1946-1948 Chinese Liberal Intellectuals' Political Ideals And Social Role

" Observation" was established by An-Ping Chu in September 1946 which was a political comment magazine that concerned on discussing national affairs and contributing to the national construction. In December 1948, the government of Kuomintang stopped the publication of "Observation" , fortunately, it was republished after the naissance of People's Republic of China in November 1949. This paper mainly focuses on the " Observation " during the period from 1946 (Inaugurated) to 1948 (Forced to be Closed). In this very crucial period of Kuomintang and the Communist Party's political struggle. The "Observation" offered a significant platform for a huge number of people who belonged to the liberalistic intelligentsia to indicate their political view points and propagandize political ideals.The period from1946 to 1948, was the crucial moment when Communist Party and Kuomintang competed in politics. Besides Communist Party and Kuomintang, middle-of-the-roader also played an important role in the political area. In the middle-of-the-roader, almost all of its people who owned different political ideals from Communist Party and Kuomintang and have put great effort for achieving this ideal belonged to the liberalistic intelligentsia. In the end of 1947, the fact that Minmeng was dismissed indicated that it was very tough for the liberalistic political parties to fight for their liberalistic political ideals, however, the liberalistic intelligentsia of 'Observation' still held their ground for what they are believe in.Both the political ideal of the Liberal intellectuals and the Liberalism they insisted on have the characteristic of transcendence and idealism. This is related to their identities, which were both liberalists and intellectuals. To estimate Liberal intellectuals of this period, we should not only focus on their political ideal and their practice but also pay attention to their performance and insistence as a intellectuals.