The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957 (56 page)

25
    
Cheng,
Creating the ‘New Man’
, p. 75; Loh,
Escape from Red China
, pp. 71 and 78–9.

26
    
Loh,
Escape from Red China
, p. 82.

27
    
‘No Freedom of Silence’,
Time
, 2 Oct. 1950; the story about Mao trying to audit Hu Shi’s course comes from a witness, the librarian Tchang Fou-jouei, as told to Jean-Philippe Béjà; on Hu Shi and his son Hu Sidu, see Shen Weiwei, ‘The Death of Hu Shi’s Younger Son, Sidu’,
Chinese Studies in History
, 40, no. 4 (Summer 2007), pp. 62–77.

28
    
Report from the Centre and Letter from Liang Shuming, Hebei, 30 Jan. 1952, 888-1-10, pp. 18–19; Mao Zedong, ‘Criticism of Liang Shuming’s Reactionary Ideas’, 16–18 Sept. 1953,
Selected Works of Mao Zedong
, vol. 5, p. 121; the exchanges between Mao and Liang in September 1953 are in Dai Qing, ‘Liang Shuming and Mao Zedong’,
Chinese Studies in History
, 34, no. 1 (Autumn 2000), pp. 61–92, although this article does not mention the 1952 confrontation which set the stage for the dispute a year later.

29
    
Kirk A. Denton,
The Problematic of Self in Modern Chinese Literature: Hu Feng and Lu Ling
, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998, p. 88.

30
    
See Merle Goldman, ‘Hu Feng’s Conflict with the Communist Literary Authorities’,
China Quarterly
, no. 12 (Oct. 1962), pp. 102–37; Andrew Endrey, ‘Hu Feng: Return of the Counter-Revolutionary’,
Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs
, 5 (Jan. 1981), pp. 73–90; Yu Fengzheng,
Gaizao: 1949–1957 nian de zhishifenzi
(Reform: Intellectuals from 1949 to 1957), Zhengzhou: Henan renmin chubanshe, 2001, pp. 358–427.

31
    
Wu and Li,
A Single Tear
, pp. 35–8.

32
    
Charles J. Alber,
Embracing the Lie: Ding Ling and the Politics of Literature in the People’s Republic of China
, London: Praeger, 2004; Pei, ‘Zijie peijian’, p. 40.

33
    
Sun and Dan,
Engineering Communist China
, pp. 23–4.

34
    
Yearly report from the Ministry of Public Security, Shandong, 28 April 1956, A1-1-233, pp. 57–60; Report from the Provincial Party Committee’s Five-Man Team to the Central Ten-Man Team, Hebei, 22 Sept. 1955, 886-1-5, p. 31; the overall number of arrests in 1955 was much higher, as we see in the chapter on the gulag.

35
    
Lu Dingyi, in his report at a conference of eighteen provinces, reported 500 suicide attempts: Shandong, 4 Aug. 1955, A1-2-1377, p. 21; Luo Ruiqing, who knew better, put the figure at 4,200: Report by Luo Ruiqing, Hebei, 16 July 1956, 886-1-17, pp. 30–1; Wu and Li,
A Single Tear
, p. 40; Pei, ‘Zijie peijian’, p. 37; Report by Luo Ruiqing, Hebei,27 April 1955, 855-3-617, pp. 14–17; Report by Luo Ruiqing, Hebei, 20 June 1955, 855-3-617, p. 21.

36
    
Walker,
China under Communism
, pp. 193–4; Beijing, 14 March and 6 Sept. 1956, 2-8-184, pp. 10 and 40; Beijing, 23 and 27 Oct. 1954, 2-2-40, 50-4; Beijing, 1955, 2-8-186, pp. 43–7.

37
    
Walker,
China under Communism
, pp. 193–4.

38
    
Ibid., pp. 195–6;
Renmin ribao
, 29 July 1953, p. 3; on restrictions in the use of gold, see Instructions from the People’s Bank of China, 10 June 1954, Shandong, A68-2-920, pp. 4–6.

39
    
Maria Yen,
The Umbrella Garden: A Picture of Student Life in Red China
, New York: Macmillan, 1953, p. 171.

40
    
Kang,
Confessions
, pp. 17–19.

41
    
Walker,
China under Communism
, p. 199.

42
    
Dikötter,
China before Mao
, pp. 78–80.

43
    
Yen,
The Umbrella Garden
, pp. 173–5;
Mark Tennien,
No Secret is Safe: Behind the Bamboo Curtain
, New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1952, pp. 119–20.

44
    
Beijing, 2-5-32, 7 Oct. 1953, p. 1; 31 March 1954, p. 6; 23 Aug. 1954, p. 20.

45
    
Yen,
The Umbrella Garden
, pp. 166–7.

46
    
He Qixin, ‘China’s Shakespeare’,
Shakespeare Quarterly
, 37, no. 2 (Summer 1986), pp. 149–59; Simon S. C. Chau, ‘The Nature and Limitations of Shakespeare Translation’, in William Tay et al. (eds),
China and the West: Comparative Literature Studies
, Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1980, p. 249.

47
    
Willens,
Stateless in Shanghai
, p. 228; on revolutionary theatre in the 1950s, see Constantine Tung, ‘Metamorphosis of the Hero in Chairman Mao’s Theater, 1942–1976’, unpublished manuscript.

48
    
Dikötter,
Exotic Commodities
, pp. 252–5.

49
    
Priestley, ‘The Sino-Soviet Friendship Association’, p. 289; Clark,
Chinese Cinema
, pp. 40–1; Yen,
The Umbrella Garden
, pp. 178–9; see also Julian Ward, ‘The Remodelling of a National Cinema: Chinese Films of the Seventeen Years (1949–66)’, in Song Hwee Lim and Julian Ward (eds),
The Chinese Cinema Book
, London: British Film Institute, 2011,pp. 87–94.

50
    
Hu Qiaomu, Talk at the United Front Work Department, 1 Feb. 1951, Guangdong, 204-1-172, pp. 118–19.

51
    
Holmes Welch,
Buddhism under Mao
, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972, pp. 1 and 69–70; Richard C. Bush,
Religion in Communist China
, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1970, p. 299.

52
    
Peter Goullart,
Forgotten Kingdom
, London: John Murray, 1957,pp. 291–9.

53
    
Report from the South-west China Region’s Party Committee, Shandong, 31 Dec. 1952, A1-5-78, pp. 48–50.

54
    
Walker,
China under Communism
, pp. 188–9; Welch,
Buddhism under Mao
, pp. 48–9.

55
    
Welch,
Buddhism under Mao
, pp. 68 and 80; Report by Wang Feng, Shandong, 18 March 1955, A14-1-21, pp. 32–7.

56
    
James Cameron,
Mandarin Red: A Journey behind the ‘Bamboo Curtain’
, London: Michael Joseph, 1955, pp. 104–6; Welch,
Buddhism under Mao
, p. 150 and ch. 6; the role of the United States in forcing China to tolerate some religion is stated in Report by Wang Feng, Shandong, 18 March 1955, A14-1-21, pp. 32–7.

57
    
Report from the Centre, 17 April 1953, Jilin, 1-7(2)-7, pp. 101–4 and 120–5; Report by Wang Feng, Shandong, 18 March 1955, A14-1-21, pp. 32–7.

58
    
C. K. Yang,
A Chinese Village in Early Communist Transition
, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1959, pp. 194–6.

59
    
Hebei, 15 Feb. and 2 March 1951, 855-1-137, pp. 2 and 9; Bush,
Religion in Communist China
, pp. 386–8; Kou Qingyan, Report on Border Defence and the Campaign against Counter-Revolutionaries, 28 Oct. 1951, Guangdong, 204-1-27, pp. 152–5; Report by Luo Ruiqing, 18 Feb. 1953, Shandong, A1-5-85, pp. 10–11.

60
    
C. K. Yang,
Religion in Chinese Society: A Study of Contemporary Social Functions of Religion and Some of their Historical Factors
, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961, p. 400; Sichuan, 4 Aug. 1955, JX1-418,pp. 117–18;
Neibu cankao
, 3 Jan. 1955, pp. 2–4.

61
    
Walker,
China under Communism
, p. 190.

62
    
Bush,
Religion in Communist China
, p. 113; Zhang Yinxian interviewed by Liao Yiwu,
God is Red
, pp. 18–19.

63
    
Order from the Provincial Party Committee, Shandong, 24 June 1952, A1-5-59, pp. 115–16.

64
    
Bush,
Religion in Communist China
, p. 116; Cameron,
Mandarin Red
, p. 190.

65
    
The numbers are from Report from the Centre, 7 May 1954, Shandong, A14-1-16, p. 2; the revival of religion is in Shandong, 28 Sept. 1955, A14-1-21, pp. 39–42; Sichuan, 4 Aug. 1955, JX1-418, pp. 117–18.

66
    
Bush,
Religion in Communist China
, pp. 124–7.

67
    
Report on religion from the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee, Shandong, 1952, A1-5-78, pp. 75–7.

68
    
Neibu cankao
, 26 June 1950, pp. 97–101; 123-1-83, Zhang Desheng, Report on Pingliang Rebellion, Shaanxi, 24 June 1950, 123-1-83,pp. 92–6.

69
    
On Ningding see Sichuan, 6 Feb. 1952, JX1-879, pp. 3–6; on other uprisings see Shandong, A1-5-78, entire file.

70
    
Bush,
Religion in Communist China
, p. 269; Tyler,
Wild West China
, pp. 138–40.

71
    
Bush,
Religion in Communist China
, pp. 274–5 and 281; James A. Millward,
Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang
, New York: Columbia University Press, 2007, pp. 248–9.

72
    
Willard A. Hanna, ‘The Case of the Forty Million Missing Muslims’, 20 Sept. 1956, Institute of Current World Affairs.

10: The Road to Serfdom

1
      
Mao Zedong, ‘On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship: In Commemoration of the 28th Anniversary of the Communist Party of China, June 30, 1949’, 
Selected Works of Mao Zedong
, vol. 4, p. 419.

2
      
There is an abundant secondary literature based on published statistics that shows how grain output increased gradually between 1949 and 1958 (one good example is Carl Riskin,
China’s Political Economy: The Quest for Development since 1949
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987). While the more optimistic of these accounts can be disputed on the basis of archival evidence, the point of this chapter and the following one is that even moderate growth in grain output is only part of the story, as the obsessive pursuit of more grain was carried out at the expense of other economic activities, was achieved only thanks to huge inputs of manpower and ultimately did not benefit the countryside as ever larger proportions of the crop were procured by the state. This chapter also highlights the other social and economic costs of collectivisation.

3
      
Report from Yichang County, Hubei, 5 and 15 April 1952, SZ1-2-100, pp. 58–60.

4
      
Tung,
Secret Diary
, pp. 94–5.

5
      
Sichuan, 20 March 1953, JK1-729, pp. 26–7; Sichuan, 23 Feb. 1953, JK1-729, pp. 56–7.

6
      
Guangdong, June 1953, 204-1-94, pp. 122–8.

7
      
Ibid.; Report by the Provincial Party Committee’s Bureau for Policy Research, 1952, Hubei, SZ1-2-114, pp. 53–4.

8
      
Jilin, 19 Jan., 16 and 22 March and 23 June 1951, 2-7-56, pp. 2, 14–15, 26 and 84.

9
      
Report from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Sept. 1952, Zhejiang, J103-4-71, pp. 42–5.

10
    
Ibid., pp. 44–5; Report from the Ministry of Agricultural Work, 28 Aug. and 18 Sept. 1953, Jilin, 1-7(2)-7, pp. 101–4 and 107–9; Jilin, 20 Nov. 1950 and 7 Aug. 1951, 2-7-47, pp. 23–4 and 127–8; Reports on the Three-Anti Campaign by the East China Region, Shandong, 1 July and 29 Aug. 1952, A1-1-45, pp. 13 and 81.

11
    
Sichuan, 21 June 1953, JK1-13, p. 42.

12
    
Shaanxi, 24 June 1950, 123-1-83, pp. 152–4; Hubei, 1951, SZ37-1-39, n.p.; for a long-term analysis of the decline of sideline occupations, see Gao Wangling,
Lishi shi zenyang gaibian de: Zhongguo nongmin fanxingwei, 1950–1980
(How history is changed: Acts of resistance among the farmers in China, 1950–1980), Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 2012.