Understanding Chinese Society: Changes And Transformations

Changes and Transformations

Eileen Yuk-ha Tsang

• Publisher: WSPC
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9789814644877
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Science General
• Index: Biological Sciences

Before 1978, China was backward economically, politically, diplomatically and was extremely isolated. The country had a few diplomatic allies like North Korea, Russia and Vietnam. However, in the past three decades, the country has witnessed robust changes that have aroused the interest of the westerners in knowing more about the country.

This book provides first-hand information on China's social changes and economic transformation. It enables readers to understand the Chinese Society vividly, dynamically, and practically. It examines various facets of the Chinese society ranging from famous landmarks, popular customs, festivals, food, daily chores, etc. The book also offers tips for those who are willing to live, work and run a business in China.

Before 1978, China was backward economically, politically, diplomatically and was extremely isolated. The country had a few diplomatic allies like North Korea, Russia and Vietnam. However, in the past three decades, the country has witnessed robust changes that have aroused the interest of the westerners in knowing more about the country.

This book provides first-hand information on China's social changes and economic transformation. It enables readers to understand the Chinese Society vividly, dynamically, and practically. It examines various facets of the Chinese society ranging from famous landmarks, popular customs, festivals, food, daily chores, etc. The book also offers tips for those who are willing to live, work and run a business in China.

Readership: Students, academics, politicians, businessmen and practitioners interested in China's social changes and economic transformations.
Key Features:

• First-hand materials on the dramatic social, cultural and economic changes in post-reform China
• Accessible to a broad readership including students, academics, politicians, businessmen and general readers

Part I

Basic Institutions of the Chinese Societies

Chapter 1

The Chinese Society in Pre-Reform China

The Chinese society that I knew growing up is completely different than the China today (see Figure 1). During my generation in the 1980s, China was removed from the world stage and the West. Consequently, little was known about the country. Sometimes, the mass media of the US created creative, but inaccurate images of China. It is easy to recall a comic book character, “The Yellow Claw” who represented an image that a number of foreigners, especially Americans, may have believed (Littlefield, 1964).

This character, The Yellow Claw was a true criminal. His skin was bright yellow in color. He even had an evil appearance and long fingernails. He was constantly thinking up horrible plans. If we try to do a Google image search sometime on “The Yellow Claw” we can see how unrealistic this description really was. But in the context of the times, it was not so surprising. During this time many Westerners did not trust the Chinese. They feared China’s power. Perhaps that is what Mao Zedong and his followers wanted to achieve in the beginnings of pre-reform China. Although the authors were not alive when these changes were implemented, it is valuable to understand the stages of this great leader’s role in the transformation of the country.

Figure 1: Map of China is definitely an important tool for us to know more about China’s physical landscape and China Studies.

Under Mao Zedong’s leadership in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) immediately began a program of revolutionary change. With the changes also came terminology that would become apart of the Chinese system. One of the first mandates was a new marriage law (based on the Soviet model of the 1920s) that set a new course for women and children. From the 1950s to the late 1970s, the central government imposed authoritarian rule and all policies were based on an economy controlled by strict planning guidelines.

In 1958–1961, the regime carried out the Great Leap Forward (

Dayuejin), a radical economic and social campaign aimed at fast-forwarding the country to a prosperous communist society (see Photo 1). It aimed to use China’s enormous population to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a modern Communist society through the process of rapid industrialization and collectivization. The main changes in the lives of rural Chinese included the introduction of a mandatory process of agricultural collectivization.

Photo 1: In pre-reform China, Buffalo had good utility value to many Chinese since agricultural activities were predominant in society.

It abolished private ownership of property and established a new social formation called “the rural people’s commune” (

renmin gongshe) (see Photos 2, 3, and 4). The Class became heavily conditional on political party affiliation. Property in private hands was confiscated and evenly distributed among every Chinese person.

Private farming was strictly prohibited. Those who engaged in it were labeled as counter-revolutionaries and persecuted. Restrictions on rural people were enforced through public struggle sessions and social pressure. Some also experienced forced labor. The Great Leap resulted in millions of deaths. Experts estimate that the death toll ranged from 18 to 32 million people (Cormac, 2011).

Photo 2: In pre-reform China, paddy fields were the major agricultural activities.

Photo 3: Farming was the only and dominant activity in pre-reform China.

Photo 4: In pre-reform China, paddy fields were the major agricultural activities.

In order to maintain strong control over so many people, the CCP, under Mao’s direction created social strata that promoted development. The two most prominent social institutions of Maoist China were the hukou (

“household registration”) and danwei (

“work unit”) systems. To this day, both of these systems continue in modified form in China. The hukou system classified the entire population into two categories: agricultural registrants in rural areas and non-agricultural (urban) registrants in metropolitan areas. It was introduced in the 1950s and it quickly became entrenched to the rest of Chinese society by the early 1960s (Tsang, 2014). The hukou was a nationwide system of household registration set up under the 1958 Regulations on Hukou Registration and issued by the National People’s Congress (NPC). It was an effort to safeguard progress towards collectivization in rural areas and to control food shortages in urban China.

The central aim of hukou was to regulate internal movement of the Chinese. To accomplish that, it created a legal domicile for every person and bound each person permanently to that dwelling. In other words, the Chinese could not legally move freely around the country. In addition, hukou also regulated family daily life. Each family needed to register with the government to maintain family registrations. Because hukou was issued for households; it usually included details of births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and movement of all members in the family. Furthermore, the hukou also identified a person or household by administrative categories (rural versus urban). It was a system that curtailed geographical mobility of people and also set the tone for an identity of one’s native place in China.

The second system that Mao established was danwei (Tsang, 2014). The danwei system referred to the place of employment, especially in the context of state enterprises during the pre-reform period. The danwei was the first step and principal channel for implementing party policy in the Chinese socialist infrastructure. The work unit once held considerable sways on the life of an individual. Workers were bound to their work divisions for life. In some respects, these work units were self-sufficient. Goods and services were provided for including areas of social welfare. These services were provided at the expense of individuals fully complying with government policy. At one time, conditions got so severe that individuals had to obtain permission from their work units for activities such as travel, marriage, childbearing, and even where to have meals. Even areas of job placement for university students were tightly controlled.

With this being said, someone might ask how such a system could be so smoothly enforced. This task was delegated from Mao to cadres. These individuals consisted of government officials with a reasonable amount of power, especially in regulating aspects of everyday life. Political capital or power was central to allowing this group to gain high regard within society.

Still, these seemingly perfect Communistic systems did not always bring the results Mao apparently envisioned. In fact, the years of the Great Leap Forward saw economic regression. One scholar notes that from 1958–1961 there were significantly low financial gains. Excess government spending tended to be the major cause for this issue. Ultimately, The Great Leap was a very expensive disaster for the entire country (Perkins, 1994). This sense of failure and Mao’s loss of control within the party brought government leaders to propose even more radical changes to remedy the situation.

Sadly, what resulted was even more devastating. From 1966 to 1976, Mao carried out the Cultural Revolution, a profound campaign to supposedly reroute Chinese society on the fast track to a more socialistic utopia. These changes were designed with the idea that a stronger nation could be build up by removing capitalist, traditional, and cultural elements from society. Of course these changes were replaced by Maoist philosophy. More specifically, the Cultural Revolution was a new effort to correct the mistakes of the Great Leap Forward and to eliminate groups that opposed him. Such groups were consistently characterized as counter-revolutionaries (Chen, 1969).

Many intellectuals, “political subversives” and “educated” youth were sent to remote areas of the country “to learn from the peasants”.

Slowly The Cultural Revolution started gaining popularity with just a couple of “big-character posters” on university display boards. This tactic was quickly adopted in other parts of the country. There were many writers and other scholars that were labeled as counterrevolutionaries and brutally attacked. Government sponsored rallies further provoked the minds and hearts of the politically savvy across the country. Broadly speaking, until this point in its history, Maoist China had been a strongly egalitarian, relatively classless yet, impoverished society. With the onset of the revolution the concept of a middle class was abolished. The Communist Party brought an end to private ownership (capital assets) of property and stripped regional landlords of any power (see Photo 5). Now, political attachment to the party (i.e. political capital) was paramount. This campaign cemented Mao’s position of absolute authority. Unfortunately, as part of this “revolution” significant historical relics and artifacts were destroyed. Even cultural sites and religious edifices were ransacked. This era of radicalism would not last for long.

Photo 5: In post-reform China, it is not hard to find traditional Chinese architectures in downtown Guangdong.

Mao’s death in 1976 spring boarded a chain of politico-economic events that softened the extremism that was so popular in the country. It would eventually lead to the opening up of the country to new ideas and systems and pave the way for an economic relationship with the US.

References

Chen, S.Y. (1969). China: Cultural Revolution or Counter-Revolutionary Coup? Moscow: Novosti Press Agency Publishing House.

Cormac, Ó.G. (2011). Great Leap into Famine. UCD Centre for Economic Research Working Paper Series. Retrieved on 25 August 2014 from http://www.ucd.ie/t4cms/wp11_03.pdf.

Littlefield, H.M. (1964). The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism. American Quarterly, 16(1): 47–58.

Perkins, D. (1994). Completing China’s Move to the Market. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 8(2): 23–46.

Tsang, E.Y.H. (2014). The New Middle Class in China, Consumption, Politics and the Market Economy. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Chapter 2

The Institutional Changes in Post-Reform China

The Maoist social class structure quickly dissolved since Deng Xiaoping became the chairman in 1980s. He rapidly developed economic growth in China and changed some Maoist social class structures drastically. For examples, Deng tried to develop the Four Modernizations and launched different social and economic reforms since 1980s. From 1978–1992, Deng helped transform China into what became known as a “socialist market economy”. Foreign investment, the global market, and limited private competition were acceptable and raised the living standards of millions. For his contributions to humanity, Time magazine named him Man of the Year in January 1986 (Time Magazine, 2002). This international magazine’s award has since been changed to Person of the Year. Its aim is to feature a person, group, idea or objects that “for better or for worse, has done the most to influence the e...

Table of contents

• Cover page
• Copyright page
• Title page
• Dedication
• Contents
• About the Author
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Part I: Basic Institutions of the Chinese Societies
• Part II: Socio-Economic Changes in the Chinese Societies
• Part III: Socio-Cultural Changes in the Chinese Societies
• Conclusion — Rethinking Global Governance: Chinese Model in the Making in the 21st Century?
• Index