Battle for China's Past : Mao and the Cultural Revolution

THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST
Anhui; Yu Jianrong (2003) on Hunan; and Gao (2005) on Jiangxi and
Shanxi. The study focuses on these provinces not only because this
area is the rural heartland that contains a large portion of China’s
population, but also because, from the perspective of income and
development, it can be considered ‘middle ground’ between the more
developed southeast coast and the less developed northwest.
It is argued that even though many are better off in material terms
such as food and clothing in the post-Mao era, social problems abound
and the social fabric has been eroded by corruption, oppressive taxes
and levies, crime and the unaffordable cost of education and healthcare.
For millions of Chinese from this rural heartland poverty is still a
problem, and the freedom of choice to work as a migrant is not necessarily
an improvement in terms of quality of life and long-term
well-being. During the Mao era life was basic and austere, material
goods were scarce, and there was hunger, but this was compensated
for by a considerable measure of social equality, personal safety, and a
better education and healthcare system. The chapter discusses the form
and content of resistance from rural China, and the way Maoist radicalism
has been an inspiration for rural resistance, thus providing a
critical account of reaction to change in rural China since the reforms.
This chapter advances the idea that the urban–rural divide and related
discriminatory policies against Chinese farmers are based on a developmental
discourse which induces a kind of development that is
detrimental to the environment and cannot be sustained.
Chapter 10 presents an overall evaluation of the post-Mao reforms in
relation to the legacy of the Mao era. This evaluation addresses the issue
of how different parts of Chinese society experience life differently today.
Its findings present a cautionary picture of mixed results, less rosy than
that portrayed in the media. It also enters the discourse which asks
whether China is a capitalist country or a socialist country with Chinese
characteristics. In discussing these issues it first questions the premise of
such a dichotomy, and second, it asks whether and in what way these
issues matter to the life of the ordinary Chinese. In this chapter, the ways
transnational companies exploit Chinese cheap labour and the effects
this exploitation has on the global economy and life of the ordinary
Chinese are discussed. In this connection the concept of comprador is
employed to explain the rise of the few rich who act as middlemen in this
chain of capitalist globalization. The chapter furthers questions the
sustainability of the current economic development model.
In the conclusion, legacies of the Mao era are further discussed and
analysed, however briefly, so as to highlight the conceptual framework
that binds various chapters of the book together: the way the past (the
era of Mao) is understood depends on one’s values and beliefs in the
present.
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