Farewell to Revolution

Farewell to Revolution: Looking Back Upon China of the Twentieth Century (simplified Chinese: 《告别革命:回望二十世纪中国》; traditional Chinese: 《告別革命:回望二十世紀中國》; pinyin: Gàobié gémìng: Huí wàng èrshí shìjì zhōngguó) is a book written by Chinese philosopher Li Zehou and Liu Zaifu, and published by Cosmos Books Ltd. in Hong Kong.

Farewell to Revolution: Looking Back Upon China of the Twentieth Century
AuthorLi Zehou, Liu Zaifu
CountryHong Kong
LanguageTraditional Chinese
GenrePolitical theory, revolution
PublisherCosmos Books Ltd.
Publication date
1995
Media typePrint (book)
Pages312
ISBN9789622578111

Li and Liu argue in this book that class conflict will always exist, and should be solved via class reconciliation rather than class struggle, and thus oppose orthodox Marxism. Li and Liu advocate "reform rather than revolution" and claim that the revolution has been "screwed up". They say that if China had followed the path of Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao's constitutional reform, China might have gotten better results; and propose the "four-stage agenda" of China's modernization as development of economy, individual liberty, social justice, and democracy. Despite being questioned about their opposition to all revolutions, in a series of subsequent interviews they expressed their opposition only to the "violent French type revolution" and their support for the "glorious British type revolution".

The book has been highly controversial since its publication. Many scholars have described Li's views in the book as "cultural conservatism" or "neoconservatism". Chinese officials and some scholars have even called Li's claims in the book "historical nihilism".

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