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Home › Forums › Core Seminars › East Asia since 1800, Fall 2022 › session 5 & 6 revolution/nation-making in china (dube 10/10)
Denis Vovchenko.
clay dubeThis session has just one (long lecture). Please watch it ahead of our discussion session on Wednesday, Nov. 3. For this session, we'll cover a lot of ground. We pick up after the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911. China became Asia's first republic, though instability was the norm for the next half century. Some areas under strong governments underwent modernization campaigns, but in general there was much tumult.
The 1910s and 1920s was the warlord era. Eventually, though, two key political parties emerged. The Nationalists (KMT/GMD) under Sun Yatsen and then Chiang Kai-shek battled with the Communists (CCP, eventually under Mao Zedong). Both were heavily influenced by the example of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and both parties were organized under Leninist principles.
Japan seizes Manchuria in 1931 and Japan goes to war with China in 1937, occupying much of the Eastern part of the country. It established a puppet government in Nanjing (near Shanghai). The Nationalists moved up the Yangzi (Yangtse) River to Chongqing (Southwest China) and the Communists established their base at Yan'an in Shaanxi province (North Central China). With the 1945 defeat of Japan, the civil war resumed. The Communists won, setting up their capital in Beijing. The Nationalists moved to Taiwan. That split is the source of today's tension between China and Taiwan.
The lecture goes through the Maoist period, 1949-1978 (Mao died in 1976), including the Great Leap Forward (and the resulting famine) and the Cultural Revolution.
Required readings - these are all primary source materials, mostly just a few pages long. Scan all of them and read those that interest you. Please note that the lecture asks that you pause it and use the playing cards and paper cuts.
Molly Cowan JohnsonBoth Nationalists and Communists have the same idea of protecting China from outside forces but also of Chinese fighting spirit in resisting outside forces as well. From the documents it is clear that both sides through their plan was the best thing for China. In terms of country development, it is like China grappling with what it wants or should become after centuries of a monarchy. Newly forming governments often have factions that can’t exactly decide on what they should like the Federalists and Anti-federalists in US history.
I think it is interesting the Communist source from 1937 discusses democracy within the party, “…true democratic spirit is inseparable from the communist morality of selflessness…”
Molly Cowan JohnsonFrom some of the reading and what I know about Communist China (and comparison with Communist Russia) I think one of their priorities is showing the world they can. Increasing production of agricultural goods is one, to meet the demands of their LARGE population. There is an interesting section on the Great Leap forward in the book The Edible History of Humanity that looks specifically at the failures of the policy but how most of Mao’s advisors were afraid to tell him it was a failure.
A question I have from reading these documents is about nationalism. As a whole has there been a real popularly supported nationalist movement in China? Is there a national culture? I know China is technically multiethnic but do they see themselves as that?
clay dubeGreat observations Molly, particularly on the shared aim of ridding China of foreign intrusion and privilege. Also, both parties have Leninism at their core. Why the Communists won remains hotly debated. The brief opening of Soviet archives in the 1990s helped answer a lot of questions about USSR efforts to support the CCP and the key role played by Manchuria. We'll talk more about this.
The notion of democracy within the CCP remains on the books, but in practice it is hierarchy and discipline that drives everything.
clay dubeFrom Sun Yatsen to Xi Jinping, leaders and would-be leaders have decried the individualism and diverse sense of identities among those living within the borders of China. China is huge and multiethnic and their are big regional distinctions even among the largest ethnic group, the Han. Under Xi, there's been a much greater push to extinguish differences that matter, while permitting some that don't. China's not alone in wrestling with diversity. Places as different as Nigeria, Indonesia, Mexico and the U.S. have struggled to elevate shared values and to find a way for differences to not produce conflict. Nationalism is on the rise worldwide. I'm hoping that it doesn't produce the sort of fires it has previously.
Denis VovchenkoClay’s questions from the lecture. Part 1.
What did two rivals (PRC & KMT) have in common?
Both were inspired by the Bolshevik success and sought training from Moscow to organize their parties on the Leninist model. One of its principles is “democratic centralism” discussed by Liu Shaoqi in 1937 – encouraging inner party discussions on the condition that once a majority decision is reached, the minority will not object to it and will help carry it out (p. 411). It seems that the Communists were able to implement this principle better than the Nationalists. They seem to have suffered less from factional divisions. They certainly did not have a large splinter group that chose to collaborate with the Japanese like Wang Jinwei, as Clay mentioned in the lecture.
What were the Communist priorities after coming to power in 1949?
At least since 1927, Mao talked about meeting the peasant demands for land redistribution, ending the rule of “petty tyrants” and landlords. Mao kept stressing that the Communist revolution would fail unless it supported “rural democracy” as had happened to the 1911 revolution (129).
Denis VovchenkoI wonder if the PRC and Chiang Kai-Shek use the same word in Chinese when they address their rank and file as "comrades."
Denis VovchenkoClay’s questions from the lecture. Part 2.
Based on the Red Guards cards or paper cuts, who is the target audience? What value and behavior are encouraged? What values and actions are condemned? Identify your card and describe it in the forum.
Page 3, 2 of Hearts – the target audience is the Turkic Muslim minority in Xinjiang (judging by the headgear and attire of the figures). The image is centered on a young party cadre (somewhat reminiscent of Mao in his youthful pictures). He appears to represent the more modernized Han population. The Eastern Turkestani folks around him are eager to be enlightened about progressive socialism. The image celebrates ethnic diversity literally under the red banner with hammer and sickle – a symbol of international working-class solidarity. While there is no clear antagonist, implicitly pre-socialist traditions are condemned (Islamic culture that separated the Uighurs from their Han Chinese comrades).
Denis VovchenkoTeaching Global 1968
I know that Clay had to squeeze a lot into the lecture. When I talk about the Cultural Revolution, I relate it to the 1968 youth protests elsewhere in the world (France, West Germany, USA, Mexico, etc). The famous Beatles song “Revolution” reacted negatively to that wave of youth radicalism and included this revealing line, “if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow.” That way China’s Cultural Revolution makes more sense as part of a global trend rather than a product of sinister manipulation by an exotic Oriental dictator.