More Than Half the Sky: Women and Urban Neighbourhood Workshops in China, 1958–1978

The China Quarterly ◽

10.1017/s0305741019001383 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 243 ◽

pp. 757-779

Author(s):

Hanchao Lu

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Great Leap ◽

Women's Participation ◽

Great Leap Forward ◽

Employment Of Women ◽

The Great Leap Forward ◽

China’S Cities ◽

Mao Era

AbstractFrom the Great Leap Forward (GLF) of 1958–1960 onwards, China's urban neighbourhood workshops and services mostly hired women. The GLF marked the beginning of a large-scale and irreversible trend towards near universal employment of women in China's cities. By the end of the Mao era, about 42 per cent of women working in industry were employed in “collectives” that were largely developed from urban neighbourhood industry. This article takes Shanghai as a case study to examine this type of employment for women in China. It documents the origin and development of the institution, explores the nuances of state–labour interactions at its site, and argues that as far as the enduring effects of women's participation in the workforce are concerned, the disastrous GLF was indeed the initiator and in this respect may well be seen as a blessing in disguise.

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Dealing with Responsibility for the Great Leap Famine in the People's Republic of China

The China Quarterly ◽

10.1017/s0305741009991123 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 201 ◽

pp. 176-194 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Felix Wemheuer

Keyword(s):

Central Government ◽

Rural China ◽

Mao Zedong ◽

Republic Of China ◽

Great Leap ◽

Great Leap Forward ◽

The Great Leap Forward ◽

Official Evaluation ◽

Different Levels

AbstractIn the aftermath of the famine in 1962, Mao Zedong took formal responsibility for the failure of the Great Leap Forward in the name of the central government. Thousands of local cadres were made scapegoats and were legally punished. This article focuses on the question of how the different levels of the Chinese state, such as the central government, the province and the county, have dealt with the question of responsibility for the famine. The official explanation for the failure of the Great Leap will be compared to unofficial memories of intellectuals, local cadres and villagers. The case study of Henan province shows that local cadres are highly dissatisfied with the official evaluation of responsibility. Villagers bring suffering, starvation and terror into the discourse, but these memories are constructed in a way to preserve village harmony. This article explains why these different discourses about responsibility of the famine are unlinked against the background of the “dual society”; the separation between urban and rural China. Finally, it will be shown that the Communist Party was unable to convince parts of society and the Party to accept the official interpretation.

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Reconstructing China's National Identity: A Southern Alternative to Mao-Era Anti-Imperialist Nationalism

The Journal of Asian Studies ◽

10.2307/2059527 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 53 (1) ◽

pp. 67-91 ◽

Cited By ~ 64

Author(s):

Edward Friedman

Keyword(s):

National Identity ◽

Capital City ◽

Chinese History ◽

Chinese People ◽

Great Leap ◽

Opium War ◽

Great Leap Forward ◽

The Great Leap Forward ◽

Mao Era ◽

Popular Mobilization

By the 1990sit was a commonplace that Mao-era anti-imperialist nationalism in China was dead. The anti-imperialist perspective had pitted an exploitative foreign imperialism against a courageous Chinese people (Hu 1955). This nationalist understanding of Chinese history was encapsulated in the Great Leap Forward-era film on the Opium War,Lin Zexu, which drew a contrast between patriotic Sanliyuan villagers and traitorous ruling groups in the capital city. If the brave peasants would join with all patriotic Chinese and not fear to die, then, under correct leadership, the foreign capitalists who got rich in making Chinese poor by forcing opium into China would be thrown out. But ruling reactionaries, afraid of popular mobilization, preferred to sell out to the imperialists. As with patriots who had led exploited peasants throughout Chinese history, Mao's Communists would save the nation by providing the correct leadership that would mobilize patriotic Chinese, push imperialists out of China, and thus permit an independent China to prosper with dignity.

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