China's sent-down generation : public administration and the legacies of Mao's rustication program / Helena K. Rene.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rene, Helena K.

Series:

Public management and change.

Public management and change

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Urban youth--Government policy--China--History--20th century.

Urban youth.

Forced migration--China--History--20th century.

Forced migration.

Urban-rural migration--Government policy--China--History--20th century.

Urban-rural migration.

Administrative agencies--China--Evaluation.

Administrative agencies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (248 p.)

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : Georgetown University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

During China's Cultural Revolution, Chairman Mao Zedong's "rustication program" resettled 17 million urban youths, known as "sent downs," to the countryside for manual labor and socialist reeducation. This book, the most comprehensive study of the program to be published in either English or Chinese to date, examines the mechanisms and dynamics of state craft in China, from the rustication program's inception in 1968 to its official termination in 1980 and actual completion in the 1990s. Rustication, in the ideology of Mao's peasant-based revolution, formed a critical component of the Cultural Revolution's larger attack on bureaucrats, capitalists, the intelligentsia, and "degenerative" urban life. This book assesses the program's origins, development, organization, implementation, performance, and public administrative consequences. It was the defining experience for many Chinese born between 1949 and 1962, and many of China's contemporary leaders went through the rustication program. The author explains the lasting impact of the rustication program on China's contemporary administrative culture, for example, showing how and why bureaucracy persisted and even grew stronger during the wrenching chaos of the Cultural Revolution. She also focuses on the special difficulties female sent-downs faced in terms of work, pressures to marry local peasants, and sexual harassment, predation, and violence. The author's parents were both sent downs, and she was able to interview over fifty former sent downs from around the country, something never previously accomplished. China's Sent-Down Generation demonstrates the rustication program's profound long-term consequences for China's bureaucracy, for the spread of corruption, and for the families traumatized by this authoritarian social experiment. The book will appeal to academics, graduate and undergraduate students in public administration and China studies programs, and individuals who are interested in China's Cultural Revolution era.

Contents:

The problem: how was China able to send 17 million urban youth to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution?

Administering economic development: a prelude to the Cultural Revolution and rustication

Mao's anti-bureaucratic ethos

The politics of the Cultural Revolution (1965-1967): toppling bureaucrats, perduring bureaucracy

Rustication: policy and administrative implementation

Public administration and the sent-down experience

Conclusion: rustication as public administration

List of references

Appendix A: Interviewee profiles

Appendix B: Interview schedule.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781589019881

1589019881

OCLC:

841229550