Nationalism and Revolution in Modern China – S13: Sent-down Generation

Red Guards War Hymn

How did the radical phase of the Cultural Revolution end? Why did it give way to more violence?
What is the sent-down youth movement? How did it change China?
Were the sent-down youth victims? Why did many feel nostalgic about the Cultural Revolution?

Three distinct phases:

Mass insurgency: stigmatized individuals and political leaders targeted by Red Guards and workers (1966)
Armed clashes among factions: competition for power after collapse of civilian government (1967)
Repression under military rule (1968-)

Military commanders dominated top posts in new revolutionary committees
Rebel organizations disbanded: “Struggle, criticize, transform” campaign against rebel leaders
“Cleansing of the Class Rank” campaign and “May 16 Conspiracy”: witch hunts against former rebel leaders and counter-revolutionaries

Sent-down youth: 17 million urban youth sent to the countryside
Bureaucratic administrators re-educated through manual labor at rural May 7 Cadre Schools

What triggered the protest among sent-down youth in Yunnan?
What were the demands? How did the youth present them?
How did the movement escalate to hunger strike?
What is the outcome? What can this strike tell us about contentious politics in Mao’s China?

“We maintain that the issue of the Educated Youth on the farm is a major unjust case.” Why?
How did the students define their political status in relation to other segments of the population?
Whom did they petition, and how? What makes their message (in)effective?

Following the fall of Lin Biao in 1971, released cadres gradually returned to power, and their children began returning to the cities.
A desire to return home spread among sent-down youth in Yunnan; thousands left Yunnan farms using formal or informal methods.
Colleges resumed operation, but entrance relied on personal recommendations, benefiting children of party cadres.
Relationships among sent-down youth deteriorated due to competition for college recommendations.

Dec 10: The All China Sent-Down Youth Working Meeting stated that sent-down youth at border region farms would be treated as state factory workers, not enjoying special policies.
Dec 24: The news of the policy change was broadcast at Mengding Farm, causing anxiety.
Dec 25: Demand for urban residency permits back; beginning of a hunger strike after hearing of a state council investigation.

What, according to the students, is the master narrative of 20th century Chinese history?
“To be a citizen” – but how?

What is their message to the state council?
Why, according to the students, did they receive a different treatment from that of Educated Youth in the production and construction corps?

How united were the sent-down youth?
“We look forward to the arrival of the investigation team like children look forward to seeing their mothers.” Explain the imagined relationship between the state and the students.

A story of resilience, perseverance, and success
Went down voluntarily to rural Shaanxi after purge against father Xi Zhongxun
Recommended by local people to study at Tsinghua University as “worker-peasant-soldier student”
Sent-down years as foundation of “man-of-the-people” leadership