"The Lost Generation" is a vital component to an understanding of Maoism. Bonnin provides a comprehensive account of the critical movement during which seventeen million young "educated" city dwellers were supposed to transform themselves into peasants, potentially for life. Bonnin closely examines the Chinese leadership's motivations and the methods that it used over time to implement its objectives, as well as the day-to-day lives of those young people in the countryside, their difficulties, their doubts, their resistance, and, ultimately, their revolt. The author draws on a rich and diverse array of sources, concluding with a comprehensive assessment of the movement that shaped an entire generation, including a majority of today's cultural, economic, and political elite.
Author(s): Michel Bonnin
Publisher: The Chinese University Press
Year: 2013
Language: English
Pages: 576
City: Hong Kong
Tags: Youth; China; Social conditions; Political activity; Urban-rural migration; Chinese History; 20th century
Preface --
Introduction --
Illustrations --
Part one. Motivations --
Ideological motives --
Political motivations --
Socioeconomic motives --
Part two. The life and dealth of the Xiaxiang movement : policy changes --
The managers and the ideologue : the prelude and interlude of the Cultural Revolution (1955-1966) --
The mass movement (1968-1976) --
Irresistible agony (1977-1980) --
The shadow of Xiaxiang in the 1980s --
Part three. Firsthand experience --
The conditions of departure : "voluntary" deportation --
Material difficulties and low morals --
Part four. Social resistance --
The social control system --
Passive resistance and its effects --
Part five. Assessment of the Xiaxiang "movement" in history --
Socioeconomic assessment --
Political and ideological assessment --
Conclusion --
Glossary --
Bibliography --
Index of places --
Index of persons --
Thematic index --
