The Chinese Communist Party (CCP): Historical Ancedote

The novelÆs protagonist, Ling-ling, grew up in a well-to-do family in Shanghai. By choice, the 17-year-old Ling-ling stayed behind while her aunt and uncle fled to Hong Kong. When the CCP took over on October 1, 1949, Ling-ling became a party cadre. Soon she focused on land reform, on helping the ôlandpoor peasants, sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and farm laborersö (Chen 49).

She volunteered to work in a village in Gansu province, in northwest China. The civil war and climate had ravaged the area, which once had been dominated by pasture and farm lands. The grazing animals had been replaced by barren land, adding to the poverty, which was overwhelming even by Chinese standards. Three or four families controlled the arable land, while the vast majority of peasants lived hand to mouth. For Ling-ling, the solution was obvious: ôThe only way to give the peasants a fresh start was to break the grip of [the landlords] by taking away their power over the l

. . .
ny reform would be reversed once the CCP cadres left the village. Wang Sha suspected that the landlords had already conspired with the peasants, bribing them so that the peasants would return the land to them after the cadres left. Many times in the previous 20 years, the CCP had moved into villages and enacted land reform, only to have the Nationalists reclaim the area and return ownership to the landlords. All that contributed to the villagersÆ circumspection (96-100). When the CCP cadres finally presented the plan to the villagers, many had doubts about the lawÆs handling of rich peasants. Only those rich peasants who had committed crimes would have their land confiscated; otherwise, they could keep the land they tilled for themselves, and possibly even the land they rented out to others. Villagers asked whether middle peasants would be covered under this provision. No, replied the party cadres, the middle peasants had nothing to fear. As evidence, they cited the fact that middle peasants would be allowed to join the committee on land reform, but not rich peasants or landlords. The party cadres also permitted middle peasants to hold more land than others, so long as the difference was not great (Chen 100-104). In
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Wang Sha, Landlord Xiaö, CCP October, DragonÆs Village, Party CCP, Da Niang, Nonetheless Ling-ling, Moreover Ling-ling, Communist Revolution, Peasants Association, land reform, middle peasants, party cadres, wang sha, rich peasants, land reform plans, ling-ling party, poor peasants, communist party, chinese communist, dragonÆs village, chinese communist party,
Approximate Word count = 1483
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)