A Review on Western Studies on the Socialist Transformation in China

Abstract

Based on the literature analysis of the research on China’s socialist transformation in Western academia, this paper briefly reviews the historical status of Western academia’s research since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, taking the normalization of China-US relations as the node time. The study on China’s socialist transformation has experienced more than half a century of development, showing its own unique characteristics. Due to the influence of their own cultural concepts, ideologies, research paradigms and research methods, Western scholars’ understanding of relevant issues inevitably shows some one-sided and arbitrary perspectives. However, the novelty of Western scholars’ research perspectives, the diversification of data sources, and the interdisciplinary comprehensive research methods have certain reference significance for China’s domestic academia to further advance the research on socialist transformation.