Nanking youth, members of the People’s MilitiaGh a eM SM yA cleo (elu lereeN The electritying, up-to-the-minute report on tife in Ghina today, CHINA! INSIDE THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC ___ bythe Committee of Concerned Asian ScholarsLaura J. Page, 1868 Wolff Road N. W Atlanta, Georgia 30309 CHOU EN-LAI SPEAKS! So you can see it will take time to transform so- jety. In recent years, Chairman Mao himself has d attention to the fact th the United States is now on the eve of a 2 question of how this storm will b task, not ours. We ing of our hopes. And storm. But developed exactly is y: bout someti this can promote the solution of the norn ations between the two only tell you 2 and improvement of the re countries, But what are the obstructions fo the im- provement of the relations between China United States? What would you say? to the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars a aM ALA earls [Neate eleLaLa eles (ela /alare a) ie © of Concerned Asian INSIDE THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC DOCHINA STORY CHINA INSIDE THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC ~~ bythe Commitee of Concerned Asian ScholarsMSM AAO Cela [elas elie s of China and Amereal eles la eLareP elieContributors Kenneth Ley Paul Levine Daniel Lindh Jonathan Lipman onathan Livingston Earl Martin Morrissey Felicia Oldfathe Paul Pickowiez Sue Ann F *Susan Shirk Stephen Thomas Christena Turne Jonathan Unger Carter Weiss ‘Raymond Whitehead “Rhea ¥ “Judith Woodard *Kim Woodard Republic of Ching ea ag ais VL avea (eles [elnralatepla) iteboy Contents al Revolution view with Premier Chou En-lai by the Committee of Concerned Scholars Friendship tion to. China nts of Indochin Demogratic People’s Repub- lie of Korea Bibliography Glossary ndex www. wengewang. OrgINTRODUCTION We are Americans, We too have been shut off from China for most of Our lives... until this summer, 1971, when we walked across a bridge from Hong Kong over the Shumehun river, and entered the People's Republic of China. Dr four weeks we traveled through the People’s Re- public, visiting industrial cities and rural communes, Schools, factories, hospitals, and homes. We were free to wander the streets and wo talked with Chinese from all walks of life: workers, students, farmers, children, fac jory managers, officials, and army men and women. Al- ;ough translators from the China Administration for 1 and Tourism were provided, many of us speak it Chinese—tome in two dialects—and nearly all of peak passably, so we were encouraged to wander off almost all young, in our twentics, and all of We had applied for our visas ¢ of Concerned Asian Schol- and called ourselves the “CCAS Friendship epresented a new generation of China Thirty-one days later we walked back across the bri had we seen? Even now, ¢ not quite su not all of Like most certain communes, and thore Was a great deal we did not see, But we Speak Chinese, we read Chinese, and have studied Ch je we think that our observations, honestly presented and with all our questions and ntact, will begin to break through the wall of ig www. wengewarng: OrgAmericans fron Ch not see you vill hina. In with three of C States, r than half times the population, any erous, Instead, we have tried to ground necessary for the reader © just th io underst minim Drugs 198, the sev public faced the drug problem 2 that problen n totally liming Would they too have slums, ghet China, surely it would the student: er F we fe tudents too regimented to express the the most serious problem Mts: = dise: now of i ple's R world; today, How?’ Cities > O: worst has United cially an epidemic. A brought this diseaso—which in 1949 affected te of millions of her people—under control, And a aa of m le—under control In the course of ce se of a month, we discovered th: all our study of China—we stil had, deeply in many of the American stereotypes. W 1 expected rigid conformity, a grainedy had not really edie aa perhaps, ae @ most menial ast between physi a Very poor a ple of China, overwhelm athusiasm, nent of h which d str, ountry, g impression of China is the humor, and th Cn Studying Asia, we came 10 resin Bic hes een’ erossy misiformed by the anti-Communist wi; os tality, remendous coms that the American y the d had not endured Sp SB 2S SI aA cielo (lier Ae) te 3 sto remain. silent; he Vietnamese heard. In 1968, CCAS ram, opposed fo Japa- f the normalization of re , similar organizations were ademic pressu and in support fations with China. Soon afte ned in Brital have. We have written fou ‘a handbook on the history Widening War sion of Cambodia; War and Revolution, to reveal that almost ‘war, now in its ninth year; and most recenth America’s As investigation of American images, al policies about Asia. We have chapters or ost everywhere that students study Asia, and ticles, publish a quarterly Bal- mes) monthly newsletter, If all of this n invasion of young Asia experts, remember. Tike the Asian studies field itself, fairly as we told Premier Chow En-lai ner, very determined ountered in this undertaki has been the mythol: whic during the McCarthy Compounded by twenty-two years of ignor: inforced by sensationalist "China watchers” in Hoi nacious. Disputing th jellyfish: replaced by anot ‘Cambo he Indochina response to the in one part of our unknown small. But we ate in our meeting this su The greatest problem en to change the mind of Am period. = ity was sometimes like myth that was over tw nd ‘ome was simp! e worst of working from books alon Book learning Now, finally, we 4 we find? Where hadMahe 2 ia SI da Teele (elt —lare pele China! Inside the People's Republic Introduction. t we saw together. We must have sei nate. stud CLA and t t member of Rhea and R lived in Hong Ko ON when we were offored the opportunity at for the last t , and their Cantonese is eavellen on Deaf-Mute School. There we ‘Cantonese is inese spoken in Hong Kong] pressed 2 small needle firmly into his hand: ne Tape in the southernmost coastal province of China, : smav ater, pechaps because of this demonstra- the first city we visited, Canton. Ray is the He : fy, underwent a treatment of acupun representative of the World Council of C jon, Rhea actualy nein this eng, faintness brought on tho ten children of a truck driver, he p th of summertime Yenan, We een walke Buffalo, New York, and graduated trom Union the her he eave houses used by Mao and the revola- ical Seminary; he is now finishing a thesis on aaa during the war against Japan when ophy of the Cultural Revolution, Ray and Rh tion fenly sat down, then fainted completely. By ihe in their mid-thirties, have three children. Rhea, v time a dosto @ sho was awake again : mentary ‘school, paid close attention to Heated iged acupuncture, With some hes schools we saw, Kay Ann Johnson grew up in the Midwest aint; Pea agreed, and the doctor bent. over her to sip Outside Chicago, and is now working foward a doctoratal a Gay siver needle into che skin above her lips, Wet policy at the University of Wis4 he qriakled, but she says she felt ina Travel Service asked us to apf almost nothing. In any event, she was soon UP agaity ® em, we decided to choose a woman, Kay. ‘The Ken Tevin also took a great interest in medicine in ngest member of our group was Paul Levine, a twenty. China—his father is a doctor in a small town in O}iG four-year-old grad, cca Ken's work at the University of Wisconsin, howeve, the Cultural Revolution 2 in Chinese literature, In addition to Rh onan aed questions abot police lesdership wo olber sch aon Kraze ew _ Dorothy Kehl was one of the few women 1 cess 2 ime he pickup basketball game we pl finished a year of teaching gyuekers in ¥ raked in Hor SE cs cong. Jean Garavente taught Spanish and Where girls play baskerball just as much as they do in Tnglish-as-a-sevond-Ianguage in the United States, at Prt China, Dorothy is Chinese—she was born in Hor “nln S-hool in Los Angeles. Since Belmont serves the but fled with her grandmot none ee feats in tho: Eng He was also interested in her a a ea, many of her ‘when the Japanese invaded Hong Kong on Christ ‘ age clase were Chinese-? Sip hed not been. back fo China sigg Tus her desire to see a revolutionary 5 in 1945. Educated in the OS. as eee her a strong interest in China. Sho also. sh é ig Demet 8 aching 0 eave, Bef oon for the condition of women in China will CHak Wer nawad Seas be cee Jely Woodard, who had already spent time in T most five years in Hong Kong, and his Canton and Hong Kon ly pdarin Was quite BOC Dod a6 Ray Whitehead (bth he and Ray pes She made friends. easly, with anthropology at Columbia, doing a thesis on the Woodard, a political science student at Stanford, i: er settlements of Hong Ko ony Garay two decades of China’ Our hosts te, a his dissertation onMiah eat 2 Us NSIT YA efele (el =lare pele 6 cn al Inside the People's Repu Intr 5 at six foot thi nd bearded, he stood ee ¢ assumption—that we would ne Paul Pickowiez was the pri might spend our lives studying—scemed to thls Ap EE SHS mons bo is working ona CSU Se cy ead Ray, Su, Of the 1930s. When we ye ny on a literary critic took the application down to the Kowloon office of O visit Tre, Peking, he took some the China Travel Service which represents the People’s of us with him to visit the hon rom that period, Lu Hsun, who rary critic Paul was writi ous yrriter ood friend Republic in visa and travel matters. The clerk, a nan with a serious face, looked at it with interest ay. We watched it disappear into her files. 1: home and waited was close to the end of many of us our stay in Hon yun out, our leases were up, and the Ga ter tickets back to the we hung on, those with- noving in with nd nse everything else had been me. How long could we sta Tt was easy to believe that our own hopes liad fom the police. Uldis Kruze was inter Revolution and alsc in the ¢ He and Ann, y he Specs color Hin wie Vo they had had no i mic year, and for was finished. Our in Chinese they were in China, Al : ©xpericnce before, parts of it : od and this “home movie ited into an hour-f nad even bough States for Jun "has now been edited ow een edited di m which is being used on th irk, from Lor a of the few members of ot in a country wh far g Island, New York, w mbers of p who smok tlm everyone smokes, ste to talk with some Chinese fiends, eens isier time th; rial Day, word came through friends in Hong h tea and fable was fon ate: Stan's wo Kong that something was happenin not definite yet, tion, and she is writing nough so that Jean and Tony rushed out : charter tickets back, only to find that the schools, had never existed, In the midst of our own nt, Hong Kong pap his news, for by the failure of the charter, Jean. shrugged wryly and beg ask finding a baby-sitter for the potential « ur sure how long it might be The next W People’s Repul io discuss the Hong un tO prepare our fore the Am P the Great Wall and apol Sooditn aa Wete for visas began to ied States OF years, we had stu ied China, wate ictures, interviewed triotic” (pro- called ostensibly with binocu he border Kong press, we W | PAnd we had exid pogf0 Peet 's Republi wr visas at China ‘Travel Service in t¥0 speculat > ss 1 invitation China Administra would “op ving ind Tourim, We would be the guests inning June 23, “to tour v onth.” We had exa ou sixteen day 8 10 largely a matter of equippinGl a ie SULA elele (elu re pele 8 Chinat In ie People’s Republic Introd uisite number of cameras, tape re border formalities. Our impatience mounted corders, and notebooks, For in some ways the most recent {0° te er Tt te treme s Jowed to Years of our lives had all been a preparation for this day.if suddenly we were there. The train Soir, 10 We had been trained to study China's history, anthrocl mped down the steps, and turned to pology, political s literature, and economics a dge, But we en py minates, and we wondered fom of the best unveriies in aren 3 Out great Tore was a delay of twenty minutes, and we woncers est task would be to murselves, to try to abandon : with a smile for all the preconceptions we had of China; to enter Chinw a observant but open, 2 ment, Now, first foot on the bridge, wale oct The weeks before we left were also spent trying to wy, halfway. there—we were is OX never would ensure that Frank and Dorothy Kehl would be 4ble to n Brass Dans to ey thinking “Tim in Chin ome with us. Their applications had gone in separately, the thrill of simp! 8 now livin But we had worked on CCAS projects and on the drafting ns and wanted very much for them to be i : nese border statio of eve ration Army (PLA) greeted us rk of the applic 1 the of- art of our delegation. By the night before our departure ors, He opened the first one and noticed te there was still no final wor injunction “not valid for nly looked up a ‘on, hopin; could join us en'ro a him anxiously, but he simply lookte nt, not Monday moming, we welcome the Ameri ae recorders, : shes ne 9 d bags full of film, we “Tourists in Ch srest us. They intro- ibe ur exciteme wer- ai a wornan came forward to grect us pup), Lao | flowed, and we 1 peal. New shorts for See hensive: a0 X ihe nde of he Sou fortable traveling in the hot weather ahez Lao Li, and Xiao Li, they w equipment, made us ompanyi < er, we boarded the rae was modern camp- eters and guides, Then, sobered by a sudden deluge of reporters, felt the train begin to move. Slowly it pul short lunch we short Iu lled out of Tsim c nton. The ars were not Sha Tsui Station, tunneled through the hills above Kow- nd gleame yar were wide opem to. 1c Joon and headed for the British New Territories that lie conditioned, and the windo We passed through nn the city of Hor a R wind in through a fine sere le in a hundred shades of Sunday sight: Sey panied to. the ric to visit friends doing research in the vill: xddies shimme int pale full young plants. Occasionally we would sic a ee Tae ll Se aire late we pass ows and waited impatiently for it took us to reach the fi een, and the day wa, Camera straps pulled an alled into the main hrough the outskirts of C der tting hotter with eacl we practiced open platform as. we arrived). They tool toward the edge o tall brick. buildin The manager of the tures of Mai \d quotation: an Since no itinerar spent the rest of he staf of CATT what s long, filled. The places we v ).Tt amen he southwest, province in tumultuous polities) requests ¥ of the count nd one id demand trans Our greatest surp other request—to meet with mos later, in Pekis with Premier Chou En-lai and now we asked under wh: a China, There were were asked only to refra town airports, but sin id We were fr exposed film with if the Kehls hey would small Administration fot , a large plush room de from his. we ven he afternoon discuss re wanted in Chin almost all nationalities live 4 nO customs inset corders could Ke al would Dor difficult to remember the m was Sichuan tonom ind thes; one of China’s 1 us almos few minutes to Tou nd we rode back Canton, loor and orate we soon requests tiner conditions Lape 2S MIR a Va A clele (elu =iare Aelia ‘tumed out to be only e (especially in n into at some of apters, the read in each visit to a or other unit, there was n hat for a few minutes, and nto a room for a short briefing. Inevitabl ‘lasses of hot tea, cool, damp small towels While this w ng on, we often stopped ts cs of chi v ver saw anything to indicate that ou iefings ad i a very good repr ntation of the situatio 3b tours, would come back to x and talk to meet with someone of national policy relat- The only hesitatiPap BR A MB aA eal (eldElare elie Hote about the pronunciation of Ct nce the t st intrusion into China, Eu: inese sounds. By now the W s m, has come to be. used scholars, but iff tions of the trugl nores. th nd use a e Americans late China, they ou; tion system used by the Chine antime We'll have to themse “walk Rew systems. The re familiar with, like new for names of ind new things like dazibao Cb The system both old an Americans for names ekiny “ is very simple, All vo Rounced “pure,” as they are in Latin F need to rhyme with : words are also, eas ~ approx n “shi Hinerary 23, 197 by KowloonCanton fhumelun in the People’s Republic o ee ee ee oe sh sh ived in Canton, fang (East) Ho Le so eee ot esnpeat hannSaf eS aS Ld eel [elt/=)are pele ne serene Ree ction 5 Canton Municipal Revolutionar csiners) eat CATT, and CPAFFC (China A ] jon machinery and browsed ia for Travel : ections for pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, nese People's Asso onstruction machines, metallurgy, toys, and Foreig i: ae J Tourism; Chi lation for Friendship Countries), sical instruments, to name a few. Kay John- 5 son took the new “Shanghai” model automobile Thursday, June 24, Canton ora test drive, mine, Pevahe go the Huadong People's Come n tended forum on. the 2: pages Cultural Revolution i ner_ discussions with banguet in our honor given t the origin and dey i the Shanghai Municipal Revo Committee and CATT. ed by Monday, J Split into two groups, One visited th Machine Tool Faciory which employs ove ousand workers, Joined the workers for a their dining hall ‘oup visit : Vorkers’ New V special attention the midtown area ¢ to the children’s nd kindergarten whieh. allows both nd wife to work ses at Canton Gity Deaf-Mute ture is used to tre childrer Ka three-and-a-half-hour flight to Shang all time, Had discussion with members of the ace) Hotel. Late iborhood committee ack streets of th he 1 met with several women cadres and neluding Yang Fujen, a woman mem ber of the Central Committee of the Com: party of China who is also a textile w Spe Discussed the women’s Conti in the U.S.A. and the pos ridge) People’s € Se P mimi Afternoon: Shared lunch made from eran men in Chin Mune with peasants. Spent tine The men met roup of young people to locumentaries. One on Premicr Ci a visit to Hanoi; anot ou En-la day, June 29, Sooche het on the bat 20. 9 in Indochina in early Arrived at Sooshoy fter short train ride hied, Learn from ‘Tacha, on Ck rom. Shanghai. Visited tho first branch of agricultural production fe Soochow: Enibr Factory. Afterward : led through the mon Man’s G B, built during the Ming dynasty. Visited the East Wind People’s Hospital, Dis- cussed the role of traditional ChintGah ee 2 aM SM Lda elel* (el e=)are peli 6 Chinat Insie io les Militia ti Introduct ¢ Nanking Peop! in modern society with members of the medical vers of a unit of Wind Park staff. Walked through i! L alked around the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum. On retum to hotel stopped for a swim with schoolchild ees Chinese friends at the Wutaishan muni swimming poo July 4, Nank forning: Met with sta 16 Nanking Astronomical Afternoon ‘Observatory Garden whi ftemoon: Continued our discussion with the scientists at dhist monastery and. fi the Nanking People’s Park. Buddhas, i atk , Monday, July 5. Peking e Dined with members ¢ g. Ambled around Tianann Commi are and extensively through the ‘grounds of the Summer Palace, Evening: Were dinner guests of the CATT and CPAFFC the Peking Roast Duck Res met with young Cubans visiting 1g: Traveled to Nanking oon: Rode to site of Yan sday, July 6. Pekin; Artistic Ensemble of Ji Morning: Extensive visit at Peking Universit norate the fiftieth anniv Communist p Friday, July 2. Nanki fan. Pri dens, and had discussions Visited Nanking’s Chen July 7. Tachai Commune Morning: Arrived Tachai Production Brigade of Tach: Commune. Were greeted by Chen Yong: Techsi, and a member ‘of the Communist part red the Nenkin Film Projector Factory Attended a banquet Provincial Revolutionary Commiides a of Little Red Soldiers and t well-known Ie the Central Commi of China, After a prel took us for a long walk through the terraced hills of Tachai Aftemoon ang Production Bri amed to Tachai Production Brigade. SawGap ee 2 Ly lel (ele inreele 19 Introdue Sunday, July 11. Yenan Morning: Arrived in Yenan by air. i 9 Tse-tung. At nix Hill), the frst noon: Saw Fenghuan; Yenan home of M hall at the site we were ‘Communist movement in Chit Thursclay, July 8. ha Morning: Visited the Xigubi Brigade of neart e's Commune ven an account of the a from 192 Evening: Watched a Yenan cultural troupe perform folk dances, as well as some dramatic sketches first ase area in the Iste Peo Brok put on in the guerrilla 1930s, 3 ; Morning group visited Mao oduce mining excavad tors, heavy eran: id steel rolling mach University periments at Pekin peri dwellings at both ping and ‘Chou En. Afternoon: Visited Mao Tse-tun Csoyuan (Date Gar Afternoon: Flew to Sian on an Il in 14. Visited thet -thousand-year-old archaeological site Panpot “f Village—a neolithic village whi excavated anc caves formerly occu; ‘and Vice-Chairman Lin Pi ants who told us stories about the old days ning: Saw a production of the ballet Whitehalred es ee Tropa a The ¥ a Revolutionary Committee of Sheaxi Province ening: The Yenan District Revolutk gave an evening banquet for the group. July 13. Yeoan, Peking wurday, July 10, Siam i: nd met ane woman. member of Ireeetadt youth fom Peling who bad com Central Commi Wu Kuixian, settle down in the countryside whe modern ballet and Westem symphonic music the Imperial Palace Attended reheurs ow, comedy routines, ed through the Jiaoyang VegetableMorning Mornin, | Even Afternoon: Inside the People’s Repu: Met with a delegation from the embas Democratic People's Republic of K ic People’s Republic of Kore M Full day visit to the February 7 Rolling Most of the afternoon spent in a lo Plant, one of Peking’s oldest factories. Joined wwe had requested at the embassy of F some of the workers for lunch in the dini sional, Revolutionary Government 2 ublic of South Vietnam Listened to ed worker, Baobua, at > told stories about his invol which swept China ment in, the Thursday, July 15. Peking reat I ties related to people's diplomac ntinued When the CCAS group met for se¥ eral hours with Prince Noredom Sihanouk and other representatives of the Cambodian ps ng: Gave three seminars at the hotel for Visited Peking Middle Schoo! no Beha ee Swedish and Italian visit a hotel Noo! Were told during lunch not to leave the hotel f the color film Red Detachment of during the afternoon because @ special meeting was being set up. ng: After supper we were told to get ready for a with Premier Chou En- jon arriy- Friday, July 16, Peking q Great Hall of the People we were ised to see that P Chow had been joined by Yao Wen-yuan and Chang Chiun-ch'iao, both members of the Politi Bureau of the Communist party of China. We roup photo- him rations at Ho king Medical Coll Some members of the group visited the old ing home of Lu Heun, one of OMe 0 est literary figures of twentieth-century China Some members made a quick visit to the Pekin City Zoo. Others took Chou with presented Pr graphs and CCAS buttons f Chairman Mao Tse 0. Peking, July mountains north Tu First word of Kiss trip through th e Great Wall of Chin ternoon: On the way back to Peking we stopped for a couple of hours to visit the Ming Toms. Long session he forning: Made the lon Demoers invited to public of Vietnam. Were watch two Viet films nt to set moto 56, which Yao Wen-yuan hi the previous evening as glorify tarism. Others met Ik about urban prol city planners to ta Wednesday, July 21. PeHSM dL eles eluate Co) the People’s Republic meeting with representatives of the CATT. the Chinese People's Association for Friends with Foreign Countries, During the moe were presented with three films made Red Detachment of Women, Red and Nanking Pangtze River Bridg hi ‘Other members of the group visited a mosga in Peking, while still another group were . YEARS OF BITTERNESS ‘a tour of the Great Hall of the People. y as we wandered through the streets of Yenan, oticed a cluster of children staring at a billboard s sober and sad, On the board, there was aphs—China, past and present. But raphs of old China which held them. We Evening: A farewell par held in our honor st the Inte national Club. th Thursday, July 22, Peking WMorniags “ypice td the Cuber ios “eek casice nid see the shock in their eyes as they stared at pictures lary porbonel tor ee gen Veled Goa shrunken with hunger or the bodies of their mas- subway, We went bet hcg Gated the PRIMM Socred countrymen lying in a ditch, watched over by ase J ldier. They also saw children their own age Bveni doing dangerous work in crowded, dirty factories, and Mongolian restaurant by a linn restaurant by a Il girls being sold on the streets. Quietly we walked y, bat in the days after that we began to notice that similar displays were common in other places we visited Fle ins is displays we jon in other f MR ee nak ok oH oe This is China’s generation gap, Chinese children have lew from Peking to Canton during the had to face the hardships their parents knew. They Saal cheat never experienced the misery of year Aftemoon: Held a summing-up meeting with the Chinesai™l, th natural calamities, or th ve they wandered a barren China. chil friends who: had vir homes by landlords, nor ssly—landless and homeless—through us for the duration Evening: Today in China this gulf is bridged by teachin iren the “bitter remembrances.” Visually, verbally, and Sa ly 24. Canton, Shumehun rough reenactment of their experiences, China’s old peo- Morning: Rode the bus for the last time through ¢ ple become living museums for the young Boarded Wal or Shumehun, he eld people keep these memories alive. On certain days of the year, the leaves and bark of trees and the bitter ierbs that many Chinese were forced to eat during times of famine are cook d while 2 other or randfather, father or mother tells tales of the past, A yo in Tachai, red-cheeked and obviously well fed told us, “Iam saddest when all that my parents had at grass and leaves while the granaries of the land- fed across the border bridge to Hong Kong. to &US ea ene ale eluate) fe Years of Bitterness 2: 24 Chinal Inside the People's Rep 2 the natural disasters and private tragedies which ved them were intensified by the social organization Chinese society. Their discussions of these old exp lords were full.” When the Chinese we met spok : things, it was always with a solemnity whic ne depth of their feelings, nd old people even visit sehools and studyal the residential areas. They show people the tattered rags which were their only clot pre-Liberation days and tell of brothers and sisters. wha had to be sold into slavery or who died In Shanghai, when we visited C workers’ residential area a story. We had been invited to go inside the house and talk to the residents, Inside her apartment, site ting on her bed, the woman told us how she had bem treated by the people to whom her parents sold her. “The animals of the household got their choice of the letoves food before I did,” she said, “Lines was no excuse for : s rest, I was beaten at whim.” As she recounted her story The Nae tears flowed down her face. All of us were truly moved. efore 1949, drought and flood, one frequently on the Even in art, the young people of China are confronted! cls ofthe other, were the most common forms of natural with the past, One example is the Rent Collection Courte sisaster in China, The massive famines which followed, yard. This famous group of statues: portrays the rt in this period of general economic collapse, left the: peas life sufferings of the peasant tenants of one landlordl nts helpless. Even the old systems of dikes an Sechuan Province. The landlord sits in cruel splen= ‘orks had fallen into total disrepair under dor apart from everyone else. To one side, an old pease hen Kuomintang rule, Not only did the s ant enters, ig under the burden of rice he has provide relief or assistance during these brought to the d eyes gaze sadly out s but it allowed the few priv reflect such an. awareness, Whenever Chinese talk about the past, five topics 1! tain to mention repeatedly are the recurring pattern tural disasters; the foreign invasions which d much of nineteenth- and twentieth-century the semifeudal rural landlords lly pression of women; and finally the Kuomintang ral le Kai-shek—for them, the s; of all that was backward, corrupt, and reactionary in Chinese ciety. These categories can be easily separated on paper, mut not in the minds of the people; for all five combi to make their lives in the old China lives of misery, over the scone—the landlord’s henchmen fixing the y to take full advantage of these calamities to acum ghts, beating a debtor, and demanding a daughter in te more land. In Red Star over C Edgar Sno it. The sculptors have made us, the viewers, look ily described the effects of natural disasters i h the eyes of the old peasant. The of area of China during the 1930s: mire has been placed in the actual courty € peasants used to pay their rents, but we saw: I saw fresh corpses on the streets of Saratsi, and it throughout China. Pictures of this work of art, villages I saw shallow graves where the victims of with the story that inspired the statues, are reproduced and disease were laid by the dozens. But these in paperback children’s books. In Nanking an excerpt from the most shocking things after all. The shoe the story and illustrations of the statues were included in ‘was that in many of these towns there were stil rich men, a new textbook we saw being used in the primary schools. ee-hoarders, Wh : s, and land he biter remembrances are not meant to be merely fords, with armed guards to defend them, while they gothic horror stories from the past. They aim to show pfofiteered enormously. The shocking thing W People lived He Gos ceva od lee i soa months; that in Peking and Tientsin and et26 China! Inside the People’s Republic thousands of tons of wheat and millet, collected (mostly d) by the Famine Con sion, but which could not be shipped to the starving. . - While this famine raged the Commission decided 10) build a big canal (with American funds) to help flood ome of the lands baked by drought. The officials gave ‘cooperation—and promptiy began to buy for few cents an acre all the lands to be irrigated. A flock of vultures descended on this benighted country, and purchased from the starving farmers thousands of acres for the taxes in arrears, or for a few coppers, and held it 0 await tenants and rainy day This was hardly an isolated instance, In 1927-28) famine engulfed the provinces of Henan, Anhui, Shenxiy Gansu, Sechuan, and Guijou. In some places up to 75 percent of the population starved to death, In 1941-49 one million people died in a f which hit noritily A firsthand aceount by an Am sortie a picture of the extent of human degradation in Kuom held areas during this time: Women exchanged their babies, saying, “You eat mine, Til cat yours.” When a man was going to die, he dug a pit and sat inside and asked neighbors to fill in the eart when he was dead. Afterward, however, no one could be found to fill in the pits for all were either dead or too ‘weak to shovel earth. Men sold their children first, ther The natural disasters ruined crops, while unimpeded erosion destroyed the soil, The peasants were left without food, housing, and work. Physically weak, they were un- able to undertake the massive collective work on dikes ms necessary 10 guard against natural lamities. As they streamed into the cities, the urban ation steadily deterior ‘(New York: Grove Press, 1961) ack Belden, China Shakes the World (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1971). Years of Bitterness ‘oreign Domination For nearly two centuries foreign troops, businessm: missionaries asserted tir right to dc ased territory. They defended that claim with mil ht, Foreign businessmen rushed to get.in on what 6 wed to be a limitless Chinese market and an ndless supply of cheap industrial labor. This fore ess “invasion , however, a “comprador” corked with the foreign business communit primarily middlemen. the foreign businesses and large ale Chinese landlord helped to destro economy, As foreign textiles, Iamp oil, indus- products, and tools flooded in, village handicrafts— an important source of livelihood for millions of pe ere undersold and wiped out, Yet, while the peasants and workers starved, urban shops ov d with luxury products for the rich, And the ompradors who bought in these shops used squeezed from the peasants and work: On the military front, China fought cont almost every major European country dur wars before 1949, The first dete ar of 1840, in which the British amy force China to allow the importat Indi 860, an Anglo-French military fore occupied city, Peking. In 1884, a French army took om the Chinese. By the turn of the century, throug] threat of force, Russia, Germany, Japan, France, and Great Britain had all carved territorial “spheres of in- fence” out of the Chinese empire. In 1900, an inter- force, including a contingent of 5S, captured Peking, putting down the Boxer Rebellion, a popular uprising against foreigners. Through: foreign troor d in China intervened hinese demonstrators, in Chinese id defended the rigl ignore-China’s laws. WIV. WengeWwang. Oghe 2 a NST d uA eel [el te=lere pele 26 Chinat Inside the People's Republic Years of Bi the most brutal of all foreign attacks on China Bea ihe never-ending taxation. In the Iast years of Kuomi 1931, when the Japanese invaded Manchuria. Digg ang rule, taxes covered nearly every possible goad, se. the fourteen years of war that followed, until th vice, of Movement across the Iand, Edgar Snow related defeated in 1945, the Japanese earned the intengd ory told him by one missionary who followed a pi enmity of the Chinese . At first the people were! n the seller to the buyer-—all this within a few miles totally unprepared to resist the aggressors. Attacks By s, with the pig sold nd. observe: isolated resistance groups on the Japanese forces in nortl being paid, In many the local tax collector China were met with the Japanese “three-all” policy was a landlord, Since the government required only a Burn all, kill all, loot all,” which wiped out entire vil lump sum from him, he was fre Jages and drove thousands into the hills, It was only afte ssible from the families in his jurisd many years of struggle and experience that the Com act, he would invent his own taxes, for there was n t-led armies began to drive the Japanese back, #9 question him, Expectably, landlord households paid t pockets of safety, and to build the rural areas ittle or nothing. The rest had to come from the empty ame the nucleus of the future People’s Ret asants. Objections invited reprisals. a six separate pockets of the mmfiscation, Appeals to higher aut ats, for the local m: te was probably The Landlords mind, if not of the same family, as the tax coll eover, he would receive his own share of taxes col- Frequently on, the brink of destitution and often on brink of starvation, most the asants were lucky to own @ smalll scrap of land, Those owning too little land to sips As Snow's description of famine-time profiteering makes cle nefited evi port a family had to rent land from a local and frequently from calamitous times than he did from just plain absentee landlord. Rents, already high, continued to ris imes, There is no question that at the time of Liber- 1949. In parts of Guangdong Provinee they ranged! ation in 1949 the greatest amount of bitlemess was dic Up to 75 percent, even 90 percent of the crop; 50 percent se the vast majority of ir domination for as suffered under t s their families could remember. was common. In e low ry province they were too high tol ordinary f to achieve fin pea ncial security, In good times he could rae euaugh to pay the ren, me Yet direct oppression by the landlord and his fre Some seed, and feed his f ly until the next Goode os 7 i h was not the only factor contributing to the misery o harvest. But rent had to be paid first. In bad times, what Chinese ae He lived also with the knowledge was left after rent rarely lasted the year Then, to feed his orrow from the same landlord, k his own rent grain, at inflated st rates. For collate had) unable to repay the loan, he would be driven off. In the 1920s and of north China were filled with such ering families, many forced to sell (to ve the children a’home and food as much as to bring in money), and endlessly, for the security of Jand to ti If the peasant were not broken by rents, he might be by is poverty wa children was. near! ble, and became more In the carly twentieth century peasant yout le to travel to the city, work in factories for S or seasonally, and bring home eno money to buy land for the family. But increasing loymient in the cities soon closed that alternative. Vi schools existed, but only for the sons of the rich. The bor peasants could not have spared their children from free, Western medicine , and. tr al doctors perpetuating. Advancement for family, he was forced to In the end, he got b: prices with only and all his fam 1930s the pl fieldwork even had education was unheard of in the villa; charged so much that, afte30 Chinal Inside the People even a rich peasant might find himself back on the bot tom rung of the economic ladder. The much-vaunted cul tural life of old China belonged to the landlords and th! rich in the cities, who had leisure time in which to learn the di iting system and the intricacies of yj Chinese. In the decay of village society which resulted) from these: decades of economic collapse, recurrent wars) displacement of population, and severe politica by the Kuomintang, people Kept more and more {9 themselves and the 5, dances, and folk arty in to dic out, Mao Tse-tung’s description of China’ hen as “poor and blank” may seem strange tg but the miserable state of hundreds of mile peasants would have easily ft that description, Women These tragedies struck everyone who was poor iff China. But they did happen more to men than to women for large numbers of women did not live to experience them. Women constituted a good deal less than half off the Chinese population, and many of the reasons for this were not natural. Girls were often killed at birth by par ents who were too poor to support them and their brotha ers, who were valued as harder workers for the fields) Women were the first to be sold into slavery, the last to) fe a doctor called for them in times of illness, and thes last to get food when food ran scarce. These dehumaniza onditions made the position of women particularly) already miserable society. Tradition taught that won men, Ai were by nature inferior to 8 prevailed, and stories of young Girls committing suicide the night before the wedding were common. But those who took the path of suicide were, perhaps, better off than those who entrusted them- selves to fate their husbands, women were subject not only to ;, mothers-in-law, brothers-in-law, and the wives of their husbands! elder. brothers. Custom forbade their venturing out of the home, and women who dared to do so invited public censure. Yet without a man, the Chinese widow was SES SRE Se Years of Bitterness 31 with an even more desperate condition, vulnerable unable to make her wa! Men sometimes indirectly suffered the eff oppression of women too, for there were not enough women 10 go around, and at times the poorer peasant could not afford marriage partners. Some resorted to he expe le daughters-in-law,”” in which ne patents of a boy would arrange with another poor mily to take in. their while she was still a and to marry the two when they reached ado In practice the adoptive family did its { its money's worth out of the girl, and she occupied a position of virtual slavery in the household. Some women were fortunate enoug who looked carefully before choosing a husband for th jowever, many peasants were not sophisticated enot apply their own experiences to the best advantag mother or the 0 unhappy ma ¢ with a husband of about the same age, the moth night press the next time 10 choose a much old a girl of marriageable age. Or the parents m choogele ied wrkGes nec Mint iavea aad) ihiicing eae problem of the mother-in-law, and end up instead subjecting the girl to a marriage where she hue to co with a vieious f lient system of “I soem est to to ha r sister had had eo ith both sn een people from differ h a go-between doing the negotiations sides, and not bothering to do justice to the truth, W. were of course expected to do all the adjustin; warriage, and their happiness was not a matter of ortance si In addition to the problems for women inherent iso suffered more from twists of fate 1¢ Kuomintang prettiest en off to g or Japanese armies ga n were rounded up - When famine hit or the went up, a daughter or wife was sold into slavery, to the highest bidder, who might easily just be another peasant who would work the woman literally to death. A more attractive woman closer enough to be sold to @ or give her over to his ‘0 a large town m iy www, wengewang. org