Abstract
Based on archival materials, this article examines Land Reform and Collectivization in 1940s and 1950s from the viewpoint of rural–urban relations. It argues that there were various strong ties between rural society and urban society in traditional China. However, the programs of Land Reform and Collectivization cut off these ties and made it impossible for Chinese people to be “amphibious” as they were previously. This fundamental change reshaped China’s rural–urban relations, making rural society and urban society two separate spheres. The new rural–urban relations lasted all the way down to the present without being overhauled.
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Notes
Documents on Li Xinshun’s case, Shanghai Municipal Archives (SMA), C48-2-312: pp. 33–35.
Documents on Mr. Chen’s case, SMA, C48-2-312: pp. 36–41.
Documents on Mr. Wang’s case, SMA, C48-2-312: pp. 25–32.
The outline of the story is based on the letter of appeal by Qian Yuejiang, SMA, C48-2-312: pp. 6–7.
Huang Rulan’s letter of appeal, SMA, C48-2-312: pp. 13–14.
《上海市工商业联合会筹备会: 收函记录》, (Records of Coming Letters of the Association of Industrialists and Businesspeople of Shanghai), SMA, C48-2-312: p. 12.
Documents on the appeal of the wine dealers’ guild, SMA, C48-2-312: pp. 22–24.
Interview with Mr. Zhu Yongjia, a former faculty member at Fudan University and an active politician in Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution. The interviews took place at his home on May 7, 2011, and on other occasions.
See Honig (1992).
“Middle class” is a term containing complicated connotations and theoretical debates. Here, it only refers to a level of living conditions higher than that of laborers.
See Luo (2010, pp. 2–3). It is unclear whether Gu’s family lived in the countryside or the city of Suzhou, or whether they owned land. But this case can definitely serve as an example for middle-class people migrating to big cities.
See Rong (2001, pp. 1–120). Rong’s family was based in Wuxi. The elder Rong worked for the Qing government in Guangdong for most of his life. The Rong brothers (Rong Zongjing and Rong Desheng) worked as apprentices in banks in Shanghai when they were teenagers.
Lu Hanchao, “Small-Town China: A Historical Perspective on Rural-Urban Relations,” in M. K. Whyte, ed., One Country, Two Societies: Rural-Urban Inequality in Contemporary China, Harvard University Press, 2010, 29–54.
《讨论会上的发言记录》, (“Minutes of speeches at the conference”), SMA, A71-1-36: 25.
For instance, while reading archives on Land Reform in suburban Shanghai, I was shocked by the record that peasants confiscated even the diapers used by a landlord family.
See《中华人民共和国土地改革法》, 第二章第四条, (Clause V of Chapter II in AGL), LAOSC, p. 17.
《上海市工商业联合会筹备会:收函记录》, (“Records of incoming letters of the Association of Industrialists and Businesspeople of Shanghai”), SMA, C48-2-312, p. 12.
See 《中华人民共和国土地改革法》, 第二章第五条, (Clause V of Chapter II in AGL), LAOSC, p. 17 and Liu (2005, p. 373).
See Liu (2005, pp. 230, 233). 《中央人民政府政务院关于划分农村阶级成分的决定》 (“Decision on to distinguish the rural class components by the State Council of the Central Government”).
See 《中华人民共和国土地改革法》, 第二章第五条, (Clause V of Chapter II in AGL), LAOSC, p. 17.
See Liu (2005, p. 570) “Explanations and Instructions on the SLL issued by the Central CCP”《中央关于小土地出租者等问题的解释和指示》. This document was marked Nov. 31, 1950 and the “Decision on to distinguish the rural class components by the State Council of the Central Government”《中央人民政府政务院关于划分农村阶级成分的决定》 was promulgated in August 20, 1950.
See the minutes of an internal meeting attended by high-level cadres responsible for Land Reform in Shanghai. Title missing, SMA, A71-1-36, p. 85.
One of the principles of agricultural cooperative was that contribution of labor must overrun land in distributing the products and that the labor reward must increase gradually (NA 1955, pp. 1–3).
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Funding was provided by Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (Grant No. 15JD710085).
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Deng, J. How Did Land Reform and Collectivization Reshape China’s Rural–Urban Relations. Fudan J. Hum. Soc. Sci. 10, 523–546 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-017-0192-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-017-0192-9