Chen Village

In Chen Village Chan, Madsen, and Unger provide us with a close-up look at the life of villagers (the majority of China's population) during years of Communist leadership and policies during the 20th century. Many, like the Great Leap Forward, they blame for causing widespread famine and starvation. Others, like the Cultural Revolution, they expose for the violent self-profiteering policies they were in reality. What we see in studying the life of villagers before and after the Cultural Revolution is the background against which Communist reforms worked. In so doing, we see the often tumultuous, desperate conditions of the villagers in trying to survive the rapidly changing policies and their effects. This analysis will examine the experiences of the youths sent down to Chen Village before and after the Cultural Revolution in order to demonstrate the impact of Mao's Communist policies on rural peasants. As one inhabitant of Chen Village said of the period preceding the Cultural Revolution "By the end of the Four Cleanups, production had been grasped well and everything was well managed. For the first time since Liberation, our countryside had really been given a chance to develop steadily�Things would have gone ideally if Chairman Mao hadn't started the Cultural Revolution" (Chan, Madsen, and Unger 102).

The experiences of the youth sent down to Chen Village prior to the Cultural Revolution may not have been one filled with v

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production and modernity spread throughout the village, young people began to reject many of the traditional beliefs based on faith that their elders taught and worshipped "The younger people definitely didn't believe in the gods or superstition any more" (Chan et al; 97). So, too, they began to question the efficacy of Communist policies and practices when it came to the welfare of the Chinese peasantry. Partly responsible for these changing attitudes and the origins of questioning authority among Chinese youth were the policies Communist leaders implemented "The economic changes and the new organizations that had been introduced during the Four Cleanups were to alter village life in complex ways. They gave rise not just to new attitudes, but also to new rhythms of daily life, new patterns of social interaction, and new aspirations. They aroused new expectations of what the village leadership should provide" (Chan et al; 97). It was among the youth sent down to Chen Village that expectations of that leadership would most be put to the test. As the policies of the Cultural Revolution began to take place in Chen Village, the relative stability created by the village workteams was thrown into turmoil. Mao's study sessions and

Category: History - C