Rather than reducing social and economic inequality, China’s rapid economic growth magnifies the gap of benefits received by people in different socio-economic groups. As we will see, social and economic inequality are two sides of the same coin and is not solely the product of economic development. In addition to pure market forces, state policies play a significant role in contributing to the high levels of inequality China experiences nowadays. Despite the government’s concern towards inequality, recent interventions are not sufficiently targeted at the main causes of this issue which result in the continuing climb of China’s inequality figure. Nevertheless, contrary to conventional wisdom, the threat of inequality to China’s social and
Experiencing the torment of a label is difficult, especially if it is given to your whole family. In the memoir Red Scarf Girl, set in the time of the Cultural Revolution, being within the upper middle class was frowned upon and proletarians were seen as the leaders of society. The label of black class status tainted the bourgeoisie, including the Jiang family, with torture, ridicule, and incrimination by others influenced by the governmentally coercive ways of Communism.
China has always had a reputation for having a rigorous education system, as it is characterized by heavy emphasis on rote memorization of texts and the ignorance of critical disposition and rational reasoning. In ancient China, the Civil Service Examination served as a system for the most talented scholars to obtain an official position in the palace. Education has been perfected throughout the years and when Mao Zedong, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, rose to power, he altered policies and standard ideologies. The Cultural Revolution, which was mobilized by Mao to reassert his authority and eradicate reactionaries, affected several facets of
In document 6, William Hinton, a American member of Chinese Communist land reform task force, said that Chinese peasants demanded to repay their properties, such as money and land to landowners. The communist party gave social equality to women in the Marriage Law of the People’s Republic of China in document 7. The communist party intensely changed patriarchal society into equal right society, so the sense of social equality is shown by this the new policy. However, the law aimed to give gender equality to women, but it is a question that real situation in China treated women equally because it is difficult to state that social awareness of Chinese peasants allow women as equal human beings due to Confucian influences. According to document 8, the communist party did promoted policies that pursue social equality between landowners and peasants by Agrarian Reform Law of the People’s Republic of China in 1950. The feudal exploitation had abolished and confiscated the land, animals, and grain of the landlords. The equal land distribution was promoted by Chinese communist party. Yet, even though Agrarian Reform Law had promoted, the outcome of this law is questionable because in 1950 Communist Party just gained the control of China, so there is a possibility that the party would not manage well the policy properly. In document 9, the picture shows that peasants gained
In this review he argues against Kataoka’s claims that the resistance to Japan, especially in its urban impact, may be a more significant explanation of the CCP in the Chinese Civil War than Mao Tse-tun’s 1928 rural policy. Seybolt stats that without Mao focus and peasant support on the rural areas, the CCP would have never gain enough manpower or strength to stand toe to toe with Japan and the Nationalist in the first place. In Garver’s “The Origins of the Second United Front: The Comintern and the Chinese Communist Party,” is focused on the Comintern and its role in the formation of the CCP-KMT Second United Front. He argues that it is important to recognize and understand Moscow’s role during the pivotal year and a half prior to the Xian Incident, and especially of possible conflict between the Comintern and Mao Zedong, over the issue of a united front with Chiang Kai-shek. Lastly, Zhang and Weatherley’s “Owning up to the Past: The KMT’s Role in the War against Japan and the Impact on CCP Legitimacy,” examines the emerging debate in China over the true contribution made by the KMT in the war against
Though many Western civilizations have influenced the way we live our lives today, many forget the progressive movements of early Classical and Contemporary Oriental cultures. Two of these cultures that are still revisited by historians today were the epitome of early Asian civilization and very influential guides for cultures to come. Han China (206 B.C.E.-220 A.D.) and Gupta India (320 C.E.-525 C.E.) were two dynasty-based civilizations in the early conception of Southeastern Asian rule. Though both had a very similar class based society and both had to endure outside invasions as well as internal conflicts, they both had unique, and future utilized, ways of maintaining their rule.
Victor does not remember his biological parents; he was four years old when his parents and older sister were murdered by German troops along with thousand other Jewish people. The story of his tragic early childhood comes from archives and his aunt recollections, the same aunt who became his unofficial, devoted mother after the death of both sets of parents. Her simple stories, imprinted in his subconscious, became the life that he remembers.
In China, during this time period, if you were born into a poor family, but others around had good faith in you they could pay to support you in taking the bureaucrat exams. If you successfully passed these sets of exams you could become a bureaucrat and transition from the bottom of the hierarchy (merchants/peasants), toward the top (elites and scholar-gentry). In India, Hinduism, their main belief system at the time, supported and promoted the ¨caste¨ system. In the caste system, there was no room for social mobility what so ever. The caste you were born in had a specific duty, dharma. If you successfully completed your dharma you would be reincarnated after death into a higher caste, or reach Moksha which is the release from the cycle. The ability for social mobility affects China by making it so that being at the top of the social hierarchy was not something that you were born into, it was something that was earned. This caused the people of lower social classes to respect the elites and scholar-gentry far more. The result of no social mobility in India caused it so that people would work as hard as they could their entire life because they knew that the only thing that mattered in this life was fulfilling their duties so their next life could be better. Therefore everyone in India worked as hard as they could for as long as they could hoping their next life would be as a Brahmin or that they would reach moksha and not have a next life at
The communist experiment generated oppressive, brutal, and totalitarian regimes because an elastic concept of the enemy came to be not only surviving remnants of the old pre revolutionary elites, but also, high-ranking members and longtime supporters of the Communist Party who had allegedly been corrupted by bourgeois ideas. As a result of Marxist thinking, these people became social enemies and were seen as betrayers of the revolution. They were engaged in a vast conspiracy, and were often linked to foreign imperialist, to subvert the socialist enterprise and restore capitalism. In an effort to combat capitalism and instill socialist values , communist regimes promoted the communist party 's penetration of all levels of society in ways that
The impact of Lenin’s victory over a capitalist monarchy defines an important change in the way Sino-Vietnamese relations would occur, since the focus on nationalism would slowly convert to communism as the dominant ideology to resist western capitalism. The rise of the communist resistance Ho Chi Minh in the early 20th century defines the overarching influence of Chinese/Soviet communist policies, which he followed by building a military force on the northern border of China and Vietnam in the 1920s: “By late 1924, Nguyen Ai Quoc (Ho Chi Minh) was in southern China, building a new revolutionary organization meant to operate inside Indochina. These efforts culminated in 1930 with the establishment of the Vietnamese Communist Party” (Ward 45). In this historical perspective, it is imperative to understand the impact that the Soviet Union had on Chinese Communism, which had been steadily growing as a counter-ideology to the capitalist nationalism of Sun Yat-sen. These trends throughout the post-WWI era define the growing associations between China and the revolution forces of Ho Hi Minh that would eventually result in the expulsion of the Japanese and French colonies in Vietnam. These factors define the close ties between Chinese military and ideological support, which would ultimately lay the foundation for the
The cultural revolution was an event in the 1960’s and 70’s encouraging the lower peasant class and bringing down the upper class(Anderson 1). The power of the knowledge of peasants is powerful. It is different from book smarts, but is just as useful. Before Mao came to power, he was “born in a small farming village in the province of Hunan” (Anderson 1). This shows that even though Mao was a smart man intellect-wise, he had rural backgrounds. The intellects were denounced so Mao could maintain power and bring the poor with him to help him achieve power.
Fortunately, my parents were farmers living far from the cities where the Red Guards lurked. However, my parents were nonetheless affected. The Cultural Revolution crippled the economy, killed millions and thrust China into a decade of
The Elephant and the Dragon by Robyn Meredith highlights China’s and India’s industrial growth and worldwide. Meredith describes China’s and India’s history and how both countries went from being poor to worldwide powers. Meredith shows how each of the country’s leaders influenced the fall of the economy and how future leaders led to the rise of economic growth. In each economy Meredith states that the leaders of both countries found themselves with no choice but to change and she describes the inspiration that both countries deprived their ideas from with lead to great change for the government and the people. The last subject that is highlighted in The Elephant and the Dragon is how America is being effected and if China and India will
Chairman Mao first called for a class struggle 1964, which would ultimately lead to the formation of the Red Guards. The youth thought of Mao as a great figure that lead China to victory over both the Japanese and the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek. As Rae puts it, “I mean I would continue to make revolution under proletarian dictatorship and defend his revolutionary line. Climb a mountain of knives. Jump into an ocean of fire. Face a forest of rifles and charge forward into a shower of bullets. I would do it for his sake” . Rae was not the only young person who saw Mao in this light. We can almost say for certain that it was almost all the youth that felt this way about Mao. Mao made certain that this was the case and he
Mao Zedong was a Chinese communist leader and is the founder of the People’s Republic of China. Mao was born on the 26th of December 1893 into a poor peasant family in Shaoshan, in Hunan province, which is a province in central China. After becoming a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921, Mao has greatly influenced and shaped China into what it is today. He is regarded as one of the most controversial leaders of the twentieth century as a result of the widespread impacts and hardships that the Chinese people had to endure as a result of his policies and reformations. Firstly, the impacts and effects of the Great Leap Forward, which turned out to be a disaster, killing between 20-40 million people and ironically sending China backwards. Secondly, the Cultural Revolution and the chaos and disaster this had on the Chinese population, especially through the “Down to the Countryside movement” and finally, the Cult of Mao and what the idolisation and glorification of Mao meant for the future of China.