Author Archives: Jason Zhu

About Jason Zhu

Jason Zhu is a student at the University of Michigan Law School, and a graduate of Columbia University and Sciences Po, where he studied modern history. His interests are jurisprudence, literature, and European and Chinese history, especially the link between them. He lives in Ann Arbor and New York.

Chinese Humanism: From Revolution to Redemption

Abstract: In 1980s, humanism and human rights gained political momentum among reform-minded intellectuals within the Chinese Communist Party, who tried to incorporate the discourse into cultural and political projects they envisioned for the Party, which was operating under a reformist agenda. This project has been largely forgotten today, because it had failed politically. But as a cultural project it survived and changed the Chinese culture of the self. This paper revises the notion that the 80s was a period of cultural enlightenment that failed politically. Continue reading → Continue reading →