| ID | 181924 |
| Title Proper | Chinese Communist Party's Nervous System |
| Other Title Information | Affective Governance from Mao to Xi |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Sorace, Christian |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | In its one hundred years of existence, the Communist Party of China has experimented with how to connect its narratives of legitimacy to people's affects. In this essay, I trace the conceptualization of gratitude, from its repudiation in the Mao era as a vestige of feudalism and imperialism to its return in the reform era as a re-verticalization of Party sovereignty. The paper addresses four examples of gratitude work: Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Yang's short-lived critique of gratitude in the name of a different conception of popular sovereignty; the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake as a day of gratitude; the detention of Uyghurs in Xinjiang who are taught to be grateful to the Communist Party in a campaign of religious de-radicalization; and the refusal of gratitude in quarantined Wuhan during the COVID-19 pandemic. In these cases, the Communist Party's sovereignty stands at the threshold between bio- and necro-politics, promising life and salvation in the midst of death and destruction. |
| `In' analytical Note | China Quarterly Vol.248 , S1; Nov 2021: p.29 - 51 |
| Journal Source | China Quarterly No 248 S |
| Key Words | Sovereignty ; Xinjiang ; Affect ; 2008 Sichuan Earthquake ; COVID-19 ; Gratitude |