The Chinese historical record is filled with accounts of acts of collective and individual dissent. These have taken a dizzying array of forms, occurred in every period, broken out in all parts of the country, and involved people from each conceivable walk of life. The sheer variety of the ways that rebellious sentiments have been expressed is striking; from individual acts of suicide to uprisings involving millions of participants, from non-violent sit-ins to violent feuds, from local riots to anti-imperialist boycotts of foreign goods supported by Chinese overseas. Equally notew…