Day: October 8, 2023

Dear trusted readers,

 

I long for my years as a mere student in Beijing when my reporting was frequent. Now, I go decades without writing. Since you last heard from me in Yenan, Japanese imperialism was devastating, the horrid Nationalists were in Taiwan, and the People’s Republic of China under Mao came out victorious. Back then, I did not understand the full plight of the proletariat and the benefit of the Party, but thanks to the 1942 mass study campaign in Yenan, I understand now is the time that the CCP has been waiting for. The work has now begun, and the light is shining on the working class. It is time to see if Mao Zedong will successfully utilize the masses to enact his vision of a great new China. With the Agrarian Reform Act of 1950, our new leader has set out to utilize the peasantry and transform the inequitable structure of our agrarian nation just as promised. Although I am now a loyal member of the CCP party, I am still willing to risk my life to bring my dear readers the reality on the ground. 

This campaign is in full effect. Intellectuals and students from urban areas, such as myself, have been tasked by Mao and the PRC leadership to carry out land reform and bring “fanshen” to the exploited peasants residing in every village. Fanshen destroys the inequitable and exploitative system by establishing a class consciousness within China’s peasant farmers. Given my background as a student in Beijing and the daughter of a well-off peasant farmer in Anyang, I was placed within a work team in a small village. I wish I could remember the name; however, I have been to so many villages in the past year, some only for a week, that most blur together. To say I was naive about what I would find is an understatement. I have not participated in village life for many decades, and even when I was, my station was significantly better than poor peasants. It is sad to say I was disillusioned when I arrived in my first assigned village. Despite my efforts to practice unbiased and raw journalism, I found myself entering my first work team with the image of Ding Ling’s Old Gu and a monstrous landlord looming over the masses. In reality, village relationships and inner workings are much more nuanced than all the literature and songs make it out to be.   

Although land reform has been successful in redistributing the land to the peasants, the campaign is not perfect. In fact, oftentimes, I question if the benefits of land reform outweigh the multitudes of disadvantages. As a work team member, my colleagues and I have seen and heard stories of the worst of the worst. Reports of the mass killing and sexual violence against women in Shandong have unfortunately become the norm during the “struggles” our work teams have been instructed to manipulate and carry out. Furthermore, some villages I have been assigned to simply do not have tyrannical landlords or even enough land to go around. It keeps me up at night thinking about myself, as an outsider, entering these villages, tasked with educating these peasants, and placing these people I know nothing about into classes and categories. I have voiced my concerns to the leaders I report to in Yenan, but I am afraid nothing will be done. I am anxious to see what the long-term effects of this campaign will be, and I am worried about the next one. 

 

Until Next Time,

Cui Shuli

My friends,

 

It has been a few years since I have last been called upon to comment on the State of the Revolution. On this I can only say that much has happened. The end of the War against Japan gave way to the War against the Nationalists, culminating in the ultimate victory of the Communist Party. Among the first and foremost actions of the Party has been the Land Reform campaign. My friends, I must confess I have had limited experience with the campaign of my own, but I have had the opportunity to speak with a great many people that have, either as a member of a work team or were present in the countryside when the reform teams came through. My own experience has been almost entirely limited to only what could be gathered from those I’ve spoken to; however, I have had an experience that I feel it necessary to share with you. Many of you know that I come from a family that operates a small freight company in Beijing, that my father started a great many years ago, before the fall of the Qing. My Brother now operates this company following the death of my father during the war against Japan. It was here that I had my only direct run in with the Land Reform campaign, being myself now too old and infirm to continue the arduous labor in the countryside. I was working in my brother’s shop alone one day when a large party of peasants from one of the villages nearby came in search of him and his wife. When I asked how I might assist them they said that their local landlord, my sister-in-law’s father had fled from the struggle session that had been planned for him. He had no sons and the only surviving family of his that they could find was my brother and his wife. They had with them a bill which they presented to me saying that my brother owed them in his father-in-law’s stead. They seemed to not realize that I was his brother, and demanded to know where he was. I told them that the owners of the shop were not home at the moment, but I would deliver it to them when they returned. They seemed to accept this answer and left; however, they told me that they would return to collect. When my brother returned, he told me that there had been similar parties moving through the city and that several of his colleagues had been presented with similar bills by peasants from villages where they or members of their families were landlords. It seems to me that these villagers came seeking further restitution than what was available from their landlords, either because they demanded more than the landlord had, or else the landlord had successfully secreted away some hidden store of wealth and so to meet the demands of the villagers they came to the cities to collect from other members of the families. I have heard of the violence being performed against some of the shop owners, though I have not seen it myself. I heard second hand of a family who were interrogated by one of these roving bands in search of more money. I have heard that the government has taken steps to curtail this practice of presenting bills which has sprung up following the expulsion and elimination of the Landlord class, however it still persists and in some cases has caused immense suffering among the people of the cities.