Fra democrazia e autocrazia. Studiare la Cina in un'epoca di conflitti ideologici

This essay aims to offer some reflections on how to better tackle several issues linked to the increase of the international influence of China, especially those aspects related to the intensified ideological pressure exerted on much cultural and political discourse centred on China. Analyzing the discursive patterns underlying the current disputes over the meaning and value of democracy between China and the US (in the light of the simplified binary between "democracy" and "autocracy" formulated by the latter), this article seeks to find ways to both deconstruct this essentialized ideological discourse based on absolute difference and at the same time highlight some methods to produce more complex understandings of the contemporary Chinese realities in their interrelated connections with the global world. In this article, the author also takes seriously the editors' suggestions to study contemporary China from a multidisciplinary point of view, providing an example of such an approach.