Peasants without the party : grass-roots movements in twentieth-century China / Lucien Bianco.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bianco, Lucien.

Series:

Asia and the Pacific (Armonk, N.Y.)

Asia and the Pacific

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Peasants--China.

Peasants.

China.

Peasant uprisings--China.

Peasant uprisings.

Physical Description:

xxvii, 309 pages : maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Armonk, N.Y. : M.E. Sharpe, [2001]

Summary:

Peasant Movements in Twentieth Century China represents a lifetime of scholarship that has established Lucien Bianco as the leading specialist on China's twentieth century peasant resistance. This work reexamines in bold and original ways the question: Was the Chinese peasantry a revolutionary force? Where most scholarly attention has focused on Communist-led peasant movements, Bianco's story is one of peasant thought and action largely unmediated by modern political parties. This volume pays particular attention to the first half of the twentieth century when peasant based conflict, ranging from tax and food protests to secret society conflicts, opium struggles, intercommunal conflicts, and tenant protests over rent, was central to nationwide revolutionary processes. While attentive to national and global forces penetrating the countryside, the book never loses sight of village roots of consciousness and resistance, the local character of many conflicts, and the interaction between the village and the milieu of war and international conflict that shaped China's great twentieth century transformations. It traces key themes of social conflict and peasant resistance from the Republic to the People's Republic down to the present.

Contents:

1. Secret Societies and Peasant Self-Defense, 1921-1933 3

2. Reflections on Chinese Peasants and Revolution 16

3. A Peasant Revolution? 36

4. How Credible Are the Numbers? 52

5. Peasant Uprisings Against Poppy-Tax Collection in Suxian and Lingbi (Anhui) in 1932 76

6. The Responses of Opium Growers to Eradication Campaigns and the Poppy Tax, 1907-1949 101

7. Resistance to Land Rent, 1895-1949 120

8. Looting and Food Riots 145

9. Early Twentieth-Century Xiedou 175

10. Xiedou during the Second Half of the Twentieth Century 214

11. Peasant Responses to the Chinese Communist Party Mobilization Policies, 1937-1945 231

12. Peasant Resistance in the PRC 244

13. Weak Weapons 257

Appendix 1 Time Distribution of Rural Disturbances 274

Appendix 2 Cases of Peasant Resistance to Opium Eradication Campaigns, 1907-1949 276

Appendix 3 Cases of Peasant Resistance to Opium Tax, 1896-1949 280

Appendix 4 Geographical Distribution of Tenant Disturbances (1895-1949) According to Various Sources 284

Appendix 5 Differences and Convergences Between Bernhardt's and My Own Views 289.

Notes:

"An East gate book."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1563248395

1563248409

OCLC:

45207819