On the Ground in China

The urban proletariat in Chengdu shares similar feelings to the peasant farmers back home, though their complaints are unique to their situations. Industrial workers here face problems I have never seen before; those of dangerous work environments with huge, hot machinery. While the peasant farmers are oppressed by their own people, the factory workers are making products for the consumption of foreigners, commonly imperialist powers such as Great Britain and Japan. A capitalist might argue that these factories bolster the Chinese economy, yet the workers reap little profits from them while their bosses live comfortably, contributing little to production. 

 

While the proletariat in Chengdu suffers the weight of imperialist-imposed capitalism, the peasants of my hometown suffer the remains of a feudal system. Though Confucianism is said to hold those who till the land in high regard, its system has failed them. The classics dictate that subordinates must be treated with respect, but so often in my youth did I witness the sad plight of a neighbor short on rice. Some starved so that they could pay the landlord, some were taxed double next season, some sold their daughters or wives that they may pay, and one old man had nothing left to give and was thus beaten to death. The Peasant Association formed to stand against such abuses just as the labor unions have in Chengdu.

 

Despite the necessity of revolution for radical societal change in China, I am concerned about the consequences that such instability would cause. Japan has just invaded Manchuria, and although this was a surprise to my classmates and I, our elder professors expressed that they had long feared this situation since the outcome of the Russo-Japanese War before our time. As appealing as communist ideals are, I cannot help but wonder if Chiang Kai-Shek’s Kuomintang Nationalist Party would provide the stability that China needs in the face of foreign encroachment. Not only are they more respected by foreign powers that could potentially aid us in fending off Japan, but the chaotic land redistribution that the Chinese Communist Party promotes could leave China in a more vulnerable position to being invaded.

 

Every day I am surprised by the variety and absurdity of political opinions in the city and my university. Just yesterday I overheard two of my seniors, who had studied abroad in Japan and France, speaking excitedly about anarchism. Some of its tenets sounded akin to communism, such as reaching more equitable relations between men and women, adults and children through destroying the old Confucian family system, but when I inquired further I learned that an anarchist state should have no government at all. They explained that with such reform, enforcement of values would no longer be necessary, but their ignorance shocked me.

 

It seems that many of these urban intellectuals are more ideological than practical, all talk and no action. They theorize on lofty concepts while the industrial workers are actually organizing and the peasants are struggling far from the eyes of academics. I find myself ashamed to be in this curious position; although my family has been part of the rural peasantry historically, my father’s new financial situation has allowed my brothers and I to enter into this world of the educated. I wonder if my classmates would be so keen on anarchism if the Japanese were at their front door, or if the land redistribution impacted their status and wealth. 

 

Revolution is also concerning in how it may impact women. While the Chinese Communist Party has promised equality between men and women in terms of marriage, economy and more, I worry about the safety of women during and after a revolution. Though I would not like to be forced into marriage as some of the poorer girls back home were, I would prefer it to the humiliation and danger of being a single woman unprotected by a man. Revolution also necessitates violence, and while it may be necessary to fully overthrow landlords and the like, violence always comes back to women, innocent or not. Furthermore, I wonder if patriarchal attitudes would persist even when all women enter the workforce and take on equal responsibility in labor. Would men help with housework and child rearing as well, or would women be expected to continue such tasks? In such a case, a woman would have more work to do under communism than she did in the old system.

Dear loyal readers,

While it is a beautiful day here in Beijing, the whispers, or rather screams of unrest, have been haunting my thoughts as of late. I left Xinxiang to pursue my studies and leave behind the decided fate that has been forever imposed upon my gender, and yet it seems all of China is suffering in one way or another. Everywhere I look, there are new issues, whether it is the persecution of communist party members, the child labor in the cities, or the stagnant move towards gender equality; China is suffering [Dietrich 22-23]. Things need to change. 

Writing this piece is already putting a target on my back, but I must do what I have to do as a journalist. Last week, I traveled to Shanghai, a staple of the Nationalist Party, to see what was going on. I owe a lot to the efforts of both the CCP and the Nationalist Party during their United Front, as their visit to my province in 1919 showed me I could forge a different path for myself as a young girl [China: A Century of Revolution – China In Revolution 7:00]. I am not the only one who has experienced the influence of these new parties. In Beijing, I met a former child laborer, Qiu Hui-Ying, who worked seventeen hours a day in silk factories since she was twelve [China: A Century of Revolution – China In Revolution 24:00]. Hui-Ying was exposed to Marxist teachings by a fellow worker at her factory job. Marxism is an enticing ideology for the working class in these trying times, but the consequences of following the ideals ever since the unfortunate massacre of 1927 are a huge risk [Dietrich 24]. I hear rumors in Shanghai of Nationalists hunting down innocent people in the street to rid China of the CCP [China: A Century of Revolution – China In Revolution 23:00]. The more I hear about Chiang Kai-Shek policies, the more resemblance I see to the traditional system I left behind in Xinxiang. 

Fortunately, Beijing is a bit more forgiving than the deeply entrenched Nationalist cities like Shanghai or Nanjing. Although I am partial to the efforts of achieving gender equality in China, I recognize the need for ground-breaking change. Some could argue the Nationalist Party is achieving that change; however, simply examining the warlords in the East or the patriarchal qualities of the Party would eradicate that idea [China: A Century of Revolution – China In Revolution]. Visiting Shanghai made me realize the Party is simply putting a Western spin on traditional Confucianist ideals, products, and infrastructure that have brought our country to its sad state [China: A Century of Revolution – China In Revolution]. 

Apologies for the forlorn tone of this report. It seems as if the life I am leading in our Chinese state is forever stained by the constant unrest of our nation. Being born mere months after the 1911 revolution, my early years spent groomed for marriage, the protests of 1919, and now the constant push and pull of the CCP and Nationalist Party, I fear the change that is to come [China: A Century of Revolution – China In Revolution]. It is becoming increasingly obvious people can not go on living in this unorganized and inequitable society. 

Hoping for the Best,

Cui Shuli

Hello readers, 

I have been tasked with explaining why so many Chinese people are siding with the newly formed CCP (Chinese Communist Party). I have looked deeply into the CCP’s ideologies and found many reasons why people find this new way of thinking attractive. The CCP not only promises to create a more assertive China economically and promises that people will be freed from the oppressive natures of the classical Chinese culture. The CCP appeals to people like young women and peasants to help gain popularity throughout China. 

Young women are becoming increasingly interested in what the CCP has to offer. Throughout China’s history, women were seen as inferior to men and are expected to do whatever the man in charge tells them to do. Women have basically no rights, which became evident to me when I saw my sisters get shipped off like cattle to their new husbands. I remember my sisters pleading with my father not to make them live with these people they barely knew. I also recall my sister, who is only a year older than me, be forced into participating in foot binding. My father would insist that if she did not bind her feet, no man would want her. My Father is not a cruel man, but he is a realist and knows that this is what it takes to be an appealing bride. All I could think about at the time is how grateful I felt that I was not a woman. This is not something unique to my family; women all around China spent their whole lives being commanded what to do by their fathers, husbands, and even brothers. Women grew frustrated and felt wronged by the system, and when Mao and other members of the CCP began talking about equal rights for women, they jumped at the opportunity to support them. I was able to interview a woman who is arranged to get married to an older man and get her thoughts on the topic. The woman says, “People told me if I joined the revolution, I would have my freedom. That I could choose who I wanted to marry. Well, if I didn’t join, I’d have to marry this man who was over 30. So I thought if revolution could save me from this, I would join” [China: A Century of Revolution, China in Revolution, 28:45]. I can sympathize with this woman. Here she is as a young woman with the potential to become anything in life but she is being forced to throw that potential away to marry a man she barely knows. Even as a man, I can fully understand the appeal of what the CCP claims they will do for women; it would be life-changing. The CCP believes we are wasting half of the population by not letting women work and rendering them almost immobile by binding their feet. The CCP wishes to treat women like people have treated men for all of China’s history. 

The CCP wasn’t only attractive to women; many peasant factory workers and farmers also find their message inspiring. Many of these people barely have enough money to survive and feel exploited for their labor. However, Mao and the CCP claim that these people are not destined to be poor, but because of foreign influences exploiting their labor, they can not survive off of their current paycheck. Mao believes that peasant farmers and factory workers are the backbone of China because they are the country’s primary form of production and labor. When peasants hear this type of talk from the CCP’s leader, they feel like someone finally had their best interests at heart. 

In conclusion, there is massive support for the CCP and what they stand for. People finally feel that a party is fighting for them and believe Mao is the answer to many of their problems.

Sincerely,

Miao Bing Rong

Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci once said: “To tell the truth is revolutionary”.

We, the Chinese people, are tired of being lied to. We should demand truth, and that the only way to achieve it is through a revolution. Before flirting with the idea of what type of revolution we need, the specific reasons for a revolution must be understood and agreed upon. Here I will propose 3 significant reasons that our people of China are crying for CHANGE.

1. The treatment of Women is abysmal. Women are our sisters, mothers, daughters, aunts, grandmothers, granddaughters etc, they will not tolerate being mens property no longer. The reading titled: Women, The Family and Peasant Revolution, author Johnson, points out that “footbinding was still practiced on many girls at the time, and nearly all other local women had bound feet.” This foot binding, forced women to be subservient to men, and literally made it impossible for them to run away, or establish any sense of freedom for themselves.  Johnson continued, saying: “Throughout their lives, women were supposed to be only slightly more than chattel, routinely bought and solid in marriage, concubinage or outright slavery.” Women do not deserve that oppression.

2. Economic Disparity. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. This concept was the exact truth, as it acted as the reason for the peasant rebellion. Philosopher Mao mentions: “The priveledges of the Fuedel Landlords who have enjoyed for thousands of years are being torn to be pieces.” The system deserves to be dismantled, as the poor are in a constant state of oppression.

3. Our lives are not the priority. The leadership of the Nationalist party is concerned with maintaining their outdated social and cultural values that are inherently oppressive to the commoner. Japan is on the verge of taking over our country and fighting back is their blueprint for success. Our blueprint shall be prioritizing our oppressed people!

We need to be prioritized, and change is mandatory to achieve any feat of success. If we keep going this way, failure is destined to drown out any little hope that we have left. Change is on the horizon, and we must make our economy more feasible for the poor and not only elevate the elite. Aside from demanding more economic fairness, we need fairness in our culture and values. Women and minorities shall be treated as equals, and no one is above one another like outlined in the outdated Confucisious system; (those between ruler and subject, father and son, elder brother and younger brother, husband and wife, and friend and friend.) In addition, our people are hopeless as up to 90% of our population is illiterate. We need change, and we need it now.

Op Ed by No Pah King

 

Dear my fellow readers,

I am sorry to have kept you waiting so long since my introduction blog. Over the past two weeks, I have been traveling and interviewing as many people as I can to get a better understanding of what people are looking for in China today. Through my research and keeping my ear to the ground I have come to the conclusion that the Chinese Communist Party is what is needed in order to bring China from this disheveled state that we are in now and into the future. After talking with many women in both the countryside and right here in Beijing, I can begin to understand why so many people believe the CCP is what China needs. 

Just the other day I was given the opportunity to speak with a Chinese Communist Party woman who was in jail for being a part of the revolution. She was telling me how a Nationalist official wanted to buy her a piece of property and take her to be his concubine. (A concubine, for those who don’t know, is a woman who sleeps with a man and lives with him but essentially has a lower status than that of his wife.) Despite her protesting, this CCP member was threatened and told that if she did not comply, the Nationalists would put a firecracker inside of her and light it. (A terrifying thought) Another girl who was being held hostage by the Nationalists was tortured just last week. She told me that the Nationalists took a hot wire and shoved it through her leg. She then proceeded to show me the wound and tell me that shoving the wire through her leg was just the beginning of her tortured experience. She was later hung up by her arms and tortured for another 7 hours and threatened with being raped by a platoon of soldiers. 

These brave women are being tortured, humiliated, and killed because they are fighting for the Chinese Communist Party. They told me that it was either joining the CCP and fighting for a better life or being forced into a marriage they didn’t want, with a man who she didn’t love, and for money that she would never see. The rights and way these women have been treated over the course of our great empire make it no surprise that they are calling for a revolution and risking their lives in the name of freedom. Mao offers a unique opportunity for these women to become land owners, gain equal pay for equal work, and flourish in a new communist China. So, my fellow readers, it is no surprise that the communist revolution is starting to look like the best thing for China.

 

Until next time…

-Zeng Yongzheng

Dear Readers,

It has been the better part of a decade since the Nationalist party under Chiang Kai-shek’s leadership has taken power in the country. It seems to me that despite the success that the Nationalists enjoyed in their Campaigns against the warlords at the beginning of their Northern Expedition, much remains unchanged in the general state of the nation. The lack of effective changes since that campaign makes me worry that, despite the fervor with which the Nationalists pursued it, the change was in some way a lie or mirage thrown up to disguise the true intentions of those currently in power. The Current regime was victorious against the Warlords that stood between Guangzhou and Beijing but, has since proven to be either ineffective in its attempts to dislodge the others or else is unwilling to move against them. Indeed, it would seem to a casual observer that the true spirit of the revolution, and of the Northern Expedition, was derived from the Communist portion of the United Front and since the massacre at Shanghai it has been absent from the primary wing of the Nationalist party. If anything could demonstrate this shift in spirit, I believe it to be the campaigns that the Chiang’s forces have fought unsuccessfully against the recently formed Jiangxi Commune, where the armies that had so easily driven north are now being torn apart. Following the last failed attempt to destroy the communists, I joined an old army friend of mine on a tour of the region in question and am now as I’m writing this in the area, having spoken with a number of the locals. I have omitted a great number of names so as to ensure the safety of those who have taken the risk to speak with me, but I shall convey their words as accurately and truthfully as I am able.

These wars are not being fought in the manner with which I am accustomed, granted my experience is limited. Where I had seen great defensive works and scarred battlefields, here the fighting seems to have passed almost unnoticed to those without the eyes to see its marks due to the tactics and stratagems employed by the defenders to draw the Nationalist troops into traps and destroy them. I have met few men in my time here that are not soldiers, and most of those that aren’t are far too young or else far too old to be of much use in battle. Indeed, there are few men to be met anywhere in the province so far as I can tell, they all are off fighting, and this has made a great impact on the people here. The women have taken up the lion’s share of the field labor in the province, they are in the camps, and I have even met a few young women that have been in combat. It seems that the Communist party has had to call on the women of its territories to carry on the struggle and it has rewarded them. If the women of other provinces knew of the things which are already law in Jiangxi, I believe there would be a flood of volunteers to the cause. Here, women have been granted a great deal of equality in return for their service, they have been granted property rights, equal pay for their labor, and have been granted the right to select their husbands. The sale and purchase of wives has been outlawed and a great deal of legal protections have been put in place to allow for divorce and ensure the protection of widows and their heirs. I believe this to be part of the reason that the spirit of the revolution has not died here the way it has in other parts of the country. Here, despite lacking the class and criteria of the Marx and Engels’ ideals, despite being effectively feudal, and despite the general lack of knowledge as to what communism and revolution is supposed to be (one woman I spoke to admitted as much to me and that she only joined to escape an undesirable marriage), the people have touched upon the very essence of the revolution. That is, they have seen an injustice in their society, and they have taken steps to reverse that injustice in such a way that the whole population might benefit.

My friends, I shall write more when I am able, but I have been informed another band of soldiers is coming through in a months’ time and I wish to send this letter off before then.

Dear Readers:

The China we are living in now is a product of the 1911 Revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty and released the country from thousands of years of stifling tradition and oppressive governmental rule. It is hard to go a day without someone of the older generation despairing over how they suffered just a few decades ago, especially those in the poor countryside. However, one can still detect a certain discontentment with China and its new government among the people. As someone born after the Revolution, I have to rely on stories from my family and others in my village to paint a picture of what China was like before the emperor was overthrown, but I think it’s obvious why we, as a people, were fed up with the old system. Now, under Chiang Kai-Shek’s Nationalist Party, some Chinese people have found peace with this new system and believe that the Nationalists are the answer to regaining China’s strength. On the other hand, there are many who still feel unfairly suppressed by the institutions in place and have begun looking toward another revolution, a revolution led by the Chinese Communist Party.

I’ve had the chance to speak to the industrial workers working in Beijing, catching them after their exhausting 17-hour shifts. I met a young girl named Qui Hui-ying whose hands were riddled with burns from her silk-spinning job (that could easily have been me if my parents hadn’t been as lucky as they were back in our small village) who told me about the Communists who secretly spread their ideas to her and her coworkers. She explained to me how she finally felt cared for by the Communist worker, who told her “people were not born to be poor” and that the real reason for their misfortune was “exploitation by others” like capitalists and their employers. After getting my hands on the Communist Manifesto from one of my classmates, I found that it specifically condemns child labor and declares that capitalism encourages the exploitation of children; I’m not an expert on the economy, but I can’t deny the number of injured, hungry children I see walking through Beijing after their grueling shifts and I’m not surprised that this sight would drive people into the Communist Party’s arms.

I also found an interesting section in the Manifesto about the exploitation of women. As someone who barely escaped the prospect of an arranged marriage and had to convince my parents to let me study instead, I am well aware of how traditional China suppressed women and how that tendency has a strong grip on our country even today. One of my progressive friends at school recommended a book to me, Family by Pa Chin, when I started studying here, because of its acknowledgment of how the traditional marriage system and the expectations set for women were particularly stifling. I couldn’t help but see connections between this book and the Manifesto, which claims that men exploit women like any other “instrument of production.” It basically calls women glorified prostitutes and I couldn’t help but think of my sisters-in-law back home, who had to leave their families and home to join mine, therefore making it possible for me to leave home and go to college in the first place. The copy of the Manifesto that my friend lent me has the sentence about the “community of women” underlined and when I asked her about it, she told me that it was proof enough that the Communists knew what they were talking about; it was her opinion that they were acutely aware of the oppression women face and had no plans to silence their “communities”, unlike the more conservative Chinese people.

I wrote to some people back home in my rural village to see if anyone had heard of the Party and its message. My neighbor told me that some people in our neighborhood were still so poor even under the Nationalists, all they had the energy to do was worry about food, and she had to convince her husband that they didn’t need to sell their daughter to survive the winter. My childhood friend Xie Pei-lan very passionately insulted the Nationalists who had not solved the problems of poor peasants like her and made the comment that she wished she could be in Beijing with me to also avoid marriage. She included a sentence about a Communist official preaching a woman’s right to choose who she married, but she crossed this line out, probably worried about how it would make her look if anyone found the letter before it got to me.

It seems that the CCP is particularly appealing to those who have experienced the exploitation the Party claims it wants to free China from. The Party condemns child labor as well as arranged marriages, issues that plague China even now, and one of its goals seems to be filling the stomachs of the poor peasants who starve while others stuff themselves. Readers, what do you think of the Communist Party? Could they be what leads China to its fullest potential? Thanks for reading! That’s all for now.

Dear readers,

Here in Shanghai, along with the rest of the country, people have began to realize how weak the society has become as other countries are gaining power and influence over the rest of the world. Though we are deeply emerged in our Chinese traditions, the country could improve through some sort of reform. Today, I am reporting on some of the significant reasons why the citizens of China believe that a revolution is needed to change the country for the better.

Over the past 20 years of my life, China has had a lost identity. Though groups of revolt had been forming, it wasn’t until the reform of 1911, where the ‘republic of china’ went against the Qing Dynasty to demand a change in society. These people stood against the Qing Dynasty to stand up to social injustice. There was a range of people who supported these views such as women and peasants. The Confucian views that the Qing dynasty reigned under supported the norms that had been practiced in China for many years. The family structured had long remained unchanged with the patriarchal system where it supported the elders in the family and really restricted the roles of women in family.

With the capitalism growing in China, the leaders were more worried about the higher classes who were supporting their economic system. This left out the peasant class who was supporting China’s growth through agricultural production and other basic needs. Most of the wage-laborers were working all day for a wage that wouldn’t cover their families basic needs as they were eating more than they made financially! The peasant class was sick of the way that the landlords and bosses treated them since the gap of living standards between them was so large. However, these peasants and workers didn’t really have a way to organize themselves to fight against the wealthier population so they continued to struggle without much change for generations. There had to be a way for the workers and peasants to have an alliance to fight against the inequality and capitalism they were presented with.

The societal norms had been another factor that was presenting China with some issues. People began to realize they were in unhappy marriages and had even ended up killing themselves over their arranged marriages. Women, even though they were still unequal to men, started being sent to cities from the country side to work in textiles and other professions. This extended liberation was a step for them as they were in a sense gaining more freedom but were still under control by the patriarchal system. The May 4th Movement had initiated this way of thinking but it wasn’t leaning to restore the confucian ways or to restore it in terms of women rights.

The people who had the least amount of power had no say in which the country was run and their struggles led them to search for a more equal society. The main goal of some of these people was to spread the notion of moralizing the holders of authority. People were unhappy with many of the ways China was run but the question remains: is a revolution necessary and how will these people be able to carry out necessary change in society?

 

 

Hello, intellectuals. Confucianism has failed China, we have failed to modernize and as a result, we are being pushed around by imperial powers. Confucianism abandons the peasant farmer and devalues women and the young. In theory farmers, the majority of this nation, should be second in the social hierarchy only to intellectuals. In reality, the peasant farmers who are the backbone of our nation are at the bottom living a miserable existence. They are exploited by all those above them and often live in poverty. The poorest 90% of peasants only own 18% of the land, while the richest 10% own half of it. Although Confucian ideology doesn’t consider women to be inferior, it places them in subordination to men for her entire life; her father before marriage, her husband when married, and her son after the death of her husband. This restricts women’s ability to own property, hold office, and have autonomy, often leading to their commodification in times of hardship. In both major and minor marriages women face unique challenges beyond the no autonomy men and women have in marriage. In a major marriage, since the woman goes to the husband’s household after marriage, she has to leave her old household and adjust to her new one. Often these women never get the chance to return to her old household. In minor marriages, since the wife is adopted into her husband’s house and raised there from a young age she is easily manipulated by the husband’s mother so she can remain in power. The concept of Filial piety is based on the strict principles of hierarchy and obligation where obedience to your parents and elders is more important than yourself. Rather than genuine care, youth feel an obligation to respect their elders, leading to strained relationships due to its often weaponization against them. Government officials are chosen through exams on Confucian classics, so in theory, anyone can become an official. In reality only those rich enough can afford private tutors and the cost of studying rather than helping support one’s family economically can memorize the classics for the competitive exams. In addition, ordinary people have little to no access to the government. This has led to the exploitation of the people and ineffective policy.      

Many Chinese citizens are influenced by the Chinese Communist Party’s vision of a classless, egalitarian society, its criticisms of traditional Chinese culture, and its focus on empowering women, peasants, and the young. The revolutionaries agree with the criticisms above and believe communism can fix them all. And They disagree with the elevated status of intellectuals. The “Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels offers an appealing vision of a society to those at the bottom, a society devoid of class conflict and exploitation from those above. The Chinese people, who have long been oppressed by landowners and affluent elites, find a lot of resonance with this viewpoint. The Manifesto argues the case that capitalism is inevitably unsustainable and will be replaced by socialism and communism, enabling a possibility for a society that is more just and egalitarian. All people who suffer under the current government hope for a more equitable future and the Chinese Communist Party might be that future.

I woke up this morning to a frosty breeze making its way through the cracks in my dormitory window. I live on the first floor so by the time I open my eyes at around 7:30 the bustle of the street below me rings throughout my room. The street cars make their way through the crowds. A young boy plays with a paper plane as his mother purchases their daily staples. Men pull rickshaws carrying those with the means to afford such a luxury during these times. A few people are chatting, and some chuckle here and there. Most have a determined look on their faces as they run their daily errands here in the city. 

 

I don’t have any classes today so I figure that this will be a great day to grab my notebook and head down to the street. I decided to go out and look for people who might be willing to share a few words regarding the current situation in China. I happened to meet a woman by the name of Qui Hui-ying, she was visiting family here in Beijing but had spent time as a silk factory worker in recent years. We spoke on the steps of the National Library. Qui Hui-ying told me, “I came to Shanghai when I was 12, we were so miserable. You had to work 17 hours a day. Later, a progressive worker in the factory told us that people were not born to be poor. One was poor because of the exploitation by others. There is exploitation by the capitalist on one hand and exploitation by the labor contractor on the other. You do the work and he takes the money. I had no idea what revolution meant, all I thought was that the worker made sense and that he cared about us, poor people.” (China: A Century of Revolution – China in Revolution 24:32) I quickly started to draw some connections between my readings of Mao Zedong’s quotes on the Communist Manifesto. It made sense to me that Qui Hui-ying would have overheard these ideas from a progressive coworker. It would be nearly impossible for her to have learned these elsewhere. It also reinforced my understanding of the fact that power lay in the hands of the masses, according to Mao. (Marley and Neher 15)  Qui Hui-ying’s understanding of power to the workers came through word of mouth, not through education which she certainly did not have access to. I couldn’t help but think that Mao was very clever in understanding this. All it would take is one factory worker with the knowledge and strength to speak out for word to spread quickly that exploitation and abuse of the working class were not how things were elsewhere, especially around the world.  

 

Though most of my interactions with people here in Beijing were often more biased towards the urban dweller, like my conversation with Qui Hui-ying, I had learned from speaking with some of my classmates that there were rumblings of the core of the revolution lying in the Jiangxi province countryside. (China: A Century of Revolution – China In Revolution 26:00) I knew little about these rumors but I was certainly curious to find those who had witnessed some of what was happening in Jiangxi. I met a woman who had traveled from Jiangxi to Beijing to visit family for a month. The woman went by the name of Xie Pei-lan and donned a knit hat and navy jacket. She told me that she had recently joined the communist party in the countryside along with other peasants. I asked her why she had decided to join. She said, “people told me that if I joined the revolution, I would have my freedom.” Xie Pei-lan added, “If I didn’t join, I would have to marry this man who was over 30. So I thought if revolution could save me from this, I would join.” (China: A Century of Revolution – China In Revolution 28:48) I could understand her sentiment on the situation. Back where I come from in the country, it was standard for women to be sold off at a very young age as wives. Xie Pei-lan’s sentiment was similarly echoed by some of the other people to whom I spoke. 

 

I thanked Xie Pei-lan for her time and made my way back to my dormitory. Though I am only sharing a few of the stories I heard today, I felt that these were the most valuable ones to share with you, the reader. I am excited and scared for our future at the moment but I feel lucky to get to share my findings with all of you. 

Until next time,

 

Gao An Zhi