology, a change in institutions, or the emergence of a new leader. These

elements are closely connected and cannot always be separated from one another. In fact, we can

observe all of these elements in the context of the New Era: changes in ideology, a new vision of

history, and a new political leadership.

As we mentioned during the previous class, in 2021 there was another important resolution on Party

history: the third historical resolution. Once again, the Party offered a particular interpretation of

its historical development. One interesting aspect of this document is precisely to look at which

historical figures are mentioned and which ones are not. What is included and what is left out can

tell us a great deal about the political and ideological priorities of a particular period.

So, the New Era has several different dimensions. And, as you have already noticed, there is a very

clear connection between history and ideology. The Chinese Communist Party is one of the

political organisations that legitimises itself, among other things, through history and through the

interpretation and reinterpretation of history. The Party has several different sources of legitimacy,

but from an ideological perspective, history is particularly important.

Think back to the exercise we did last week:

We were given a set of historical events, we put them in chronological order, and then we created

our own periodisation of Chinese history. Were any of the periodisations you created simply

wrong?

In a sense, they were all correct, because each periodisation represented your own interpretation of

Chinese history.

You do not have to be Chinese to have an interpretation of Chinese history. In the same way, we

can all have our own interpretations of the history of the United States, Europe, or any other

country. At the same time, however, each of those periodisations could also be considered “wrong”

from a different perspective. The reason is that the principles, values, assumptions, and ideas you

used to divide Chinese history into different periods were your own. In the New Era, by contrast, a

different set of principles, values, and ideas is used to interpret and organise the history of China.

This is why periodisation is not simply a neutral way of organising historical events. The way we

divide history into periods reflects a particular interpretation of the past—and that interpretation can

also tell us a great deal about the political and ideological framework of the present.

The single most important idea behind this periodisation is the development of the socialist project:

that is, the idea that China should eventually succeed in constructing a socialist society. This is the

key principle that was used to develop a partially new periodisation of Chinese history between

2012 and 2017.

In 1949, we have the founding of the People’s Republic of China, followed by the revolution and

the initial stage of socialist construction. Then, instead of dividing the period between 1949 and

1978 into several separate phases, we move directly to 1978. This marks the beginning of the

reform and opening-up period and a second stage in the development of the socialist project.

Then, in 2012, there is a change in leadership, with Xi Jinping becoming General Secretary of the

Chinese Communist Party. In 2017, at the end of his first term, Xi Jinping declares that a New

Era has begun. In other words, a new phase in the development of socialist thought can now begin.

This is quite new and also quite unusual.

Mao Zedong, of course, founded the People’s Republic of China. And Deng Xiaoping is associated

with the beginning of the reform and opening-up period. But the idea that 1978 represented a

radically new period in Chinese history did not originally come directly from Deng Xiaoping

himself. Rather, historians working on Party history, intellectuals working for the Party, and Party

ideologists gradually developed this interpretation. Deng Xiaoping himself did not officially

announce the beginning of a new historical period.

Xi Jinping, by contrast, is perhaps the first leader of the Chinese Communist Party to explicitly

announce the beginning of a new historical era while still at the beginning of his own period in

power. Those of us who were observing Chinese politics at the time were not necessarily worried,

but we were certainly very surprised. We understood that something quite significant was likely to

come next. There is once again a very close connection between the interpretation of history and the

political position of the leadership. The claim is that, with the beginning of the New Era, socialism

with Chinese characteristics has entered a new historical period. A new periodisation of history

was therefore used in 2017 to justify, or at least to make acceptable to Party members, a new

ideology, a new governing programme, and a new historical mission. We will examine the

ideological component more closely in the second part of the class.

This brings us to an important question: What is Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese

Characteristics for a New Era?

It is a new governing ideology. It is an extremely complex body of ideas that addresses virtually

every aspect of governance in China: from the economy to Party governance, international

relations, society, the environment, history, archaeology, culture, and many other areas. One of the

objectives that you frequently encounter, particularly in Chinese sources, is the idea

of comprehensive leadership. The basic idea is that the Party should provide leadership across the

whole of society. If you read textbooks on Chinese politics, you will often find the argument that,

from 1978 onwards, the Party gradually retreated from certain areas of social life. This created

space for the emergence of private entrepreneurs, civil society, new social groups, and other actors.

The New Era has, to a certain extent, reversed this trend. The Party is once again taking

responsibility for leading and directing the development of virtually every sphere of society. This

does not necessarily mean directly controlling or micromanaging everything. Rather, it means that

the Party claims responsibility for providing overall leadership and direction across different areas

of social, economic, political, and cultural life.

If you are interested, there are even online courses devoted to Xi Jinping Thought, both in Chinese

and in English. For example, you can visit the website of the People’s Daily, the newspaper of the

Chinese Communist Party, and sign up for an online course on Xi Jinping Thought. So, we have a

new ideology and, consequently, a new governing programme. This new programme is intended to

reshape the system, and one of its central concepts is modernisation.