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"Red Silk is a history of China's Yangzi Delta silk industry during the wars, crises, and revolutions of the mid-twentieth century. Based on extensive research in Chinese archives and focused on the 1950s, the book compares two very different groups of silk workers and their experiences in the revolution. Male silk weavers in Shanghai factories enjoyed close ties to the Communist party-state and benefited greatly from socialist policies after 1949. In contrast, workers in silk thread mills, or filatures, were mostly young women who lacked powerful organizations or ties to the revolutionary regime. For many filature workers, working conditions changed little after 1949; and politicized production campaigns added a new burden within the brutal and oppressive factory regime in place since the nineteenth century. Both groups of workers and their employers, had to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances. Their actions-protests, petitions, bribery, tax evasion-compelled the party-state to adjust its policies, producing new challenges. The results, though initially positive for many, were ultimately disastrous. By the end of the 1950s there was widespread conflict and deprivation among silk workers, and, despite its impressive recovery under Communist rule, the industry faced a crisis worse than war and revolution."

During the 1950s, China's hybrid economy recovered from years of war and crisis. China's Communist revolutionaries and "national capitalists" ( minzu zibenjia 民族资本家) cooperated in this effort and were often successful, but the relationship was not unproblematic. This article focuses on the survival strategies of factory owners in the silk industry during what the Chinese Community Party terms the "socialist transformation of private industry and commerce." This process was initiated and mobilized by the central government but implemented by local officials, and it was influenced by capitalists' diverse responses, which showed adaptability, perseverance, manipulation, and even resistance. One surprising discovery is that many factory owners welcomed effective state involvement in the economy, such as expansion of the system of state-contracted production in private firms, and agitated to accelerate the transition to socialism. From the Five Antis Campaign in 1952 through the "socialist high tide" of 1956, the relationship between private businesses and the state changed dramatically and reshaped China's economy, often in unpredictable ways. In this light, China's transition to socialism appears more complex and contested than historians have previously imagined.

During the 1950s, China's hybrid economy recovered from years of war and crisis. China's Communist revolutionaries and "national capitalists" (minzu zibenjia 民族资本家) cooperated in this effort and were often successful, but the relationship was not unproblematic. This article focuses on the survival strategies of factory owners in the silk industry during what the Chinese Community Party terms the "socialist transformation of private industry and commerce." This process was initiated and mobilized by the central government but implemented by local officials, and it was influenced by capitalists' diverse responses, which showed adaptability, perseverance, manipulation, and even resistance. One surprising discovery is that many factory owners welcomed effective state involvement in the economy, such as expansion of the system of state-contracted production in private firms, and agitated to accelerate the transition to socialism. From the Five Antis Campaign in 1952 through the "socialist high tide" of 1956, the relationship between private businesses and the state changed dramatically and reshaped China's economy, often in unpredictable ways. In this light, China's transition to socialism appears more complex and contested than historians have previously imagined. Keywords: China, revolution, capitalist, communist, socialist transformation, private business, industry, silk, state-contracted production, Five Antis Campaign