China: The Individual vs. Society

Paper Summary:

The paper illustrates how the Cultural Revolution showed continuity with the Chinese past, in that individuals were certainly expendable to the state in achieving group aims. The paper explains how Communist Chinese society would liquidate an educated, low middle class that posed no direct threat to the state or the position of Mao, but were convenient scapegoats for what Mao set out to achieve. Thus, the paper highlights how the individual did not matter at all; only the overall group objective.

Outline:
Introduction
The Unity of the People
Removing the Individual
Having the Answers
Mao as 'God'
Glorifying the Worker
The Cultural Revolution Generation
The Legacy of the Cultural Revolution
Concluding Discussion

From the Paper:

"Chinese civilization has had repeated trouble in accommodating groups that are separate or somehow challenge centralized authority whose most recent form has been the government of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). When Emily Honig described the Subei before and after the 1949 Revolution she referred to a very visible instance of Chinese inequality. (1992) Honig wrote that "the dominance of Subei people in unskilled, low-paying jobs may obscure the equally important aspect of the work experience of Subei people in Shanghai - many never entered the formal labour market at all, or worked outside it." (281)"

Sample of Sources Used:

• Blum, Susan. "Ethnic Diversity in Southwest China - Perceptions of Self and Other." Ethnic Groups. 9. 1992, 267-279.
• Cohen, Myron. "Cultural and Political Inventions in Modern China - the Case of the Chinese Peasant." Daedalus. 122. 1993, 151-170.
• Feng, Chi-tsai. Ten Years of Madness - Oral Histories of China's Cultural Revolution. San Francisco: China Books, 1996.
• Harrison, Henrietta. Inventing the Chinese Nation. London: Oxford University Press, 2001.
• Honig, Emily. "Native-Place Hierarchy and Labour Market Segmentation - The Case of Subei People in Shanghai" in T.G. Rawski and L.M. Li. Eds. Chinese History in Economic Perspective. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992, 271-294.

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