Comments on Inside-Out China: Why Didn't Peasants Riot During China's Three-Year...

Thanks, Monkey King. I'll look for the book to rea...

2009-10-12T09:25:02.966-04:00

Thanks, Monkey King. I'll look for the book to read. By the way, why is your own blog about China discontinued? Just curious.

Xujun, I think the book that Anonymous was referri...

2009-10-11T23:39:21.481-04:00

Xujun, I think the book that Anonymous was referring to is 《墓碑：中國六十年代饑荒紀實（上、下篇）》by 楊繼繩 (天地圖書), 2008).

Anon, you may have a point that there's more super...

2009-10-10T18:58:50.534-04:00

Anon, you may have a point that there's more supervision at the provincial level from above, but that level is much harder to monitor by common lao-bai-xing. I think one reason that we more often hear bad things at the grassroots level is because things are more directly observed by people. Also, when there is lasting corruption among local cadres, it is usually because they are backed up from a higher level. This is certainly true in Chongqing's organized crime that was recently exposed: the local tyrants were working under the umbrella of the city's police chief Wen Qiang. Only when Wen Qiang was arrested, was the organized crime brought under control.

Are you sure that corruption is worse at the provi...

2009-10-08T18:55:01.099-04:00

Are you sure that corruption is worse at the provincial level than at the grassroots level? I keep hearing about the ridiculous powers of "dirt emperors" in the countryside, many of whom enrich themselves at the benefit of the local public. I don't know how much true local "supervision" there is at the village or county level.

I really think there is more supervision at the provincial level.

Sam, thanks for the comment. I certainly agree wit...

2009-10-08T15:56:27.205-04:00

Sam, thanks for the comment. I certainly agree with you that Deng Xiaoping, Liu Shaoqi and others in the leadership at the time should also shoulder the historical responsibility. Chinese people do talk about things like that, even though the official media doesn't. An important reason that Mao's colleagues did not try hard to oppose him might be the traditional Chinese thinking that, while it was considered a great virtue for a loyal court official to risk his life to criticize (谏) the emperor's mistakes, it was the biggest treason and heresy (大逆不道) to betray the emperor. Peng Dehuai certainly followed the "loyal official" tradition. The first generation of CCP leaders had deep traditional roots and generally took personal virtues and their names very seriously. Zhou Enlai was a prominent example. Evidence suggests that Zhou's loyalty to Mao – at times against Zhou's own conscience – had a lot to do with this tradition and his attempts at "keeping integrity in one's old age"(保持晚节). This made Zhou a great tragic figure in his late years. For those who followed Mao all their lives, to rebel against Mao at a late date was to negate themselves.

Alfaeco, it's true that rapid economic development tends to increase inequality, and in turn instability. This is a difficult dilemma for the leaders of China. I also think visibility, or information availability, might be playing a key role in the rise of mass protests.

Anon, I'm not aware of the book and I couldn't find it on Amazon either. If you have a complete citation that would be helpful.

Hi, Are you aware of the books Tombstone by Yang ...

2009-10-08T07:34:57.768-04:00

Hi,

Are you aware of the books Tombstone by Yang Ji Cheng?

Xujun, Thanks for these two posts. I will share y...

2009-10-08T07:02:21.491-04:00

Xujun,
Thanks for these two posts. I will share your insights with my students.
I think, as you suggest, the state's monopoly on the means of communications is important here. With that power, central authorities could keep local peasants from knowing that their terrible experience was shared my many, many others all across the country. Peasants only had local knowledge and, with that, were more likely to believe that local conditions (weather, etc.) were to blame.
We should also remember how the central authorities maintained poltical unity at the top. After the purge of Peng Dehuai, people like Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqi - even when the came to realize that the GLF was a disaster and had to stop - did not openly break with Mao. They pushed him aside from day to day policy-making, but they did not try to deprive him of power completely. They needed him, as the face of the Party and nation, or at least they seemed to believe that they needed him. I think this is one of those things you cannot really talk about in the PRC: where was Deng Xiaoping in 1959? Why did he, and others, not side with Peng? By sticking with Mao, they, too, deserve to shoulder some of the historical responsibility for the horrendous famine.

As living conditions improve it may paradoxically ...

2009-10-08T01:32:23.566-04:00

As living conditions improve it may paradoxically increase the instability of a society.

It seems China is directed to crossroad, if political reform is not performed and living conditions improves, instability will increase too.

The other option is to keep living conditions from improving, or at least to do it too rapidly for the greater part of the population. And in this way reduce the pressure of political reform.
Basically a great part, if not the majority, of the population is intentionally used to keep the country for evolving politically and socialy.

For that big chunk of people, living standards improve, but only slow enough to feel grateful to the system, but not fast enough to question it.

Yes, Wuming, I think you are right: the frequent f...

2009-10-07T16:10:42.976-04:00

Yes, Wuming, I think you are right: the frequent famines in Chinese history have resulted in a high tolerance for bitterness. Thanks for pointing this out.

There is possibly one more factor to consider. Fam...

2009-10-07T14:58:21.951-04:00

There is possibly one more factor to consider. Famines of such scale were frequent in Chinese history (换子而食 has been recorded many times). Though some of these famines resulted in peasant uprising, they were by no means easily triggered. I have no proof, but I think the threshold of the riot was very high up until recently. Ironically, Cultural Revolution and the later "Reform and Opening Up" might have been the reasons for for lowering of this threshold.

China has been a sad sad land.