Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci once said: “To tell the truth is revolutionary”.
We, the Chinese people, are tired of being lied to. We should demand truth, and that the only way to achieve it is through a revolution. Before flirting with the idea of what type of revolution we need, the specific reasons for a revolution must be understood and agreed upon. Here I will propose 3 significant reasons that our people of China are crying for CHANGE.
- The treatment of Women is abysmal. Women are our sisters, mothers, daughters, aunts, grandmothers, granddaughters etc, they will not tolerate being mens property no longer. The reading titled: Women, The Family and Peasant Revolution, author Johnson, points out that “footbinding was still practiced on many girls at the time, and nearly all other local women had bound feet.” This foot binding, forced women to be subservient to men, and literally made it impossible for them to run away, or establish any sense of freedom for themselves. Johnson continued, saying: “Throughout their lives, women were supposed to be only slightly more than chattel, routinely bought and solid in marriage, concubinage or outright slavery.” Women do not deserve that oppression.
2. Economic Disparity. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. This concept was the exact truth, as it acted as the reason for the peasant rebellion. Philosopher Mao mentions: “The priveledges of the Fuedel Landlords who have enjoyed for thousands of years are being torn to be pieces.” The system deserves to be dismantled, as the poor are in a constant state of oppression.
3. Our lives are not the priority. The leadership of the Nationalist party is concerned with maintaining their outdated social and cultural values that are inherently oppressive to the commoner. Japan is on the verge of taking over our country and fighting back is their blueprint for success. Our blueprint shall be prioritizing our oppressed people!
We need to be prioritized, and change is mandatory to achieve any feat of success. If we keep going this way, failure is destined to drown out any little hope that we have left. Change is on the horizon, and we must make our economy more feasible for the poor and not only elevate the elite. Aside from demanding more economic fairness, we need fairness in our culture and values. Women and minorities shall be treated as equals, and no one is above one another like outlined in the outdated Confucisious system; (those between ruler and subject, father and son, elder brother and younger brother, husband and wife, and friend and friend.) In addition, our people are hopeless as up to 90% of our population is illiterate. We need change, and we need it now.
Op Ed by No Pah King
The economic disparity in China is certainly alarming. Under the Nationalist Party, peasants in the countryside are still starving even though we fought for years to get rid of the empire and warlords who were exploiting them. It has been decades since the 1911 Revolution and yet we still aren’t making sure our people are being taken care of. How can we expect to defend ourselves against powers like Japan if a majority of our population can’t even eat everyday? It almost feels selfish, studying in a big city while those in my village back home are suffering.
I agree entirely No Pah King! Change is needed, and it’s only a matter of time until it arrives. The Nationalist Party claims to be a liberating group, but that is obviously not the case, as you have stated. Hopefully, someday soon, we will no longer see these problems.
I also agree with the third point. I find it interesting how a communal ideology can be used to call for the lives in individuals to be improved. I guess I never really thought of communism in an individual way before or rather as it could be used to improve the lives of each individual. I know this is one of the center concepts but it is easily lost when reading the manifesto because of the heavy emphasis on classes, but at the end of the day what motivates people to join a group movement is their individual situation of hardship.
Change is needed, yes, but what principles will guide that change? Things right now are bad, they should be better is most certainly an agreeable stance however it doesn’t exactly unite the people under the common banner of an end-goal. What are we setting out to achieve? I agree with the assessment that a revolution is on the horizon, our inequality is too deeply entrenched within the system, further reinforced by the ruling class, but who and where shall we lead this revolution? China in its current state is not conducive to the revolution which Marx and Lenin have preached. Mao has shown a focus on the rural peasantry can bring about some change, yes, but he has not shown that to be effective enough to outright overthrow the ruling regimes of China.