My loyal readers,
It has been a while since I last wrote to all of you and I am sorry about that. A lot has happened since Yanan and I am excited to write about it. When I wrote last, the Chinese Communist Party was held up in Yanan creating a sanctuary for all those who supported the party. Since then the Chinese Communist Party has grabbed the reins and is in full control of China. Even though the Chinese Communist Party is now in full control of China, it did not come easy. After a long bloody war with the Nationalists, Chairman Mao and his followers came out on top. One of the first policies they implemented was the land reform which has completely reshaped rural China. This whole land reform campaign is the exact reason why I have written in a while. As you know, my family lives in a rural farming village with very little land. A couple of months ago the land reform campaign touched down in my home village and I traveled home to help my father with the whole reshaping process.
What is land reform you may ask? Well, in short, rural China has been ruled by landlords for hundreds of years. This has left a vast majority of the country poor while very few enjoy the benefits of owning and renting the land. The land reform campaign aimed to solve this problem. The campaign empowered the poor peasant farmers to rise up and take the land to divide up amongst themselves. Through the help of work teams, which were largely comprised of intellectuals from the cities [DeMare, 6], the peasant class was completely transformed and able to acquire more land to farm which in turn created more equal living situations. What was very impressive about this whole situation was that the opportunity was seized by the peasant farmers. The government put together these work teams but it was the peasants who worked with these intellectuals and overthrew the landlords. It was by “both creating class consciousness and altering village power relations, struggle held the key to what the Communists called fanshen: the liberation of the peasantry that followed in the wake of land reform” [DeMare 147]. While attending a meeting with the work teams back home, I witnessed a female peasant “denouncing and struggling village landlords” [DeMare, 148] in front of the entire village, which was a very revolutionary sight. While berating the landlord I saw an immense amount of hatred coming from this woman. After the meeting, I spoke to some members of the work team and they discussed the importance of this hatred and how Mao intended for them to rise up out of hate [DeMare 148]. This was all very interesting to see firsthand. I have even come to hear reports of landlords being killed violently by villagers. This violent overthrow of landlords seems to be happening more and more often. Even though we are no longer at war with a foreign enemy, it now seems like we are at war with ourselves.
Like always, stay safe!
Until next time,
Zeng Yongzheng
My friend, I agree that it now seems like we are at war with each other. While land reform has helped many people, I think the needless violence has made it into something bad. I am glad your family was able to benefit from these policies, but I hope you did not participate in the barbaric acts that have swept the country.