Abstract:

In the early part of the twentieth century the historical stage pose of the utopian public intellectual was a wonder in Chinese society and history. In the beginning it was a producer and supplier of utopian ideas, and later became a spokesman and defender of ideology. The modern Chinese intellectual transformation from its utopian discourses to ideological discourses meant a break of the humanistic Chinese intellectual "spectrum." In history Chinese humanistic intellectuals had been safeguards and expositors of social ultimate values and purposes. Today, the modern Chinese intellectual should reestablish a connection with history, returning to its tradition as a value bearer. It is requisite for it to realize three transformations: 1) the transformation from an enlightenment attitude to an educational attitude, 2) the transformation from a "center-frontier" consciousness to a "watcher" consciousness, 3) the transformation from an orientation of political power to an orientation of social public spheres.