Includes bibliographical references (p. 325-372) and index.

Debating human rights in China : introductory perspectives -- The conception of human rights in the West : historical origins and contemporary controversies -- Culture and human rights : between universalism and relativism -- China and the introduction of Western thought -- Ideas of human rights in the early twentieth century : the quest for national salvation -- The new culture movement and beyond : human rights and the liberation of the individual -- The Nanking decade, 1927-1937 : liberal and radical voices on human rights -- Human rights debates in wartime China : between individual freedom and national salvation -- The 1950s : human rights debates on two sides of the Taiwan Strait -- The domestic challenge over human rights : the Democracy Wall activists and the official reaction, 1978-1982 -- A contested and evolving discourse : human rights debates since the late 1980s -- The Chinese human rights debate : conclusion and prospects.