Mei Xiao's book, Chongqing's Red Culture Campaign: Simulation and Its Social Implications, is a timely and important analysis of the Red Culture campaign, a series of “red-themed” cultural activities joined by a great number of citizens in Chongqing between 2009 and 2012, under the leadership of Bo Xilai. Mei asks two questions regarding this phenomenon: was it a true Maoist revolutionary campaign? And how did local political power interact with the everyday lives of the participants? Using Baudrillard's theory of simulation as a key concept to frame her questions, Mei convincingly argues that the campaign “attempted a simulation of a Maoist mass campaign to enhance the legitimacy of Chongqing's leadership in his pursuit of political power” (p. 8). Her answer to the second question is that the state–citizen relationship manifested in the campaign was both “disassociative and associative” (p. 49): a high level of citizen conformity was observed, but also spaces for reinvention and creativity. The nature of the campaign as a simulation thus brought forth both a negative (time-consuming, repetitive, unenthusiastic) and a positive (construction of positive social identity, community building, self-development) influence on the everyday experience of participants.

Chapter one of the book provides context for the case study; chapter two situates the research within a web of existing theoretical debates and empirical findings; chapter three focuses on the campaign as a simulation; chapters four to six analyse in detail participation variations in the movement, and chapter seven uses frame analysis to illuminate the integrative processes. Mei concludes in chapter eight by differentiating her argument on the social impact of political programmes with features of simulation: in the short run it “helps enlarge the space for creative and tactical practices,” but in the long run it “will become further detached from the lives of the masses and gradually lose its ability to adapt to the ever-changing circumstances of society” (p. 116).

Methodologically, this book draws on fieldwork conducted by Mei in Chongqing during the latter half of the Red Culture campaign, as well as a return visit one year after Bo Xilai's downfall. Fieldwork data include interviews with 74 campaign participants from college student, retiree and employee groups. Field observation is mostly limited to the retiree group, and she also draws mainly on a local official newspaper for document analysis. Mei thoughtfully considers her processes of obtaining data, as interviewing people about politically sensitive phenomena is highly problematic in mainland China. Mei's use of qualitative methods proves to be successful in eliciting site-specific and nuanced findings, which is critical to the understanding of everyday experience of participation in the Red Culture campaign, and how it relates to official narratives of the campaign's motivation, purpose and achievements. The book regrettably does not include a reflexive account of Mei's own involvement and process of change during the fieldwork; despite writing that trust was built successfully, there are few descriptions in support of this claim.

De Certeau's concepts of “strategies” and “tactics” are utilized to analyse interactions between the dominant political power and the everyday re-appropriations, if not resistance, of individual participants. Mei finds that “social exchange” is useful to understand the contribution made by the participants and what they gained in return for their participation: “the official programme provided political security, performance opportunity, and material incentives among other benefits to the participants in exchange of the participants’ commitment, time, and energy devoted to the campaign” (p. 93). In terms of narratives and evaluations of the whole campaign in general, Harold Garfinkel's and Erving Goffman's concepts regarding frames and framing processes are also incorporated into the analysis of both officials’ and participants’ accounts. What can be said to be missing from the book are more narrative and “thicker” field descriptions, as conceptual compartmentalization compromises readers’ imagination of the “real” everyday life of the participants' experience that Mei claims to offer.

Theoretically, the dichotomy between “real” mass campaigns and the “simulation” of them, and the consequent warning of “dissolution,” also invites criticism. One important contribution to literature on the phenomenon of simulation in Chinese cultural practices is Børge Bakken's The Exemplary Society: Human Improvement, Social Control, and the Dangers of Modernity (Oxford University Press, 2000). Bakken argues that educating and transforming the population by ways of constructing, performing and learning “models” (mofan/bangyang), simulated characters or sets of characteristics without the “real,” is what marked the Chinese machine of social control and engineering. In this respect, Bakken theorized the exemplary society in contrast with the disciplinary society proposed by Foucault: the exemplary is neither “real” nor “non-dialectical,” as dichotomized by Mei, but a key to understanding China's modernization effort. Mei's arguments on the uniqueness and novelty of the Chongqing model therefore may need to be re-examined, especially regarding the interpretation of its social impact. If “simulation” is to be argued as the most distinct characteristic that differentiated the Chongqing campaign from previous mass campaigns, then perhaps more discussion of the involvement of media forces would be necessary.

Nevertheless, as a sociological analysis of citizen participation in a post-dictatorial authoritarian society, this book is an important contribution to the field of China studies as well as cultural and political studies. It is also a timely study on publicly visible political events as China enhances its global engagement and increases centralized control. Although a mass campaign of such scale and formality might not be repeated, theatrical and political performances that contain a high degree of simulation can be increasingly witnessed in many sections of Chinese society such as schools, colleges, cultural centres and prisons. This has been especially prominent since various state organs have picked up the use of social media. As these events require interdisciplinary treatment, Mei's book can provide great teaching material for not only the above-mentioned disciplines, but also for media and performance studies.