Worrying about one's country is an ordinary thing to do. I, a citizen of the United States, do it all the time. But I would be embarrassed to have it thought that my test of an argument's value is whether or not it benefits U.S. national interests, or that I would think less of a theory because it is non-American in origin; such is the position of cosmopolitan intellectuals across the world today. Chinese intellectuals, however, constantly apply these two tests to the ideas they advance or consider, and this, according to Gloria Davies, is one of the great specificities of the Chinese intellectual scene.

Davies offers insights that reduce the feeling of confusion that often assails the newcomer to Chinese critical discourse. She makes a few major points in examining the writings of the best-known theorists who have addressed the Chinese public since the “opening” of the late 1970s....

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