Bridgewater Review

Volume 5 | Issue 2 Article 6

Nov-1987

Due to the Special Circumstances of ChinaNancy L. StreetBridgewater State College, nstreet@bridgew.edu

This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

Recommended CitationStreet, Nancy L. (1987). Due to the Special Circumstances of China. Bridgewater Review, 5(2), 7-10.Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol5/iss2/6

from personal observations here andabroad; and finally, from days and weeksof talk and gathering oral history fromstudents, colleagues and friends.

UNDERSTANDING THE SETTINGThe Land and The People

China is slightly larger in land massthan the United States. This includes, inaddition to mainland China, the territoriesof Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.Mainland China has a population of wellover a billion people (approximately1,038,000,000). Population density is 280persons per square mile. There are fifty­five minority groups but the primarypopulation group (94%) is the Han.

Only a small percentage of the people(approximately 50 million) live in theseven major cities. This is important tonote as much of the information wereceive from China regarding its livingconditions, political developments andother vital data occurs and arises out ofthese cities-where only a smallportion of the population dwells.

Thus, nearly a billion persons liveoutside of these cities-and outside ofthese cities life is considerably differentthan what we view on the nightly news orin documentaries, from which we tend toglean our impressions of China. Real lifein China is not in the "living color" of TV.In my experience, China tends to be dusty

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Due To TheSpecial CircumstancesofCHIN1\...

BY NANCY LYNCH STREET

Ifim ,~d 'h, ,boY< 'id, in 'h, <xch'nge pmgrnm 'On"''' "'''",nShanxi Teacher's University and Bridgewater State College. I pondered it for awhile, then dropped it. I would find out soon enough the"special circumstances of China." First, I had to get ready to go to China. Ultimately, the context of the phrase would enlighten me.During the academic year 1985-1986 I taught at Shanxi Teacher's University which is located in Linfen, Shanxi Province, People'sRepublic of China. Like the Chinese, I would soon learn the virtues of quietness and patience. I would listen and look and remember.Perhaps most important of all, I would make friends whom I shall never forget.

FROM BE]ING TO LINFEN Cultural Revolution. Seventeen hours byThe Setting train north to Beijing, eight hours south

The express train arrives in Linfen to Xi'an (home of the clay warriors foundfrom Beijing in the early morning, around in the tomb of the Emperor Ching Shi8:30. One is always met at the train Huang, first emperor of China), Linfen isstation if one is a foreigner. At least, thought to be an ancient capital of Chinaduring our tenure there we (the three (Yao Dynasty). In the twentieth century itexchange students and I) were met. This is a thriving industrial city and agriculturalwas in part a courtesy and in part because center in Shanxi province. Currently,Linfen was, until February of 1986, a Linfen is also the site of the only teacher's"closed" city. Closed, that is, to foreigners. university in the province, ShanxiThus, it was not until we had family and Teacher's University.friends visit from home that we saw other In this article, I want to focus on myforeigners in the city of Linfen. On a daily understanding of "the specialbasis, we were the only westerners in the circumstances of China" as they relate tocity. To many of Linfen's 250,000 the evolution of education from the lateinhabitants we were curious creatures, too 19th century to Liberation in 1949. I havepale and with big noses. Shanxi province attempted to discuss this aspen of Chineseis in central China and prior to liberation life/history elsewhere and found it largely(1930's and early 1940's) had been unintelligible to audiences unless theyoccupied by the Japanese. Following have some knowledge of certainLiberation in 1949, the Chinese people in demographic and political considerations.Shanxi had seen a few Russians, but prior So it is with demographics and a generalto 1980, very few Westerners had entered history that I will begin. I will brieflythe province. Linfen cannot be reached by review the social, political and militaryplane and foreigners do not generally chaos in this century in China prior todrive outside of the major cities; when liberation. Following this, I will developtraveling by car, foreigners hire Chinese the educational perspective, utilizingdrivers, for reasons which become obvious Wang Shiqings' Biography of Lu Xun andwhen one is in China. Thus, Linfen is the oral history given me by Shanxiprimarily accessible by train. Located in a Teacher's University Party Secretary Guobasin surrounded by mountains, Linfen Pu, as well as data collected from myhoused a rather large community of students there. This approach is createdpolitical and academic exiles during the through the historical-critical method,

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brown, dotted with green terracing in thecountryside. In towns and cities, the blue,army green and black clothing of thecitizenry dominate the landscape.

Outside the cities, two-thirds of the landis mountainous or desert land dotted withtiny villages and small towns devotedprimarily to agriculture. The cities are fedby these communities. Traveling by trainfrom Beijing to Linfen or from Linfen toKunming, one is overwhelmed by thevastness of the land, the scarcity of goodsoil and the clever, tenacious developmentof the land through the endless andcircuitous terracing which utilizes everyinch of ground to feed China's one. billionplus people.

Looking at the map, you will see thatChina has many neighbors. To the northis Mongolia; to the northeast andnorthwest, the USSR; to the west areAfghanistan and Pakistan; to thenorthwest is North Korea. To the south,China is bounded by India, Nepal, Bhutan,Burma, Laos and Vietnam. The geographyand proximity of neighbors suggest, atleast in part, why both China and theUSSR have strong standing armies.During the university's five-week break Itraveled to Kunming, a lovely old city inthe South-and just a few hours from theon-going border war zone. According toan army officer with whom I shared atrain compartment for awhile, Kunmingis the last supply center for the front lines.In Kunming itself, there was no hint ofthis. Instead (China is always ambiguous),I saw the Buddhist faithful from Nepaland Mongolia come to worship at theancient Buddhist temples of Kunming,which I too had come to see.

GOVERNMENT AND IDEOWGY

Mainland China is divided into twenty­two provinces, five autonomous regionsand three cities: Beijing, Shanghai andTianjin. These cities are directly under thecentral government. The centralgovernment is located in Beijing (formerlyPeking). China is a socialist country underthe leadership of the Chinese CommunistParty (CCP). The country has operatedunder this system since the liberation in1949. The organs through which thepeople exercise state power are theNational People's Congress and the localpeople's congresses at various levels. TheNational People's Congress is elected for aterm of five years. Under normalcircumstances, it holds one session eachyear. Power in Chinese society is vested ina number of offices and the CommunistCentral Committee. As I write this, the

Chairman of the People's Republic ofChina is Li Xiannian, Zhao Ziyang isPremier and Deng Xiaoping is head ofthe Military Commission and Chairman ofthe Consultative Committee for the CCP.

The General Secretary of the Party haschanged in the past few months inresponse to the student demonstrations inDecember 1986. Formerly the GeneralSecretary was Hu Yaobang. Premier Zhao

The odyssey of Jian Zhen,eminent monk of the Tang

Dynasty, is captured in thesewoodcuts brought back from

China by P.rofessor Street

Jian Zhen, with his followers in Yangzhou in ]iangsuProvince. At the Daming Temple.

Ziyang now acts as both Premier andGeneral Secretary. (His actual title is: TheGeneral Secretary of the Central Committeeof the Chinese Communist Party).

As to ideology, the Chinese remaincommitted to Marxist principles. Duringhis 1982-1983 African tour to enhanceSino-African relations, Premier ZhaoZiyang announced the "Five Principles ofPeaceful Co-existence" first articulated byformer Premier Zhou Enlai. Theseprinciples serve as the basis for Chineseforeign policy. They are as follows:

First, we all oppose imperialism,colonialism and racism; second, we alloppose big power's domination over smallcountries and their power politics; third,we all stand for the preservation of worldpeace; fourth, we all stand forstrengthening unity among the thirdworld countries; fifth, we all deem it

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necessary to reform the unjust,unreasonable old international economicorder...; (Beijing Review Foreign AffairsSeries, 1983, p. 10).

In addition, Chinese policy, asformulated by the CCP asserts, "We shallnever seek hegemony, not in anycircumstances." This viewpoint is notmerely for international consumption, butis the view articulated by the ordinaryChinese layperson, discussing China's pastand future over tea in his/her home inLinfen or Beijing.

Although the monks had earlier persuaded him toremain at home, the monk Jian Zhen thought it overand decided he must try once again. In 748 A.D.,together with the Japanese monks Rong Rui and PuZhao and thirty-five sailors, ]ian Zhen set sail forJapan. Hoping to avoid the perilous watersencountered in other voyages, they first sailed south,rather than north. Reaching Hainan Island near thesouth of mainland China after drifting for fourteendays, Jian Zhen and the others thought they hadreachedJapan. They realized their mistake, buttravel being difficult in those days, were forced toremain on Hainan Island for one year before settingsail to China.

HISTORIESLiterary and Oral

The Biography of Lu Xun

The Biography of Lu Xun (1880-1936)aids one in understanding the educationalsystem prior to the revolutionarytwentieth century. In The Biography of LuXun, author of The True Story of Ah Qand other famous literary works, we learnthe following about education in China.

Children fortunate enough to go toschool learned the works of Confucius andMencius. Small children also read andmemorized a small book called theRhymed History (written by Wang

Shiyun in the Qing dynasty). An exampleof primary school material:

In the beginning was Pan Gu,Born of primeval void:He was the first to rule the world,The chaos to divide.

This is the Chinese version of thecreation myth. In addition, smdents at theThree Flavour Study would also smdy theHundred Surnames, Poems on ChildProdigies and the Five Confucian Classics:

I Ching or Book of Changes;Shu Shing or Book of History;Shih Shing or Book of Odes, or Book ofPoetry;

Jian Zhen spent several months in Canton. Finallyrealizing that his task was hopeless, he decided toreturn to Yangzhou. However, before he could returnto Yangzhou, he contracted an illness. Jian Zhen'sgrief Oller the death ofhis faithful companion,coupled with the blazing heat of China's southlandcaused him to become prey to this illness. Developingdifficulty with one eye, he sought doctors andmedication. Despite diligent treatment, Jian Zhenlost his eyesight in both eyes.

Li Chi or Book of Rites or Rituals; andChun Chiu or Spring and AutumnAnnuals.

Smdents would also study the FourBooks of Confucius: the Great Learning:the Doctrine of the Mean: the Analects ofConfucius; and the Book of Mencius.

At the Three Flavour Study where LuXun smdied in the latter part of the 19thcenmry, boys started school at age six. Inthose days and prior to Liberation, theposition of women in China was none toogood. Most were not educated and ofcourse, women of a certain class hadbound feet-a phenomenon which one

can still see in the streets of Linfen as veryold women struggle to and from marketon once-bound "lily" feet.

There were ten boys in Lu Xun's classat the Three Flavour Smdy. Tuition feeswere set at two yuan (about 66 cents in1986) a solar term (about a fortnight).Passages from the texts were memorizedand recited aloud, as they are today to acertain extent. This would then befollowed by a lesson in calligraphy. Aform nate child might study at such aninstitution for six years. Following this, if

Then Jian Zhen and his followers spent Oller a monthadrift in the sea. Finally, they reached the southerncoast ofJapan. From there they proceeded to thecapital ofJapan, where they were greeted withdelight by officials and monks. These officialwelcomers put up thousands of lanterns to welcomeJian Zhen as the Chinese enllOY of the Buddha inJapan.

monies and/or influence were available,the deserving child might be admitted tothe middle schools primarily run bywesterners/missionaries. At these schools,students were taught a mixture of classicalChinese curriculum and western thought,to include other languages. Graduationfrom middle school might mean that thechild could go on to university. I shouldpoint out that Lu Xun went to school in arelatively more stable time than the early20th cenmry when Mao and otherrevolutionary leaders were in school. Thenand now, books from the west were inshort supply in China, so if one wanted tolearn western ideas, one had to go to awestern-run school, or go abroad to schoolas did Sun Vat-sen, Zhou Enlai, DenXiaoping, Chen Yi and others.

The mixed bag of influences which ran

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amok in China for the first half of thetwentieth cenmry created confusion,violent disruption of ordinary life, chaos,and ultimately, new directions ineducational curriculum.Intellectuals/revolutionaries had apowerful effect on the course of China'sevolution to liberation. Looking back onesees that two distinct and opposingwestern ideologies contributed to thegeneral confusions exacerbated by theJapanese occupation, the warlords andremnants of the Qing Dynasty.Nonetheless, during the long struggle inChina, lasting for nearly forty years,Chinese students fortunate enough toattend school even sporadically, wereeducated utilizing many of the materialssmdied by their fathers before them.Depending upon which force wasoccupying a person's village or province atthe time, e.g., Japanese or CCP, thecurriculum was adapted to incorporate theprevailing ideology of the occupying force.The following case study summarizes forme "the special circumstances of China."

While at Shanxi, I asked for permissionto interview the leaders in the University'shierarchy. I was given permission andinterviews were set up and interpretersprovided for me. What follows is theinterview I conducted with Party SecretaryGuo Pu, shortly before he retired from hispost at Shanxi Teacher's University. Thestory which he told me illustrates, betterthan I can state, the impact of the social,political and military struggles uponeducation during the Party Secretary'slifetime. This oral history alsodemonstrates what I heard everywhere Iwent: the strong commitment of theChinese people to education and to thematerial and spiritual prosperity of theircountry.

GUO PU: SECRETARYShanxi Teacher's University

As one Chinese remarked to me "GuoPu is a living legend-my story cannotcompete with his." Guo Pu was born in1918 in Lin Shi County, Shanxi Province,just two hours from Linfen by train, andstarted school in 1924 (during the shortera of cooperation between theGoumindang and the CCP). He attendedschool intermittently from 1924 to 1936.Under the Nationalist government of Dr.Sun Vat-sen, he smdied the books ofConfucius and Mencius, as had hisancestors before him.

In this period, western influence wasclearly felt in the education of an ordinaryChinese boy. After the Japanese invasion,

he had to give up school and had nomiddle school. He began teaching primarystudents and continued his studies on hisown. From 1936 to 1939 Guo Pu workedas an elementary school teacher, studyingand teaching in a normal school. In thisenterprise he had the aid of two otheryoung villagers. They worked at suchsubjects as psychology for elementarystudents, pedagogy for normal schoolteachers and teaching methods. With thefull force of the Japanese invasion andoccupation in 1937, education turned intonational defense education. Students wereurged to join the battle against invadersfor love of country.

In 1939, the Communists urged peopleto join the 8th route army which grew outof the Red Army and was under theleadership of the CCP. Guo's role as aneducator was needed by the Red Army asthey set up schools wherever they went.At that time, China was divided into threedistinct areas: Bases for revolutionarypeople (CCP), Guerrilla areas, Enemyoccupied areas.

The Japanese were short of manpowerand tended to occupy the cities. TheCommunists, following Mao Zedong'splan, occupied the countryside. Eventually,they would surround the cities and takethem. Guo joined the Red Army andcontinued to work as an educator. Nowhis employer was not the Guomindangbut the Chinese Communist Party. Heworked for the revolution. In addition toteaching his regular classes, he taughtrevolutionary cadres at night.

From 1940 to 1945 Guo worked in thiscapacity. He was a section leader in chargeof education in the Lingshan area. Hetaught courses in politics and in thefundamentals of guerrilla warfare. Theaim of the education was broad. It wasmeant to educate the people and makethem more politically conscious. Theeducation was for young and old alike.The schools were also moveable schools.Everyone carried guns and when they leftan area, they left land mines behind forthe approaching enemy and also capturedspies as they moved. Guo's students whofinished in this school (some 300 persons)often went on to school in Shanghai andin Sichuan province. Many later becameparty leaders.

Guo Pu was then assigned toYuancheng where there were tworegiments of enemy soldiers. TheCommunists were short of manpower inthis area and had only a few guerrillafighters. His job was to train more. (Note:the Red Army was fighting its way

through China during this period of time.Most of the "guerrilla fighters" werepeasants who joined the Communistforces and many were uneducated. One ofGuo's tasks was to train them as best hecould in literacy in a short time, while alsoturning them into guerrilla fighters.)

From 1945 to 1947, Guo Pu was aPolitical Commissar. With aid his areawas finally liberated (from the Japaneseand the Guomindang). In Party SecretaryGuo's opinion, the "democratic revolution"aimed at two things: "to drive theinvaders out of China; and to be rid ofsemi-feudal institutions." The PartySecretary says, "On the whole, leadershiphas been and is correct, and what's morewe don't deny we have taken a twistedroad in the process. In 1978 (following theCultural Revolution), at the 3rd PlenarySession, we came to realize theappropriate road is Chinese type socialism.Under the guidance of this principle,production in agriculture and industry hasbeen developed and people's lives havebeen improved and things are politicallystable."

Asked his personal views of theChinese direction, Guo responded:"Forty-six years ago I joined the party. Iam only an ordinary party member butalso a Party Secretary and of the samerank academically as a Chancellor (in theuniversity system). At 21 I joined theparty. To tell the truth, I joined only afterlearning the theories of Marx and partypractice. With revolutionary practice Icame to believe in the partyfundamentally. I believe that without theleadership of the Chinese CommunistParty there would have been:

1. No anti-Japanese Party;2. No victory over the Guomindang;3. No new China;4. No modernizations; and5. No Guo (me) in such a position.

(Laughter)He then added, "Before 1936, I did not

really understand the Party. But I sawwith my own eyes that the CCP caredabout people."

Discussing the role of the party in theuniversity system, Guo Pu asserts that theparty pays more attention to theideological education of the students andto the cultivation of politicalconsciousness. This is to help bring aboutcorrect ideals and cultivate discipline. "Wetry to help them be conscientious anddisciplined ideologically and in theirstudies." I then asked the Party Secretaryabout the aims and goals of this institution.He replied "the main task is to reinforce

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the middle schools in this province."Continuing, Guo Pu said,

"Education is the key to the fourmodernizations·. The key to success liesin our fine faculty members. We realizethe close relationship between theachieving of the four modernizations andeducation for our youth. We are aimed atraising the whole nation's cultural level.To be more exact, if we have enoughqualified teachers our educational programwill be a success and that success will aidin achieving the four modernizations. Thetask is a strategic one."

With time running out, I then inquiredwhat the Secretary was most interested in;what were his personal goals? He replied,"I believe in communism, patriotismand internationalism. I expect that we willachieve the four modernizations and thatthis success will make a great contributionto the entire world.

We think that there are three steps inachieving our goal: 1. By the end of thiscentury, our national agricultural outputwill be twice what is now. At that time,our people will be better off. 2. By 2020,the standard of living will be the same asthat for middle level persons in developedcountries. 3. By 2049, the 100thanniversary of the People's Republic ofChina, our nation will be classified intothe highest level as a strong socialistcountry with a high culture and highmaterial status."

Concluding, the Party Secretary said:"I have worked in accordance with aquotation from our famous writer LuXun: 'You should have a deep hatred forthe enemy and should work as an ox forthe people.' " •·The comprehensive modernization of agriculture, industry,national defense, and science and technology before the endof the century.

GA·iii:~NANCY STREET is a professor ofSpeech Communication. She has a B.A. inHistory from the University of NorthCarolina and an M.A. and Ph.D. inRhetoric and Communication from theUniversity of Colorado. In 1985-86, shewas the exchange professor from BSC toShanxi Teacher's University.