The Mirage of the Alleged Chinese New Left

Abstract

This paper clarifies the mysteries surrounding the alleged Chinese New Left as an intellectual movement since the 1990s and explains why the term Chinese New Left mismatches with what it seemingly refers to. In fact, as an intellectual movement, the alleged Chinese New Left is an artificial construction of distorted and incoherent referentiality, which has no commonality with the New Left in its original sense. Notwithstanding, as possible and marginal space in the political spectrum and public sphere, a New Left could exist in China, though illegally by far.