Contribution short abstract:

This paper examines post-idealism complicity, where people abandon moral idealism and return to less idealized ways of life. It explores how former participants of a grassroots Confucian movement make sense of their post-idealism complicity, informing the aftermath of activism in China and beyond.

Contribution long abstract:

This paper ethnographically examines the post-idealism situation of complicity, defined as the condition in which individuals who were once deeply committed to a morally idealistic mission abandon it and return, complicity, to less idealized ways of living that the mission initially opposed. The analysis draws on 24 months of ethnographic fieldwork on dujing, a grassroots Confucian movement and the author’s extended experience in other forms of activism in China.

The dujing movement, or “reading classics,” promotes the intensive, repetitive aloud reading of Confucian and other classical texts by students. Driven by a moral idealism to restore Confucian values for humanity, dujing teachers often inspire parents to pull their children out of legally mandated and socially recognized mainstream education to enroll in full-time dujing schools. However, over time, many participants abandon dujing and return to mainstream modes of education and living due to a range of factors, including internal family conflicts, factionalism within the movement, disillusionment, and external pressures such as the 2023 governmental crackdown on dujing. Although dujing may not align with the archetype of a resistant social movement, it shares with other forms of activism traits such as strong moral idealism, external pressures, internal friction, and post-idealism situations.

This paper examines the post-movement social lives of former dujing participants, focusing on how they make sense of their current complicity after high-stakes investment in the movement. I identify patterns that resonate with other activism in China and beyond, including strong moralization, individual lessonism, and continuous derailment.