This is very reminiscent of the trips sponsored by the Iranian Basij: poor young people are given their first chance to travel outside of their village or town, and the result amazingly broadens their perspective.
Such trips also accentuates class consciousness by revealing disparities between town and country: "They were humbled to some extent, but they also felt indignation over the gap in the living standards between the rural and urban areas."
Not only were new relationships formed, but genuine political intelligence about China's current situation was increased among rural minds.
"It was during these trips that Lan Chengwu and his comrades learned about the widespread corruption among rural cadres. The outrages of village tuhuangdi (local emperors) who stole collective grain, slept with other people's wives and suppressed those who dared to challenge them angered Lan and his comrades and fired their determination to sustain the Cultural Revolution. Today, official historical accounts emphasize the disruptive impact of chuanlian on the national transportation system."
I include that last sentence because it shows how far to the socialist right China's official line is today when compared with the CR decade, which is the subject of the 7th part in this series. Many Iranians similarly chafe at the subsidized trips for Basiji members, but they, too, miss the many revolutionary benefits for poor members.
The essential economic dialectic of the Cultural Revolution must be revived in 2019
"The Cultural Revolution educational reforms provided the rural areas with a large number of educated youth. While in school they learned what was useful for the rural areas, and when they returned to their home village upon graduation they could make good use of what they had learned. " Without the large number of educated youth arrived from the cities, agricultural experiments and mechanization in rural areas would have been unimaginable. " Unlike their illiterate predecessors, the newly educated young farmers had the conceptual tools to modernize production."
This is the human capital on which China's post-1980 economic boom surely must be based on, and that is the essential achievement of the Cultural Revolution. By applying socialism's elevation of the average person, instead of capitalism's elevation of the exceptional, China has become a superpower.
Han demonstrates conclusively, impressively and crucially that, "The building of rural industry in Jimo County, however, began as a result of the Cultural revolution and was already well under way before the onset of Deng's rural reforms."This is why Han's book is so crucial, and especially for developing countries with high rural populations.
China's socialist/collective mentality increased education and Socialist Democratic changes, whereas the Western-pushed Liberal Democratic changes have never produced the same kind of spectacular results in neo-imperialised countries.
Finally, the "forced repatriation" of educated rural people and some urbanites clearly provided the most vital catalyst for China's rural renewal, and thus national renewal; it was the indispensable "blood transfusion", in Han's words. This policy will never be pushed by the individualist West, but it should be of great interest to more sensible countries.
China's Cultural Revolution era was so economically and democratically successful that the West simply must ignore it or distort it. It stands in total contrast to the Western-dominated, neo-imperialist neoliberal model, a model which has proven to only increase inequalities and discontents in their nations.
China's rural areas did not need Western banker investment or instruction to tap into their human potential does your nation?
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This is the 6th article in an 8-part series which examines Dongping Han's book The Unknown Cultural Revolution: Life and Change in a Chinese Village in order to drastically redefine a decade which has proven to be not just the basis of China's current success, but also a beacon of hope for developing countries worldwide. Here is the list of articles slated to be published, and I hope you will find them useful in your leftist struggle!
Part 1 A much-needed revolution in discussing China's Cultural Revolution: an 8-part series
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