Living Anarchism: José Peirats and the Spanish Anarcho-Syndicalist Movement. By Chris Ealham (original) (raw)

intergenerational power within the family" (14). However, because of its radicalism that defied existing social conventions and undermined prevalent Confucian values, the cultural reform often divided, rather than united, the urban reformer community, which was dominated by members of the gentry class and militarists who were culturally conservative. While Chengdu remained hostile to cultural radicals like Ba Jin, it nonetheless witnessed other reform programs that attempted to develop urban infrastructure, industrialize local economy, and modernize urban administration. These efforts, though not acknowledged in Ba Jin's fictional works, drastically changed the city's physical skyline and produced a generation of urban planners, entrepreneurs, and social activists. In this regard, Chengdu was not an isolated and stagnant economic backwater as Ba Jin so emotionally portrayed; rather, it participated in the national movement that embraced institutional change and social reform as a means to revive local community and build national strength.