Gramsci and Cultural Hegemony in Post-Mao China

This article gives an overview of the reception and re-conception of Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony in China. It first analyses the semantic shifts and differences in the varied Chinese translations of the term, then discusses how the use of these distinctive Chinese translations has variously helped or limited scholars when examining the ideological discrepancies in contemporary reworkings of Gramscian thought in post-Maoist China. This article concludes that hegemony offers a theoretical point of departure when seeking to understand the theories and practices of cultural revolution in modern China, even as the post-Maoist context requires consideration of a dialectical, conceptual model addressing both local and globalizing contexts for understanding China's rising power.