Mao's People: Sixteen Portraits of Life in Revolutionary China

Mao's People

Mao's People Sixteen Portraits of Life in Revolutionary China

B. Michael Frolic

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England

Copyright © 1980 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Frolic, B Mao's people.

Michael, 1937-

1. China - Social conditions - 1949-1976 - Case studies. 2. Chinese in Hongkong-Interviews. I. Title. HN"737.F76 309.1'51'05 79-23013 ISBN 0-674-54846-9 (cloth) ISBN 0-674-54845-0 (paper)

Designed by Mike Fender

For My Famz"ly

Acknowledgments THIS STUDY owes much to many people and institutions. I am grateful for the.financial support and assistance ofthe Canada Councz·l} the,Joint Committee on Contemporary Chz·na of the Socz·al Science Research Council} and the University of TorontoYork University]oint Center for East Asian Research. York Universz'ty gave moral and materz'al support durz·ng various stages of the research and writz·ng. I was fortunate that the Universz'tz'es Service Centre in Hong Kong provz'ded such idealfacilz'tiesfor conducting my research. The]ohn K. Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard Unz'versity generously supplied office space and access to their rich libraryfacilz·ties. Several individuals contrz'buted in an indispensable fashion to the manuscript} in particular my research asszstant Hsu Hungwen} without whose hard work and knowledge of China thzs book would never have been wrz·tten. I was fortunate also to have the able asszstance of Yeung Sai-Cheung and Leung Kez'-kit z·n Hong Kong and later ofJanet Lum and]ohn Foster. At certain stages} the advz·ce ofseveral scholars was invaluable} in particular Victor C. Falkenheim} William L. Parzsh} Lucian Pye} and Martin K. Whyte. Special thanks go toJoyce Backman and Barbara Sindriglzs for editing and typing. I am especially indebted to Thomas P. Bernstein and Ezra Vogel for their help and encouragement durzng the writing ofthe manuscript.

Acknowledgments

Fz·nally I would lz·ke to thank the many people z·nsz·de and outsz·de Chz·na wz"th whom I have talked over the past few years. A lthough z·t zs z·mpossz"ble to wrz·te a book that can z"nclude everyone's vz·ews and thoughts on the complex nature of life and polz"tz"cs z·n contemporary Chz"na) I hope they wz·ll be satzsft·ed that the storz·es and comments presented z·n thzs volume offer a reasonable portraz"t ofa changz·ng Chz"nese natz·on. B.M.F. CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

Note: The romanz'zatz'on system used z'n thzs book zs pz'nyz'n) wz'th the exceptz'on ofz'nternatz'onally accepted place names (such as Pekz'ng) Canton) Amoy), The exchange rate between Chz'nese yuan and Amerz'can dollars zs calculated at 3:2, For those not famz'lz'ar wz'th Chz'nese wez'ghts) 1 catty equals 1,1 pounds,

Contents

Introduction 1

Thousand-Dollar Pig A May 7 Cadres School 'in Henan 9

A Foot of Mud and a Pile of Shit Change 'in a Northern Vz"llage

23

Chairman Mao's Letter to Li C'ity G'irl'in the Countrys'ide

42

Oil Man Twenty Years of O'il Exploratz"on 58

Down with Stinking Intellectuals The Revolut'ion at A moy Un'ivers'ity

71

Little Brother's Wedding Tradz"tz"on z"n the Countrysz"de 87

Return to the Motherland Searchz"ngfor Roots "On Ch'ina 100

Contents

Eating Pears in Fuzhou Prz'uilege) the Army) and Controls 122

Frontier Town Life Among the Tz'betans 144

Kill the Chickens To Scare the Monkeys The Cultural Revolut'ion 'in a Pek'ing 0ff'ice 157

The One Whose Girlfriend Turned Him In A Polz't'ical Mz'stake That Cost a Career 178

Rubber Man The Army Grows Rubber on Haz'nan Island 195

The One Who Loved Dog Meat How a Bad Element Survivedfor Twenty-Fz've Years 210

My Neighborhood C'ity Life and the Resz'dents' Commz'ttee 224

The Apprentice Production and Politics 'in a Wuhan Factory 242

Flying Kites on White Cloud Mountain China's Youth at the Center of Change 257

Notes 267

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