{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02044790652385589, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0029211295034079843, 'mean_word_length': 4.888252148997134, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Modernization and its Discontent

Talking as we do every day of modern, modernizing, and modernized aspects of the global scene, how can we not welcome a book on The Modernization of China, especially when it comes from a highly proficient Princeton team some of whom gave us in 1975 The Modernization of Japan and Russia?' For years China scholars have called for synthesis, both between history and social science and among the social science disciplines. Now at last an able multidisciplinary group has made a synthesis. Its contributions are substantial and not dependent on the term Modernization. Though we all use this word, seemingly more and more, its scientific value is limited. The reasons for this are worth noting before we proceed.2 The trouble with the Modernization concept is that it is vaguely meaningful, but not precisely so, and broadly useful for comparisons, but not comprehensively so. On the other hand, modernity is an attribute of many things in modern times, but no single definition or set of indicators has yet been agreed upon by which to measure modernization. As this volume points out at the start, " no consensus exists on the items to be included or the relative rates of change of various indicators " (p. 3). On the other hand Modernization does not embrace all of modern history. It largely by-passes several aspects of historical experience in the aesthetic, religious, and philosophical realms. These inadequacies of Modernization stem from its origin. After the Second World War China seemed so unstudied that its revolutionary transformation became a prime target of multidisciplinary area study, as did the Soviet Union, which also remained largely closed to contact. Methods used for enemy studies in the Second World War were converted to study these closed societies from the outside. As these multidisciplinary area studies emerged in the academic scene, some felt that they could constitute a new discipline. But in practice it soon became evident that crowding a political scientist, an economist, and a