Land reform

Dear readers,

We are in the midst of a changing country with a new government. However, there are still ongoing issues as we continue the revolution here in China. Over the past few years, land reform has been a major emphasis among the masses as Mao and the CPP have been working towards equality in all aspects. By using mass campaigns, it has made the issue spread into the country-side where poor peasants live. The government has made sure to resolve all kinds of issues using the Central Organization Department to develop mass organization. The government was organized in a way that people are able to contribute to the bigger scheme since these leaders not only pass down directions to the peasants, but they also report back up on how the campaigns are going. This kind of political equality for everyone in the country was attractive to most people in the country.

By making land reform a mass campaign, peasants came together to fight the inequality they were facing from ‘evil tyrant landlords.’ Using terms like this, as well as finding struggle stories among the peasants, led them to rally behind the struggle. Speaking bitterness created anger within the peasant community and was spread through meetings that these villages would have. These kinds of meetings would be meaningful in what kinds of campaigns the CPP would take action in since the revolution came from the masses and goes to the masses. The leadership role that Mao took was very important since his goal was to combine the general and particular issues that people talked about and would unite leadership within the masses. With the Marriage law and other laws making women equal to men, women started to have a bigger role in the revolution. They made significant impacts economically, politically, and socially which contributed to the revolution. However, this change in culture wasn’t embraced by everyone. Mother-in-laws and husbands began to worry about how much power they were given and that they didn’t have control over what they did. 

Something that did not go so well in this campaign was the amount of violence it created within the country. Villages had driven the landlords out of the area by extensively threatening, abusing and even killing them. Mao had wanted a fight against the landlord land, and not the landlords themselves. This movement also created some issues within the community in identifying who the rich peasants and the landlords were as many of them tried to come off as a poor peasant, making them unreliable. Even though my father was a good person with good intentions, this kind of revolt worried me. Coming from a wealthier background in the silk industry, my father was considered one of the enemies of struggle. However, he did give up his land and was also a community man, even promoting equality within his village. I feared that an extremist in the CPP would come to my fathers house and hurt him. As for my mother, she was against the revolution and what it stood for. She got sent to my father as she sent away her four daughters for marriage. Even though the party strived for an ‘abundant and flourishing family,’ it was going against the tradition that she was accustomed to. I believe that the violence will settle down and there will be more equality than there was ever before in China, but I do think the extremists will not change their way of thought. The campaign did in fact mobilize around the whole country so it’s not to say that it isn’t possible for everyone to be on the same page.