Month: October 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.

Dear readers. It has been a while since my last report. In just a few short years, the group I reported on in Yan’an under the leadership of Mao Zedong has come to power in China. The country has finally rid itself of the Japanese infestation and forced the corruption of the Nationalists to flee to Taiwan—an excellent Victory for China.

I spent most of the past few years at Yan’an or hopping around to settlements close to it, but now that the war is over and it is much safer to travel, I have decided to go home to see my sister and family in Shaanxi Providence. But I did not go straight there; I went to Beijing first to stop by my old college, hoping to see how other intellectuals were adjusting to Mao’s ideas. When I was there, I met some of my old friends who were accumulating “revolutionary practice” by heading to Shaanxi as part of a work team to enact the next step in Mao’s revolution, “Land Reform.”

I traveled to Shaanxi with the work teams, watching as the group got smaller and smaller. The work teams seemed to drop party members off at every single village along the way, no matter how small or poor the village was. If this trend is true for the rest of the country, then Mao is mobilizing party members on a scale never seen before. By the time we got to Shaanxi, I had made friends with most of the work team members. Most were college graduates or journalists like myself; all mobilized after the May Fourth Directive. Once arrived, we went our separate ways. The work teams went to gather information from individual peasants, and I went to my father’s shop.

I have not been home since I went to college years ago. So much has happened since I left. To put it all into perspective, when I left, Confucianism was the dominating school of thought, and that prevented my father from being looked on favorably because he was a merchant. Yet now he is doing well for himself, selling all the necessities people need without swindling them like some of the other shops do. My grandfather passed away while I was gone, but other than that, my family has survived the war and political revolution primarily unscathed. 

Later on that week, we were all gathered in the center of the village by the work teams for a Struggle Session. Xié’è bi, the most powerful landlord in our village, was brought to the center stage, and the atmosphere was tense. Even before the war with Japan, he had been taking advantage of the poorer peasants; some had even died directly due to his greed. But he was untouchable because he held the livelihood of so many in his hands. But seeing him on stage with the Work Team in control, he looked like a regular old man. One of the peasants with whom the work teams had spent much time spoke up first. The woman told a story of how Xié’è bi took advantage of her and promised to absolve her husband of his financial debts but never did, which led to her daughter being sold off. After this tale, the atmosphere was sad and angry. You could feel the emotion building, but imagine my shock when a Work Team member whacked Xié’è bi over the head with a stick and asked, “Who next?” One by one, the peasants whipped into a frenzy came forth to share their experiences and blows rained down upon Xié’è bi until he was beaten within an inch of his life. 

After everyone shared their grievances, the leader of the Work Team, a journalist, came forward and, to his credit, explained. Land reform didn’t make intellectuals feel like they were being talked down to, but it was simple enough for peasants to understand as well. After a few more days, everything was settled, and land deeds were handed out as well as the goods that Xié’è bi owned, and these were called struggle fruit. 

It was nice to see some of the people I have known since I was born to receive justice and land; however, I am unsure how this will quickly pull them out of poverty, but maybe Mao will have another plan. I was shocked by the initiation of violence by the Work Teams. I am probably more pro-violence than most, but I believe the country has seen enough violence after fighting three consecutive wars and is still fighting the Americans in Korea. The work teams say revolution requires violence. I just hope this does not become a trend and that my family won’t one day be the target of their greed. 

 

Ai Weiwei

The people are speaking, the body is turning, and a new China has emerged. Since my last transmission in Yenan, The People’s Republic was founded only two years ago, and the ruling Communist Party has implemented a new campaign collectively known as Land Reform. The Party has adopted a policy of persuasion and action; calling on the intellectual elite to journey into the countryside, live among the working poor peasants, and harness their energy towards overthrowing the wealthy landlord class, who according to Chaiman Mao have exploited rural peasants for millennia.

Two ideas promoted by the chairman have been crucial to the land revolution. First, he has promoted the mass line, where all members of society would be organized to participate in revolution, where leaders of the party listen to the peasant classes, to harness and promote their desires towards revolution. This strategy has proved to be highly effective in accomplishing the party’s goal of systemic structural change by making the peasants feel empowered to become active agents in their struggle. The mass line coupled with Mao’s saying that revolution is not a “dinner party” forms the second piece of revolution, where violence was one of the primary mechanisms to achieve change achieve systemic change. The concepts of the mass line and empowerment through violent struggle was the definition of revolution according to Mao. If the Communists forced the peasants to adopt their polices this would run counter to Mao’s theory and represent a continuation of the practices of the old system, where there was an embedded top down hierarchy that imposed their will on the rural masses.

Empowering the masses started in the countryside. Work teams assembled of young intellectuals ventured to rural areas to educate the masses on Mao’s policies, to listen to the concerns of the peasantry, and to work with local cadres and single out wealthy landowners. Wen Cai’s approach to educating peasants often left many feeling mystified and bewildered by Marxist theory. However, many uneducated poor peasants have easily understood the differences between themselves and landlords. After all, many poor peasants aspired to move up in society. Work teams teach the peasants to speak bitterness to the landlords, often resulting in large public demonstrations where the landlord is publicly humiliated. One notable example is when Tang Zhankui was publicly beaten and condemned to death by the masses because of his high status as a landlord. For the first time in Chinese history peasants have felt they can express themselves and air their grievances with thei oppressors. Women have felt empowered to speak out against oppressive husbands because of the Party’s liberating position on women’s rights. Land Reform has successfully turned the body and accomplished Fanshen. Most of the landlord class has been abolished, property has successfully been redistributed to the peasants who in turn feel they have become active agents in their own lives.

Larges changes often come with large consequences, and violent revolution in the countryside has had devastating effects on many including my own family who were landlords. At first, we were labeled “evil,” and the peasants spoke bitterness against us. The masses have failed to understand that my grandfather was able to build a business predicated on class mobility, where the poor aspired to become the wealthy. Now my family has fled the country; without contact it is unclear if I will ever reconnect with them again. I have stayed behind as an intellectual who has joined a work team, and I have been able to successfully fly under the radar. Some villages have proved hard to reform because they do not have wealthy landlords or rich peasants. Unfortunately, we picked some middle peasants for humiliation, and I even heard of an exceptionally brutal leader, Duan Mingzhu who tortured many in the village. Party officials did not direct us to tone down the violence, which was incredibly scary because we had no way of stopping the revolutionary forces we stirred up. Many women have been failed by party officials where double fanshen had limited success, through marriage equality, participation in political affairs, and through the rights to initiate divorce. In practice, many women were not trained properly on how to work the fields, and the party supported men more than women in their push to reinstate a productive family and village unit. This has myself scratching my head because it feels like the party returned to Confusion values of patriarchy and filial fealty vis a vis supporting men in the village but on the other hand land reform successfully redistributed wealth and property, rose the standard of living of the peasanty and empowered the masses. The question remains if this will be the Party’s only attempt at revolution.

Dear Readers,

 

The recent social movements in our country are significant. After establishing the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Communist Party first implemented land reform. The landowners’ land, livestock, farming tools, surplus food, and surplus houses in rural areas were all confiscated and distributed fairly to all, regardless of age or gender. Mao paid his attention to the masses, and so far, it feels like he is gaining control. Our country’s population is significant, and if he can unite them, the reforms he desires will proceed.

 Land reform would be a message to the masses as directed to them as a law promoting fairness and equality. Giving land to landless peasants or equal resources to citizens of all statuses sounds morally idealistic. However, from a woman’s point of view, there are better policies than this. Here, let me introduce the recent movement that happened about gender equality. Now, soon after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the law of engagement was improved. Primarily, it changes the traditional male-dominated trend. Features include: marriage is performed by free will; the rights of women, children, and the elderly are protected; and a system of fair procedures after divorce is clearly stated. The patriarchal trend remains, and although it is not as effective as it could be, the law is a step toward a revolutionary social change. Inadequacies can also be noted in land reform. This reform has indeed allowed women to own their land. However, they need to learn how to cultivate the land. They would be troubled if they were suddenly given tasks they had never been entrusted with. They are already busy with household chores, and a new responsibility and duty have just been added. As a result, the pressure on women is still intense, and it can be criticized as a policy that increases the workload of women in weaker positions. Frankly, one farmer told me that it is dangerous to look only at the positive aspects of the reforms, as there are rumors of 2 million or so casualties, sexual assaults, etc., but I don’t know if they are true.

However, I would like to point out that land reform has many good points. There are reasons for the choices made by Mao Zedong, and he should have analyzed the difficulties we are feeling and devised policies. For example, land reform provided an opportunity for the peasants themselves to determine their destiny. I believe this has inspired the peasants to take positive action to improve their lives. It is one of the outstanding achievements of the project to develop such awareness among those who would otherwise be considered of low status. As Mao Zedong said, our revolutionary activities still need to be completed. We must maintain the prevailing tendency throughout society to think that the revolution is somehow complete. This land reform is also a political transformation, and its outstanding achievement is that it has laid the foundation for the modernization of rural China to build a new society.

 

Thank you for reading.

A monumental transformation is underway in the heart of China. The CCP has embarked on a colossal endeavor to reshape the agricultural landscape through a mass land reform campaign. This initiative, characterized by its scale and enthusiasm, is not merely an administrative act but a calculated strategic move by the CCP. As a journalist present at this pivotal moment in history, I must dissect the motivations behind this choice and explore its implications on Chinese society.

At first glance, the decision to implement land reform as a mass campaign appears rooted in the CCP’s playbook. Mass campaigns have been a hallmark of the Chinese communist regime, with their ability to mobilize and control large populations. By turning land reform into a nationwide movement, the CCP aims to instill unity and purpose among its people. The mobilization efforts create a collective consciousness and serve as a platform for ideological indoctrination. Through vigorous campaigns, the Party propagates its core tenets of communism, emphasizing principles of joint ownership and class struggle. In doing so, the CCP garners popular support and allegiance, ensuring the success of the reform agenda.

Moreover, the mass campaign strategy allows the CCP to maintain a firm grip on the reform process. By involving the masses directly, the Party exerts control over the narrative surrounding land reform and instills a type of self-policing throughout China. This control extends beyond mere policymaking; it affects the nation’s collective consciousness, shaping public opinion and garnering legitimacy for the Party’s actions. Through widespread participation, the CCP not only furthers its political objectives but also consolidates its authority, reinforcing its central role in the lives of the Chinese people.

However, as with any sweeping social transformation, the mass land reform campaign has challenges and consequences. The immediate benefit lies in creating a more equitable land distribution, addressing long-standing land ownership disparity issues. Families that were once landless now find themselves with the means to cultivate their fields, ushering in a newfound sense of economic stability and security. The campaign also fosters a spirit of camaraderie and collective purpose, bolstering social cohesion and strengthening community bonds.

Yet, this mass mobilization has its pitfalls. The sheer scale of the campaign often leads to hasty decision-making, resulting in the misallocation of resources and, at times, inefficient land use. Moreover, the ideological fervor accompanying mass campaigns can sometimes blind the regime to the nuanced realities on the ground, leading to policies that might not be conducive to sustainable agricultural practices. These challenges, if unaddressed, could undermine the goals the CCP seeks to achieve.

Furthermore, the mass campaign strategy reveals a central danger: the potential suppression of dissenting voices. Individual opinions and concerns might be stifled in the enthusiasm of collective action, creating a monolithic narrative that silences alternative perspectives. This suppression raises concerns about the erosion of democratic values and the freedom of expression, essential components of a healthy society.

In conclusion, as I witness this historic moment, it is clear that the CCP’s choice to implement land reform as a mass campaign is a complicated and multi-stepped strategy. While it seeks to achieve commendable goals regarding equitable land distribution and social cohesion, it also raises important questions about individual freedoms and the potential pitfalls of hasty decision-making. As the campaign unfolds, the world holds its breath, recognizing the significance of this endeavor in shaping the future trajectory of the world’s most populous nation.

-Miao Bing Rong

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

Dear Readers,

It has been some time since I last wrote, and much has changed in our great nation. When I last wrote it was to discuss the success of the Chinese Communist Party’s movement in the Yenan region and why so many people were flocking to the area in order to support the movement. Since then, the revolution I discussed has come to pass! The Communist Party is now the leading group, with Chairman Mao Zedong as the head of the government, and things have already undergone drastic changes. I must mention that the war that was fought between the Communists and the defeated Nationalist forces must be acknowledged as an extremely brutal and bloody affair. I would be lying if I said that the Communists came to power unopposed and without lots of bloodshed, but they have cemented their rule in an attempt to improve China for the people.

One of the ways that the new government has attempted to improve lives for its citizens in the countryside is through a massive campaign of land reform. The Communist Party is a party of the people and at the outset of its rule over China, the vast majority of peasants in the countryside are extremely poor. Much of the countryside was controlled by landlords who had exploited the common people for centuries. Land reform is the first step in the redistribution of wealth that will help raise the standard of living for people in the countryside. Another important part of this campaign was how it involved people not just from the countryside. Work teams composed of volunteers were trained to go out into the countryside, organize middle and poor peasants, and oversee the process [Dietrich, 68]. This was only the beginning, as the landlords would suffer greatly at the hands of these organizations.

Once peasant organizations were formed, the work teams would help the peasants to find the landlords as the source of their hardships, loosely defined as “searching for bitterness” [DeMare, 63]. After whipping the peasants into a frenzy against the landlords, the “struggle” could begin as often theatrical displays of discontent were used to punish the landlords and strip them of their property.

While this policy made sense in theory, it led to an unbelievable amount of violence in the countryside. In many cases, work teams and local village cadres would attempt to squeeze every last drop of wealth out of the better-off citizens of a region, resulting in torture and murder if more wealth wasn’t produced [DeMare, 140]. The violence got so bad in some places that even some middle peasants committed suicide in order to avoid the possibility that they could become the target of a struggle [DeMare, 143].

An issue with parts of land reform that arose on many occasions was that of corruption. I spoke to a member of a work team returning from an assignment who mentioned that in one of the villages his team brought the campaign to, the peasant association was not dissatisfied with their treatment by the local landlords, but with the apparent corruption within the local village cadres and Party officials that supposedly were abusing their power [DeMare, 62.] This work team member also mentioned that in another village, cadres were using their influence to retain the most valuable items that were taken from the landlords for themselves [DeMare, 150].

The Party’s land reform campaign was an impressive movement that transformed the countryside. By allowing the people to carry out these small revolutions in each region, Chairman Mao reinforced his belief that leadership should “come from the masses and go to the masses” [Cheek, 120]. The land reform movement brought the revolution back to the countryside as it involved more citizens in the class war that the Communists wished to wage. The creation of anger against the landlord class allowed the peasants to obtain some kind of class consciousness [DeMare, 147], and therefore bound them more loyally to the party as it was seen as a liberator from the old ways. I am not unaware that I come from a better-off background when compared to many citizens. My parents have made their money through working hard their entire lives, and I am not entirely sure how I feel about this movement. While I am against exploitation, I do not think fairly achieved wealth should be able to be taken away. Because of this, I am thankful that my family lives in a city, because if we were to live in the countryside, I worry that we would have been labeled as enemies in this campaign.

Things are changing, but the danger still seems to be real.

 

Stay safe my friends,

孙诚

Dear Readers,

I apologize that it has been quite some time since my last post, I have been busy with Party activities and doing my part in building a new China. Last year I was called upon to work with the masses. I have taken leave from teaching just outside the city to join a work team, and I am now in my second village. The mass campaign to implement land reform is something that I have been working on intensely during my time in these two villages. Some may think that it might have been easier to confiscate land from the wealthy landlords and redistribute it to the peasants, but the Party believes in a different approach. 

When I was in university, we read Mao’s 1927 “Report on the Peasant Movement in Hunan”. I believe that much of the Party’s policies on land reform and mass campaigns extend from this movement. After discovering that “almost half the peasants in Hunan [were] now organized” and the same was occurring in other counties, Mao believed that “it was on the strength of their extensive organization that the peasants went into action and within four months brought about a great revolution in the countryside, a revolution without parallel in history”. After the peasants organized, we watched “the privileges the feudal landlords have enjoyed for thousands of years” be “shattered to pieces. Their dignity and prestige… completely swept away”. Peasant associations gained power over their oppressors through organization and the willingness to fight for their cause. Mao and the Party watched these peasant revolutionaries take the countryside with force. Peasants were mobilized to right the wrongs that have occurred for generations, and showed that violence may be necessary for revolution. 

After noticing the success in a peasant uprising, it was clear that land reform needed to be a mass campaign, rather than the confiscation and redistribution of land, because power is in the hands of the people, the masses, and the way to harness that power is to remind the people of the cause they are fighting for. 

I remember nearly a decade ago, we took part in a mass study campaign to understand the struggles of the proletariat and the stance of the party. But theory can only take one so far, so I agreed to aid the peasants and put policy into practice. Prior to traveling to my first village, I attended training and educated myself on working with peasants and how best to communicate party ideals to them. One professor I spoke to, Yang Rengeng, told me of his experiences working in land reform and made it clear “that peasants are waiting for [my] help”. Thus, I set off to educate local leaders. 

I found this task more difficult than the professors and party members had led us to believe. In my first village it was extremely hard to relate to the villagers, and they did not seem to understand why we were there and what our mission was. One approach that we were told worked best was finding “bitterness” in their life stories. I was inspired to do this when I read The Sun Shines over the Sanggan River. When speaking to a poor peasant named Liu Man, Yang Liang “learned the man had once been a village cadre until he was pushed out of the local party branch by hooligans seeking to protect the scheming landlord Qian Wengui”. He and his fellow work team members then assembled the peasants and enough collective rage was incited to go after the landlord. Helping peasants find their “bitterness” worked in the first village I traveled to. After my conversations with individual families I helped lead struggle meetings to share their grievances with the rest of the village. 

My second village was where I began to see the darker side of land reform. Namely, the lack of a fight for women’s rights. During struggle sessions with groups of women, or in the workplace when they were creating textiles, I heard of their plights. Their plights were not just with the landlords, but with their husbands and the patriarchy. When coming into villages to assist peasants in coming together to create our new China, we promised women “a ‘double fanshen’: one as a peasant and one as a woman”. I read in the newspaper about Guo Shuuzen, who in a 1947 land reform campaign “received land, two horses, a mule, and a cart”. Once her life had changed as a peasant, she could now become a feminist. “Politically awakened during land reform, she joined her local party branch, headed her local women’s association, organized literacy classes, and took a leading role in organizing production”. Her story was extremely inspiring to me, and I hoped to be able to help other peasant women in the same way. 

As land deeds were handed out, I noticed that only divorced or widowed women received their own land, as married women were property of their husbands. The women who did receive their own land often did not know how to farm it. Myself and other female party members plead with the party “to provide peasant women with adequate agricultural training”, yet no one listened. Some nuns were even forced to take husbands! A few women opened up to me and other female party members about the oppression they face in the household. They are forced into submission, beaten, and constantly disrespected. How are these women supposed to help with land reform and class struggle when their main struggle is within their homes? I confess that it is hard for me to leave this village feeling that women had achieved fanshen. For a number of years now I have followed party doctrine, but after my experience in the villages I’m not sure if party policy is working. 

 

Until next time,

Miao Kuo shuo

Dear Readers: 

 

How times have changed in China since I started keeping my blog! I never thought such drastic changes would occur in my own lifetime for me to witness and, as my job requires, record. In the spirit of keeping everyone educated on the things going on in this country, I have traveled around the country to report on the key points of China’s political upheaval; the story of Communist China and its ongoing revolution would not be complete without the inclusion of the CCP’s ambitious campaign of land reform in the countryside. As you may remember, I spent quite some time in the countryside in Yan’an in the CCP’s satellite but returned to Beijing with other intellectuals after the PRC was officially established to finish my education. However, I have been called back to the countryside to continue my reporting for the Party as a guest of one of the work teams being sent to educate the peasants and guide them through agrarian revolution. 

Mao has adamantly pushed for the participation of the masses in the revolution in general, noting in his 1927 Hunan Report how the “strength” and “extensive organization” of the peasants in the countryside demonstrated their capability of “action.” The power of the masses has long been heralded by the CCP as the driving force behind the revolution in China, so it makes sense that the Party would funnel the unstoppable force of the people into achieving their agenda. It seems that the societal roles have been flipped, with work teams of intellectuals being sent to learn from these unstoppable peasants rather than the other way around. Learning from books just doesn’t cut it anymore in the PRC, and understanding the state of the country as well as its possibility for reform cannot be accomplished “without social practice” obtained from living and working amongst the masses. With so many people working toward land reform, especially those as passionate about the revolution as the oppressed peasants, an immense amount of progress can potentially be made in a shorter amount of time and, since it’s coming from the ground up, changes would actually be happening rather than just being decreed and never enforced. 

I can’t help but be excited about the idea of a government that actually wants its people to do rather than just sit back and have things done to them. The peasants I’ve met with the work team seem to be enthusiastic about this as well. I recently met a woman in the countryside named Ge Yang who joined the Party because of this powerful message; communism meant that “the people would be masters of the country,” and it was being realized by the people, “a mighty storm,” themselves. This, however, means that the Party has to educate every intellectual in the work teams who then have to educate every peasant that they’re responsible for. It’s quite an intense process and the intellectuals in my team have had a hard time letting go of their biases toward the peasants as well as using language that they would understand. Although getting off to a shaky, unconvincing start, peasants began to respond to the work teams, vocalizing “bitterness” and realizing how they had been exploited for years by their landlords.

I am happy to report that land reform has done its job. There is surely a more equal distribution of land amongst the peasants in the countryside (even for women and children) as well as tools which has made production more efficient and plentiful all around from what I’ve seen. However, the methods of obtaining this land and wealth have left a pit in my stomach. The violence I have witnessed in the countryside in the name of land reform has completely unsettled me. I have seen peasants pull the limbs off of landlords and heard the screams of those accused of secretly harboring more wealth being buried alive. These people have taken the work teams’ proclamations of exploitation and suffering to heart and, while there is obviously truth to these condemnations of landlords, I can’t help but think the Party has taken all of this much too far. Peasants are encouraged to be violent and there are no repercussions for the killing or torturing of landlords or richer individuals who are accused of hiding wealth but in reality have nothing more to give. And, seeing as how this revolution has been put into the hands of the masses rather than a few elites, this means that land reform has perpetuated extreme amounts of violence and death. I have heard people whispering about there already being over one million people dead as a result of land reform and I can’t say that I don’t believe it. Not to mention those being taken advantage of or sexually assaulted by the corrupt cadres, or even the peasants themselves who have taken the wives and daughters of struggled landlords for themselves! With there also not being enough land to go around for everyone in China, I’m worried about what will happen when some peasants don’t get what they were promised.

I can’t help but think of my own family, more well off than the others in our village. I can only hope that they have been assigned as “middle peasants” through their work teams’ arbitrary systems and will only have to redistribute some of their belongings rather than lose their lives. I am almost scared to go back home, in case I come back to find crude graves where my home is supposed to be. I avoid speaking about my family now so that nobody interprets my fear as sympathy for the landlord class. I am glad that less people are suffering in poverty now, I am, but I’m not sure I can accept the idea that all of this violence was the only way for China to reach this achievement.

That’s all for now.