Contemporary Chinese thought — a map
53 people whose ideas shaped how China thinks about its economy, its technology and its political system since the start of reform in 1978 — Party leaders and their theorists, the officials who ran the economy, academic economists, political philosophers and technologists. Each is placed by birth year (horizontal) and by an approximate prominence score (vertical), and colored by the current of thought they are most associated with. The 98 lines show documented influence; the 10 red ones mark a well-known public debate or a position defined against another.
Companion pages: the main ideas of each thinker and a ten-minute synthesis. Categories are a reading aid, not labels the people concerned would necessarily use for themselves; many sit across several.
Each point is a thinker (x = birth year, y = approximate influence, a prominence proxy). Hover a name to trace its connections — arrows point from a thinker to those they shaped; red dashed lines mark critical reactions, grey lines positive influence. Click a point for Wikipedia, and use the legend to filter traditions.