Day: September 25, 2023

War on all fronts! Our country is under invasion from another imperialist enemy: Japan. We also face the reality of being torn apart from within as the Guomindang have relentlessly pursued the Communists to the remote northern location: Yenan. After a year on the road, and eight years in Yenan, in the northern province of Shaanxi, I am reporting to the people on the activity of the Communists in this faraway place, and to provide some insight as to why so many have flocked here.

I first interviewed Chairman Mao Zedong, the leader of the Communist Party, who has provided an attractive ideology and alternative leadership approach towards governance. Leading by example, Mao has been able to connect with the poorer classes on an unprecedented level. Incredibly, he walked the 6,000 miles on the Long March, he eats the common food of the people, and he lives in caves with his fellow comrades. Mao additionally has encouraged his military to treat the people with respect and to become “one with the people,” where the military, the party and the people work together to achieve revolutionary change. This approach has been well received among the poorer peasant classes and stands in contrast to the unpopular practices of the Guomindang who are often cruel towards commoners. Mao’s ability to live like a peasant and his willingness to listen to the most populus class in China, the peasants, has proved to be an effective strategy for garnering popular support for the Communist movement and attracting many people to move to Yenan.

I interviewed He Manquiu, a young woman living in the countryside. When the Red Army passed through her village, she expected the army to brutally pillage her family’s home. Instead, she discovered that the Red Army treated peasants with respect, encouraged, she joined their ranks and was provided with the opportunity to become a military doctor. He was provided with an out from traditional female cultural norms such as being regulated to homelife and commonly placed in an unwanted and arranged marriage. Mao wanted to ensure “freedom of marriage equality between men and women, equal pay for equal work,” and he argued that “genuine equality between the sexes can only be realized in the complete transformation of society as a whole.”  Equal treatment and class mobility offered by Mao provided an alternative lifestyle for women who did not fit into traditional gender roles like He. Thus, He was able to transcend her intellectual class background and advance within society because of army’s implementation of Mao’s rhetoric. Freedom from traditional Confucian feminine roles was immensely attractive for women who do not fit into traditional gender roles, who want to live their own independent life or who simply want respect and equal treatment among other men. The promise of equality and the opportunity to create an independent and equal life among men has attracted many women to the Communist movement in Yenan.

Party rhetoric and practices have not always aligned over women’s rights. Women like He have been promised gender equality and have received overall better treatment because of party policy but widespread social change has yet to be implemented as the party fears alienating poor peasant men in the more conservative northern provinces and practical issues such as economic production have taken the driver’s seat to sustain the Red Army. Consequently, while many women have been promised opportunity for advancements, they were often silenced by part officials. When I interviewed Ting Ling, she felt the party was not going far enough to implement reform and she felt old traditional values were resurfacing within the movement. She points out a double standard where “women who do not marry are ridiculed, and if they do marry and have children, they are criticized for attending political events instead of caring for their family.” The Party soon moved to silence Ting’s criticisms of reform. Mao’s pragmatic attitude towards women’s rights has kept his movement intact and popular. He continues to focus on repelling the Japanese invaders and he continues to promote Chinese unity when most within the country understand Chiang Kai-shek only suspended hostilities with the Communists because he was kidnapped. Mao’s Communist Party adapts to popular support and listens to the people, which best explains why so many people have flocked to Yenan in recent years.

Dear Readers:

It has been some time since I last reported on the current conditions in our country, and I consider myself lucky in the fact that I have remained safe and in good health. However, it has come time for me to risk this safety as I have been given an assignment that is too important to pass up. In the past weeks, I have made the journey to the remote Chinese Communist Party base in Yenan in northern Shaanxi province. I have made this journey in order to discover and report on why so many people are flocking to the CCP during these hard times.

The Chinese Communist Party has grown larger than I could’ve ever imagined when I wrote my last post regarding the possibility of another revolution. It is now 1943, and party membership has grown to over a million people, and continues to grow rapidly [Dietrich, 29]. But what has caused this rapid rise in party membership, and why are people so willing to travel to such a remote area as Yenan to be a part of this movement? The simple answer is the pull of the movement. The CCP has endured so much over the last fifteen years, starting with the Nationalists’ “White Terror” of 1927. Since this massacre, the CCP has slowly bounced back, first with the Jiangxi Soviet, and now in Yenan. The so-called “Long March” of 1934 and 1935 became the backbone of the Communist movement. The party had endured hardship like never before and came out stronger and with a clear leader in Mao Zedong [Dietrich, 25]. The hardship of the Long March gave the movement a “romantic glamour” [Dietrich, 28]. Also playing a role is the location. It is desolate here in Yenan, yet the atmosphere is upbeat and hopeful. The leaders of the Party do not appear to hold themselves above us normal people. Even Chairman Mao is living in a cave like the rest of the ordinary citizens, and the Communists and Red Army soldiers are all honest and hardworking, always making sure to give back to the people [Dietrich, 28]. The welcoming policies of the CCP in Yenan also played a role in attracting support. One Communist officer I interviewed said that the Party was happy to ally themselves with the rich, and even landlords, as long as they were not Nationalist or Japanese collaborators and wanted to join the resistance [China: A Century of Revolution, China in Revolution, 1:12:10]. While in Yenan, the CCP toned down the traditional Communist calls for a violent class revolution in favor of carefully building rural, middle-class support [China: A Century of Revolution, China in Revolution, 1:11:52]. This shift allowed more people to join the movement, and also prevented the alienation of those who might not have bought into the idea of a violent class revolution.

The most remarkable part of the CCP’s success in Yenan has come from the rise of Mao Zedong. While I have not been able to meet the Chairman in person in order to conduct an interview, I have had access to a vast array of literature written by Chairman Mao, as well as transcribed speeches and interviews with others. Through these, I can confidently say that I believe he is the biggest reason the Party is having such success at the moment. In 1936, American journalist Edgar Snow traveled to Yenan to write about the Communist movement, and his publications have given me much insight into who Chairman Mao is. Snow described Mao as having greater influence throughout the Communist world of China compared to anybody else [Snow in Cheek, 185]. Snow also stressed the importance of personality in his leadership, something that I have witnessed during my travels here, as I have not heard anyone speak poorly of him. Snow’s account of the Chairman documents him attending events and sitting in the theater with the rest of the people, not holding himself higher than anyone and allowing himself to interact with those under him in ordinary situations [Snow in Cheek, 185]. Mao’s connection to the people was also evident in a recent speech on leadership methods where he stated that “All correct leadership must come from the masses and go to the masses” [Cheek, 120]. Mao’s populist viewpoints are immensely popular as he truly believes that the people should have a large influence on how they are governed.

From my travels to the Communist stronghold in Yenan, it has become clear that through moderately worded policies and reforms, the willingness to fight against the Japanese, and the connection of the leaders to the people have resulted in a strong and fast-growing movement that soon will be too powerful to be stopped. While in my last article, I was skeptical if revolution was necessary, I now fully believe in the Chinese Communist Party and its future as the leading group for our great nation.

 

Stay safe my friends,

孙诚

Dear Readers, 

 

I have been assigned the task of investigating why so many people from across China have been choosing to make the treacherous journey to Yenan, the remote and impoverished location that the Chinese Communist Party has established as their wartime base. I made the arduous voyage to Yenan myself in order to talk to some of the people who have settled there, and to learn more about what it is about life there that has compelled people to venture out there. Through my conversations with various people who have recently arrived at Yenan, I learned that since the occurrence of the Long March, the CCP has been idolized and venerated for their immense bravery and dedication, and Mao Zedong has become the Party’s undisputed leader. It may seem paradoxical that the Long March could have strengthened the Party when it contributed to the deaths of so many people, but those who remained emerged more dedicated to the cause than ever: “although the Long March was a tactical defeat, it had very beneficial psychological and organizational effects and gave the Communists an important strategic advantage. Psychologically, the Long March was not unlike Valley Forge in the American Revolution. The suffering and heroism actually strengthened the movement and proved that it was indomitable. Organizationally, the Long March clarified the leadership of the Party” [Dietrich, 25].

On top of this element of hero worship which is inspiring people to make the journey to Yenan, I learned that there are several aspects of the CCP’s current policies that are appealing to people from all different backgrounds, from peasants to intellectuals to elites. The CCP recruits and trains people who are willing and able to fight Japan. The CCP also advocates novel ideas about the importance of convergence between the leaders and the masses, the necessity of dismantling normative hierarchies and eliminating elitism in favor of cultivating a culture of cooperation, and about the role that the military should play in society, through the formation of the Red Army. A lot of these new CCP ideas become even more appealing when presented in contrast to the current state of the KMT, which people argue is plagued by military weakness, corruption, and hierarchy.

Perhaps one of the biggest reasons that people are drawn to Yenan is because of the CCP’s focus on mobilizing the populace in the fight against Japan, primarily through guerilla warfare tactics. The war against Japan is indicative of a larger CCP goal which appeals heavily to many: the goal of eliminating imperialist influence within China. I had the opportunity to speak with a woman named Guo Qi-min about why she came to Yenan, and she said, “I went to the anti-Japanese university in Yenan in the fall of 1938. We had classes on current affairs, philosophy, and so on…we got up early in the morning. We did morning drills and we learned how to use weapons to fight the Japanese” [Williams, 1:10:50]. Training to fight the Japanese with the CCP in Yenan is more appealing to many than the idea of training with the Nationalist Army, as catastrophes have occurred due to Chiang Kai-Shek’s decision making. For instance, in 1938, Chiang Kai-Shek opened the dikes of the Yellow River with the goal of preventing the Japanese from traveling onward. However, the Chinese people who lived in the area were not warned, leading to thousands of villages flooding, millions of families becoming homeless, and hundreds of thousands of people dying, and the tactic did not even work to hinder the Japanese [Williams, 1:07:15]. 

The CCP also stresses the necessity of convergence between the leaders and the masses – a novel ideology that appeals to many whose voices have never been heard within traditional systems of government. In Yenan, Mao Zedong introduced the principle of mass line, or “solidarity in the effort to achieve the goals of the people,” which he argued can be achieved only through an intimate, sustained relationship between the Party and the people [Dietrich, 27]. It can even be said that “instead of mere majority rule, Mao aimed at total solidarity between the CCP and the masses” [Dietrich, 27]. The Party and the people must ultimately become one in their ideas. To use Mao’s own words from “Resolution of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party on Methods of Leadership”: “correct leadership must come from the masses and go to the masses” [Mao, 118]. 

Social hierarchies, something that are ever present in traditional Confucian society, also dissipate in Yenan in favor of unity and cooperation. In 1936, Edgar Snow interviewed Mao, and reported that he embodied the “simplicity and naturalness of the Chinese peasant”, living in caves alongside the rank and file of the Red Army [Snow, 185]. This idea that the leaders experience the same material conditions as the masses appeals to many who are dismayed with the rumored corruption of Chiang Kai-Shek’s wife’s family, who have been accused of using government money to their own advantage.

 All members of society who agree with the cause of the CCP can be included in life at Yenan, no matter their background. The CCP seeks to eliminate intellectual elitism in society, instead making cultural productions such as literature and art accessible and relatable to the masses. Mao argues in “Talks at the Yan’an Conference on Literature and Art” that workers in literature and art cannot be out-of-touch with the people, but instead must be deeply in tune with them. He writes, “yours is the language of intellectuals, theirs is the language of the popular masses” [Mao, 114]. The CCP seeks to eliminate hierarchies and elitism, but that does not mean it refuses to work with those who have previously enjoyed a superior social or economic position, so long as they are open to change. I spoke with a Communist officer by the name of Wang Ping who emphasized the fact that the CCP is willing to bring together people of all socioeconomic backgrounds, telling me, “We didn’t attack the rich. We even allied with landlords as long as they were not collaborators and wanted to resist” [Williams, 1:12:10].

As I have touched upon already, The Red Army was established here in Yenan, and it operates in ways that are very different from the role that the military has played in Chinese society in the past. The Red Army operates under very close Party control, and its ultimate purpose is to implement and reinforce the previously mentioned social, economic, and political changes to Chinese society [Dietrich, 24]. In “Talks at the Yan’an Conference on Literature and Art,” Mao argued that the military plays a vital role in shaping the new fabric of Chinese society, writing, “victory over the enemy depends primarily on armies with guns in their hands, but this kind of army alone is not enough… we still need a cultural army” [Mao, 113]. He goes on to argue that this cultural army can diminish the impact or reach of both “China’s feudal culture and the slavish culture that serves imperialist aggression” [Mao, 114]. Mao also views the Army as a tool for practicing the mass line. He states that “All members of the people’s army have a conscious discipline, fighting not for the private interests of a few, but for the interests of the broad masses and the whole nation” [Mao, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, 52]. Within the Army itself, Mao seeks to dismantle normative hierarchies that are perpetuated by Confucian ideology; he stresses that “officers teach soldiers, soldiers teach officers, and soldiers teach each other” [Mao, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, 80].

The journey may be perilous and the conditions upon arrival may be barren, but there is a lot about life at Yenan that appeals deeply to many people. A chance to defeat an imperialist aggressor, the formation of the mass line, the dismantling of hierarchies and elitism, and the allures of the Red Army are all enticing Chinese citizens. One could even say that they are coming to Yenan “because they [want] to fight Japan, and because there [is] a sense here of building a new society” [Williams, 1:09:40]. Stay safe, my readers, until next time. 

 

Sincerely, Lei Ju