In Search of Utopia: The Intellectual Transformation of Xu Liangying from Loyal Communist to Democracy Advocate from the 1930s to 2013

Abstract: This article examines the life of Xu Liangying (1920–2013) as a case study for understanding the transformation of his generation, members of which pursued a romantic “national salvation” goal through the Communist utopian vision but later became advocates of liberal democracy. On the basis of Xu’s personal writings and interviews, this article argues that his subjectivity prompted two intellectual transformations, first from May Fourth–inspired liberal idealism to Marxism-Leninism before 1949 and then to liberal democracy in the post-Mao era. The article concludes that (1) Xu’s case demonstrates that power and ideology are not merely imposed but involve internalization of regime values, (2) Xu’s early liberal resources enabled him to reconstruct his identity and repudiate Communist values in the post-Mao era, and (3) passion and idealism, not strategic calculations, characterized the generation who matured during wartime in the 1930s and 1940s. This article highlights twentieth-century Chinese intellectuals’ inner struggles and subjectivity in reconstructing their identities for personal and national salvation.