Abstract

This paper examines a particular characteristic of the social groups, or social networks, related to the early life of Chen Duxiu (1879–1942), cofounder of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). From 1901 to 1921, Chen joined about 21 politically progressive and radical societies, and he collaborated with many prominent intellectuals and revolutionaries from different parts of the country to bring about the New Culture movement and to found the CCP. Less known is the fact that Chen maintained close ties with his Anhui coprovincials throughout this time, and that these provincial connections were vital for his rise to national prominence. I use digitization to visualize Chen’s networks and the interconnection of his Anhui ties. My diagrams are produced by the software program Gephi and by the programming language R.

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