The Reality of Land Reform

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