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The Hsia Fang System: Marxism and Modernisation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2009
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This article discusses a Chinese Communist system of organisation which provides for participation in manual labour by members of China's intellectual and leadership elite. I have argued that the system represents a Chinese utilisation of Marxism for purposes of economic development. I have sometimes referred to the practice of adapting Marxist theory to perceived requirements of modernisation as “develop-mental Marxism.”
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- Recent Developments: The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
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- Copyright © The China Quarterly 1966
References
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2 For example: Ping, Teng, “Questions in Relation to the Elimination of the Difference Between Manual Labor and Mental Labor,” Current Background (CB) (Hong Kong: U.S. Consulate-General), No. 642Google Scholar, from Kuang-ming Daily, September 26, 1960.
3 The existing separation between mental and manual labour is essentially a combination of two “contradictions” mentioned by Mao Tse-tung in his speech “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People.” One was between the “intelligentsia” and the workers and peasants, and the other was between “those in positions of leadership and the led.” FromTse-tung, Mao, On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People (New York: New Century, 1957), p. 4Google Scholar.
4 The Chinese régime views labour participation for its “creative” intellectuals as a means of inducing them to stress productive themes in their work. “Art for art's sake” is, perhaps, somewhat irrelevant in a society which is attempting to mobilise all of its resources for rapid economic development and which regards each of its members in terms of his contribution to social productivity.
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11 Wen Chao, note 5 above. The Chinese Communists regard hsia fang as the continuation of a “revolutionary tradition.”
12 Wen Chao.
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19 See note 17, above.
20 Mao Tse-tung, note 3, above, pp. 30–31.
21 “Party Directive on the Rectification Campaign”, p. 40.
22 Ibid., p. 42.
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The highest figure I found was at Anshan Steel Works where nearly 20,000 cadres or 60 per cent, of the existing management personnel were sent to “strengthen basic level units” or to “engage in agricultural or industrial production”:
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35 Li Fang, note 9, above, p. 10.
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42 Ibid.
43 Lin T'ieh, note 39, above.
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46 See note 44, above.
47 Hsia, pp. 48–49.
48 See note 45, above.
49 Hsia, pp. 52–53.
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52 The Chinese Communists' emphasis on collectivism apparently departs from Marx, although the Maoist vision of the future society as one “marked by radical collectivism” may be regarded as a derivation of the Marxist vision of the future man as a non-acquisitive being. SeeSchwartz, Benjamin, “Modernisation and the Maoist Vision”, The China Quarterly, No. 21 (01–03 1965), p. 11CrossRefGoogle Scholar. According to the arguments presented above, the increased collectivist emphasis would be a consequence of China's low level of economic development.
53 Chieh, Liu, “Should We Long for Communism or Hedonism?” SCMP, No. 3146, from Southern Daily, 12 19, 1963Google Scholar. Articles by Ch'en Ting and others were refuted in this piece.
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59 See note 2, above.
60 See note 58, above.
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64 Riggs, Fred, Administration in Developing Countries. The Theory of Prismatic Society (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1964), pp. 119–120Google Scholar.
65 See note 62, above.
66 Tse-tung, Mao, Selected Works, Vol. IVGoogle Scholar; see note 54, above.
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70 Mao Tse-tung, pp. 29–31.
71 See note 69, above.
72 See note 69, above. Parsonian pattern variables are of little help in analysing “redness” since it is neither an ascriptive nor achievement criterion. I would call it a “modernisational” criterion, in accordance with the thesis presented above.
73 Ibid.
74 See note 68, above.
75 Doolin, Dennis, “Both Red and Expert. The Dilemma of the Chinese Intellectual”, Current Scene, II, No. 19, p. 7Google Scholar.
76 An extreme example of the “misuse of talent” is the engineer or technician from an underdeveloped country who is trained in the United States and who somehow never manages to find his way back to his homeland, thus defeating the original purpose of his training.
77 Quoted in “Participation in Collective Productive Labor is of Fundamental Importance under the Socialist System”, SCMM, No. 376, from Hung Ch'i (Red Flag), Nos. 13–14 (07 10, 1963)Google Scholar.
78 “What Does Divorce from Labor Mean?” SCMP, No. 3035, from People's Daily, 07 17, 1963Google Scholar.
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80 Riggs, note 64, above, pp. 22–38.
81 “Resolutely Streamline Organs, Retrench Personnel and Improve Work”, SCMP, No. 1657, from People's Daily, 11 17, 1957Google Scholar.
The central government in Peking is still a fair example of structural proliferation. In 1965, under the State Council there was a General Office of Industry and Communications headed by Po I-po, a State Economic Commission, also under Po I-po, eight Ministries of Machine Building, two Ministries of Light Industry, a Ministry of Textile Industry, a Ministry of Communications and a Ministry of Telecommunications. Also, a General Office of Finance and Trade, a Ministry of Foreign Trade, a Central Bureau of Foreign Economic Relations; a General Office of Agriculture and Forestry, a Ministry of Agriculture, a Ministry ot Forestry, a Ministry of Food and a Ministry of State Farms:
Jen-min Shou-tse (People's Handbook) (Peking: Ta Kung Pao She, 1965), pp. 125–127Google Scholar.
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84 Ibid.
85 See Red Flag article in SCMM, note 77, above, p. 3.
86 See note 81, above.
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88 See note 77, above, p. 2.
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91 “48 Factory Managers and Party Secretaries Work in Workshops in Tientsin”, SCMP, No. 1974, from People's Daily, 03 4, 1959Google Scholar. See also “Manual Labor for Cadres in Hunan Province”, SCMP, No. 2232, from Hsin Hunan Pao, 02 11, 1960Google Scholar.
92 See note 77, above.
93 Hsia, p. 37.
94 Tieh, Lin, “Develop a Marxist Movement for Improving the Method and Style of Leadership”, SCMP, No. 2307, from People's Daily, 07 13, 1960Google Scholar.
95 See note 77, above.
96 “Cadres in Swatow Administrative District Go to Front Line in Production and Battle Against Drought”, SCMP, No. 2282.
97 See note 77, above.
98 T'ung, Pao, “Fear of Hardship is the Beginning of ‘Peaceful Evolution,’” SCMP, No. 3329, from China Youth Daily, 10 13, 1964Google Scholar.
99 This is not a criticism of Weber, but of the application of his organisational model to materially backward societies. What is “rational” at one stage of economic growth is not necessarily rational at another; what is good for modernity may not be good for modernisation.
100 Riggs, pp. 79–81.
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