The Mass-Line, 1917 to 1989: Chinese Experience

If you have found this article useful and you think it is important that researchers across the world have access, please consider donating, to ensure that this valuable collection remains Open Access.

Journal of Global Faultlines is published by Pluto Journals, an Open Access publisher. This means that everyone has free and unlimited access to the full-text of all articles from our international collection of social science journals. Furthermore Pluto Journals authors don’t pay article processing charges (APCs).

scite_

Journal of Global Faultlines

Volume 4, Issue 2

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: found

Is Open Access

The Mass-Line, 1917 to 1989: Chinese Experience

research-article

Author(s): Robert H. Emerton

Publication date (Print): December 2017-February 2018

Journal: Journal of Global Faultlines

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Bookmark

Abstract

The article explores the tangled relationship between activism and state power in China, post-1917, exploring how it sheds light on a perennial problem in radical thought: namely, how universal prescriptions and structures of power relate to localized instances of activism. Grassroots mobilization and community-building has been held up as a solution that keeps revolution “revolutionary” by reforming social relations and personal conduct. By making all politics mass-politics, Chinese Maoists hoped to prevent a slide into a repressive social order. However, the “mass-line” achieved the opposite end and created a hollowed-out politics through reactionary violence. In the post-1989 era, new articulations of state power and activism encourage reflection on changing material conditions and how they affect the possibility of mass-politics and class consciousness.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Robert H. Emerton:

Bio :

Dr Robert H. Emerton received his PhD in 2017 from Keele University, his research interests include: political philosophy, political dissidence, finance and economic change.

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169

Journal ID (publisher-id): jglobfaul

Title: Journal of Global Faultlines

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 20542089

ISSN (Electronic): 23977825

Publication date (Print): December 2017-February 2018

Volume: 4

Issue: 2

Pages: 110-122

Article

Publisher ID: jglobfaul.4.2.0110

DOI: 10.13169/jglobfaul.4.2.0110

SO-VID: 94ed5258-212f-4b83-99c5-124e15371c55

License:

All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

References

Andreas, J. (2009) Rise of the Red Engineers: The Cultural Revolution and the Origins of China's New Class . Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Au, L. Y. & Bai, R. (2010) “Contemporary Labor Resistance in China, 1989–2009.” WorkingUSA 13: 481–505.
Badiou, A. (2009) Logics of Worlds: Being and Event II . London: Continuum.
Badiou, A. (2010) The Communist Hypothesis . London: Verso.
Bakhurst, D. (1991) Consciousness and Revolution in Soviet Philosophy: From the Bolsheviks to Evald Ilyenkov . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Barme, G. (1992) “Wang Shuo and Liumang (‘Hooligan’) Culture.” The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs 28: 23–64.
Bedeski, R. E. (1977) “The Concept of the State: Sun Yat-sen and Mao Tse-tung.” The China Quarterly 70: 338–354.
Bosteels, B. (2005) “Post-Maoism: Badiou and Politics.” Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 13: 575–634.
Bosteels, B. (2011) Badiou and Politics . Durham: Duke University Press.
Bosteels, B. (2014) The Actuality of Communism . London: Verso Books.
Brenner, R. (1977) “The Origins of Capitalist Development: A Critique of Neo-Smithian Marxism.” New Left Review 104: 25–92.
Caygill, H. (2013) On Resistance: A Philosophy of Defiance . London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Chaliand, G. (1982) Guerrilla Strategies: An Historical Anthology from the Long March to Afghanistan . Berkeley: University of California Press.
Chan, C. K.-C. & Pun, N. (2009) “The Making of a New Working Class? A Study of Collective Actions of Migrant Workers in South China.” The China Quarterly 198: 287–303.
Chan, W.-F. (1994) “Party Cells Hit Labour Unions: Workplaces Become Focus for Control.” South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) , 1 November.
Chen, J. (1995) “The Impact of Reform on the Party and Ideology in China.” The Journal of Contemporary China 4: 22–34.
Ching Kwan, L. (2007) “Is Labour a Political Force in China?” In E. J. Perry & M. Goldman (eds.) Grassroots Political Reform in Contemporary China . Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Cunningham, M. E. & Wasserstrom, J. N. (2011) “Interpreting Protest in Modern China.” Dissent 58: 13–18.
Deng, X. (1979) “Uphold the Four Cardinal Principles.” Available at http://en.people.cn/dengxp/vol2/text/b1290.html (accessed 7 February 2016).
Emerton, R. H. (2017) “Beijing'89: The Duration of the Event.” Space and Culture 20: 209–220.
Gaddis, J. L. (2005) Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy during the Cold War . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hallward, P. (2009) “The Will of the People: Notes Towards a Dialectical Voluntarism.” Radical Philosophy 155: 17–29.
Hammond, E. (1978) “Marxism and the Mass Line.” Modern China 4: 3–26.
Hsu, S. (2017) “China's New Cash Crunch Reminiscent of Liquidity Stop In 2013.” Forbes . Available at https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahsu/2017/03/28/chinas-new-cash-crunch-reminiscent-of-liquidity-stop-in-2013/-38cff90e7feb (accessed 27 April 2018).
Huber, P. (2008) “The Central Bodies of the Comintern: Stalinization and Changing Social Composition.” In N. Laporte, K. Morgan & M. Worley (eds.) Bolshevism, Stalinism and the Comintern: Perspectives on Stalinization, 1917–53 . New York: Palgrave.
Karl, R. E. (2010) Mao Zedong and China in the Twentieth-Century World: A Concise History . Durham: Duke University Press.
Knight, N. (2005) Marxist Philosophy in China: From Qu Qiubai to Mao Zedong, 1923–1945 . Dordrecht: Springer.
Knight, N. (2007) Rethinking Mao: Explorations in Mao Zedong's Thought . Lanham: Lexington Books.
Kraus, R. C. (1981) Class Conflict in Chinese Socialism . New York: Columbia University Press.
Lazarus, S. (2015) Anthropology of the Name . London: Seagull Books.
Leung, W.-Y. (1998) The Politics of Labour Rebellions in China, 1989–1994 (Doctoral thesis). The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam.
Lévy, B. H. (1979) Barbarism with a Human Face . New York: Harper & Row.
Li, M. (1996) “China: Six Years after Tiananmen.” Monthly Review 47: 1.
Li, M. (2008) The Rise of China and the Demise of the Capitalist World Economy . London: Monthly Review Press.
Li, X. (1990) “Report on the Situation of the Student Movement in Beijing.” In M. Oksenberg, L. R. Sullivan, M. Lambert & Q. Li (eds.) Beijing Spring, 1989: Confrontation and Conflict: The Basic Documents . Armonk: M. E. Sharpe.
Lütticken, S. (2014) “Cultural Revolution: From Punk to the New Provotariat.” New Left Review 87: 115–131.
Mao, Z. (1927) “Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan.” marxists.org, March. Available at https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-1/mswv1_2.htm (accessed 23 January 2018).
Mao, Z. (1970) “The Resolutions of the Eleventh Plenum of the CCP — the Sixteen Articles.” In J. Ch'en (ed.) Mao Papers: Anthology and Bibliography . London: Oxford University Press.
Meisner, M. (1978) “Dazhai: The Mass Line in Practice.” Modern China 4: 27–62.
Min, Z. (2015) “Employment Relations and Social Stratification in Contemporary Urban China: Does Goldthorpe's Class Theory Still Work?” Sociology 49: 1–18.
Mobo, G. (1994) “Maoist Discourse and a Critique of the Present.” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 26: 13–32.
Oksenberg, M., Sullivan, L. R., Lambert, M. & Li, Q. (1990) Beijing Spring, 1989: Confrontation and Conflict: The Basic Documents . Armonk: M. E. Sharpe.
Ollman, B. (1996) Alienation: Marx's Conception of Man in Capitalist Society . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Perry, E. J. (1999) “From Paris to the Paris of the East and Back: Workers as Citizens in Modern Shanghai.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 41: 348–373.
Petracca, M. P. & Xiong, M. (1990) “The Concept of Chinese Neo-Authoritarianism: An Exploration and Democratic Critique.” Asian Survey 30: 1099—1117.
Reuters (2015) “China Central Bank Provides Pledged Supplementary Lending to Select Banks — Sources.” Reuters . Available at https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-lending/china-central-bank-provides-pledged-supplementary-lending-to-select-banks-sources-idUKKBN0OH1R020150601 (accessed 24 January 2018).
Reuters (2017) “In China's Rustbelt Towns, Displaced Coal and Steel Workers Lose Hope.” Fortune . Available at http://fortune.com/2017/03/06/china-rustbelt-steel-workers/ (accessed 12 March 2017).
Riskin, C. (1971) “Small Industry and the Chinese Model of Development.” The China Quarterly 46: 245–273.
Roberts, J. (2006) Philosophizing the Everyday: Revolutionary Praxis and the Fate of Cultural Theory . London: Pluto Press.
Sautman, B. (1992) “Sirens of the Strongman: Neo-Authoritarianism in Recent Chinese Political Theory.” The China Quarterly 129: 72–102.
Scobell, A. (2003) China's Use of Military Force: Beyond the Great Wall and the Long March . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Selden, M. (1995) China in Revolution: The Yenan Way Revisited . Armonk: M. E. Sharpe.
Shi, T. & Lu, J. (2010) “The Shadow of Confucianism.” Journal of Democracy 21: 123–130.
Skocpol, T. (1976a) “France, Russia, China: A Structural Analysis of Social Revolutions.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 18: 175–210.
Skocpol, T. (1976b) “Old Regime Legacies and Communist Revolutions in Russia and China.” Social Forces 55: 284–315.
Stalin, J. V. (1927) “Revolution in China and Tasks of the Comintern.” Speech Delivered at the Tenth Sitting, Eighth Plenum of the E.C.C.I., 24 May. Available at https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1927/05/24.htm (accessed 23 January 2018).
Walder, A. G. (1977) “Marxism, Maoism, and Social Change: A Reexamination of the ‘Voluntarism’ in Mao's Strategy and Thought.” Modern China 3: 125–160.
Wang, H. (2006) “Depoliticized Politics, From East to West.” New Left Review 41: 29–45.
Wei, L. (2015) “China's Central Bank Expands New-Style Easing: PBOC to Let Commercial Banks Use Loan Assets as Collateral as a Way to Boost Lending.” Wall Street Journal . Available at https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-central-bank-expands-new-style-easing-1444649102 (accessed 24 January 2018).
Weil, R. (2006) “Conditions of the Working Classes in China.” Monthly Review 58: 25.
Weiran, L. (1996) An Abortive Chinese Enlightenment: The Cultural Revolution and Class Theory (Doctoral thesis). University of Wisconsin—Madison.
Whyte, M. K. (1973) “Bureaucracy and Modernization in China: The Maoist Critique.” American Sociological Review 38: 149–163.
Wright, C. (2013) Badiou in Jamaica: The Politics of Conflict . Melbourne: Re. Press.
Yanqi, T. (1995) “Mass Alienation under State Socialism and After.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 28: 215–237.
Yun, M. S. (1990) “The Rise and Fall of Neo-Authoritarianism in China.” China Information 5: 1–18.
Zhao, S. (1993) “Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour: Elite Politics in Post-Tiananmen China.” Asian Survey 33: 739–756.
Zhao, S. X., et al. (2017) “How Big Is China's Real Estate Bubble and Why Hasn't It Burst Yet?” Land Use Policy 64: 153–162.
žižek, S. (2014) Trouble in Paradise: From the End of History to the End of Capitalism . London: Penguin.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Andreas, J. (2009) Rise of the Red Engineers: The Cultural Revolution and the Origins of China's New Class . Stanford: Stanford University Press.

[2] Au, L. Y. & Bai, R. (2010) “Contemporary Labor Resistance in China, 1989–2009.” WorkingUSA 13: 481–505.

[3] Badiou, A. (2009) Logics of Worlds: Being and Event II . London: Continuum.

[4] Badiou, A. (2010) The Communist Hypothesis . London: Verso.

[5] Bakhurst, D. (1991) Consciousness and Revolution in Soviet Philosophy: From the Bolsheviks to Evald Ilyenkov . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[6] Barme, G. (1992) “Wang Shuo and Liumang (‘Hooligan’) Culture.” The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs 28: 23–64.

[7] Bedeski, R. E. (1977) “The Concept of the State: Sun Yat-sen and Mao Tse-tung.” The China Quarterly 70: 338–354.

[8] Bosteels, B. (2005) “Post-Maoism: Badiou and Politics.” Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 13: 575–634.

[9] Bosteels, B. (2011) Badiou and Politics . Durham: Duke University Press.

[10] Bosteels, B. (2014) The Actuality of Communism . London: Verso Books.

[11] Brenner, R. (1977) “The Origins of Capitalist Development: A Critique of Neo-Smithian Marxism.” New Left Review 104: 25–92.

[12] Caygill, H. (2013) On Resistance: A Philosophy of Defiance . London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

[13] Chaliand, G. (1982) Guerrilla Strategies: An Historical Anthology from the Long March to Afghanistan . Berkeley: University of California Press.

[14] Chan, C. K.-C. & Pun, N. (2009) “The Making of a New Working Class? A Study of Collective Actions of Migrant Workers in South China.” The China Quarterly 198: 287–303.

[15] Chan, W.-F. (1994) “Party Cells Hit Labour Unions: Workplaces Become Focus for Control.” South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) , 1 November.

[16] Chen, J. (1995) “The Impact of Reform on the Party and Ideology in China.” The Journal of Contemporary China 4: 22–34.

[17] Ching Kwan, L. (2007) “Is Labour a Political Force in China?” In E. J. Perry & M. Goldman (eds.) Grassroots Political Reform in Contemporary China . Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

[18] Cunningham, M. E. & Wasserstrom, J. N. (2011) “Interpreting Protest in Modern China.” Dissent 58: 13–18.

[19] Deng, X. (1979) “Uphold the Four Cardinal Principles.” Available at http://en.people.cn/dengxp/vol2/text/b1290.html (accessed 7 February 2016).

[20] Emerton, R. H. (2017) “Beijing'89: The Duration of the Event.” Space and Culture 20: 209–220.

[21] Gaddis, J. L. (2005) Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy during the Cold War . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[22] Hallward, P. (2009) “The Will of the People: Notes Towards a Dialectical Voluntarism.” Radical Philosophy 155: 17–29.

[23] Hammond, E. (1978) “Marxism and the Mass Line.” Modern China 4: 3–26.

[24] Hsu, S. (2017) “China's New Cash Crunch Reminiscent of Liquidity Stop In 2013.” Forbes . Available at https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahsu/2017/03/28/chinas-new-cash-crunch-reminiscent-of-liquidity-stop-in-2013/-38cff90e7feb (accessed 27 April 2018).

[25] Huber, P. (2008) “The Central Bodies of the Comintern: Stalinization and Changing Social Composition.” In N. Laporte, K. Morgan & M. Worley (eds.) Bolshevism, Stalinism and the Comintern: Perspectives on Stalinization, 1917–53 . New York: Palgrave.

[26] Karl, R. E. (2010) Mao Zedong and China in the Twentieth-Century World: A Concise History . Durham: Duke University Press.

[27] Knight, N. (2005) Marxist Philosophy in China: From Qu Qiubai to Mao Zedong, 1923–1945 . Dordrecht: Springer.

[28] Knight, N. (2007) Rethinking Mao: Explorations in Mao Zedong's Thought . Lanham: Lexington Books.

[29] Kraus, R. C. (1981) Class Conflict in Chinese Socialism . New York: Columbia University Press.

[30] Lazarus, S. (2015) Anthropology of the Name . London: Seagull Books.

[31] Leung, W.-Y. (1998) The Politics of Labour Rebellions in China, 1989–1994 (Doctoral thesis). The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam.

[32] Lévy, B. H. (1979) Barbarism with a Human Face . New York: Harper & Row.

[33] Li, M. (1996) “China: Six Years after Tiananmen.” Monthly Review 47: 1.

[34] Li, M. (2008) The Rise of China and the Demise of the Capitalist World Economy . London: Monthly Review Press.

[35] Li, X. (1990) “Report on the Situation of the Student Movement in Beijing.” In M. Oksenberg, L. R. Sullivan, M. Lambert & Q. Li (eds.) Beijing Spring, 1989: Confrontation and Conflict: The Basic Documents . Armonk: M. E. Sharpe.

[36] Lütticken, S. (2014) “Cultural Revolution: From Punk to the New Provotariat.” New Left Review 87: 115–131.

[37] Mao, Z. (1927) “Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan.” marxists.org, March. Available at https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-1/mswv1_2.htm (accessed 23 January 2018).

[38] Mao, Z. (1970) “The Resolutions of the Eleventh Plenum of the CCP — the Sixteen Articles.” In J. Ch'en (ed.) Mao Papers: Anthology and Bibliography . London: Oxford University Press.

[39] Meisner, M. (1978) “Dazhai: The Mass Line in Practice.” Modern China 4: 27–62.

[40] Min, Z. (2015) “Employment Relations and Social Stratification in Contemporary Urban China: Does Goldthorpe's Class Theory Still Work?” Sociology 49: 1–18.

[41] Mobo, G. (1994) “Maoist Discourse and a Critique of the Present.” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 26: 13–32.

[42] Oksenberg, M., Sullivan, L. R., Lambert, M. & Li, Q. (1990) Beijing Spring, 1989: Confrontation and Conflict: The Basic Documents . Armonk: M. E. Sharpe.

[43] Ollman, B. (1996) Alienation: Marx's Conception of Man in Capitalist Society . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[44] Perry, E. J. (1999) “From Paris to the Paris of the East and Back: Workers as Citizens in Modern Shanghai.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 41: 348–373.

[45] Petracca, M. P. & Xiong, M. (1990) “The Concept of Chinese Neo-Authoritarianism: An Exploration and Democratic Critique.” Asian Survey 30: 1099—1117.

[46] Reuters (2015) “China Central Bank Provides Pledged Supplementary Lending to Select Banks — Sources.” Reuters . Available at https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-lending/china-central-bank-provides-pledged-supplementary-lending-to-select-banks-sources-idUKKBN0OH1R020150601 (accessed 24 January 2018).

[47] Reuters (2017) “In China's Rustbelt Towns, Displaced Coal and Steel Workers Lose Hope.” Fortune . Available at http://fortune.com/2017/03/06/china-rustbelt-steel-workers/ (accessed 12 March 2017).

[48] Riskin, C. (1971) “Small Industry and the Chinese Model of Development.” The China Quarterly 46: 245–273.

[49] Roberts, J. (2006) Philosophizing the Everyday: Revolutionary Praxis and the Fate of Cultural Theory . London: Pluto Press.

[50] Sautman, B. (1992) “Sirens of the Strongman: Neo-Authoritarianism in Recent Chinese Political Theory.” The China Quarterly 129: 72–102.

[51] Scobell, A. (2003) China's Use of Military Force: Beyond the Great Wall and the Long March . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[52] Selden, M. (1995) China in Revolution: The Yenan Way Revisited . Armonk: M. E. Sharpe.

[53] Shi, T. & Lu, J. (2010) “The Shadow of Confucianism.” Journal of Democracy 21: 123–130.

[54] Skocpol, T. (1976a) “France, Russia, China: A Structural Analysis of Social Revolutions.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 18: 175–210.

[55] Skocpol, T. (1976b) “Old Regime Legacies and Communist Revolutions in Russia and China.” Social Forces 55: 284–315.

[56] Stalin, J. V. (1927) “Revolution in China and Tasks of the Comintern.” Speech Delivered at the Tenth Sitting, Eighth Plenum of the E.C.C.I., 24 May. Available at https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1927/05/24.htm (accessed 23 January 2018).

[57] Walder, A. G. (1977) “Marxism, Maoism, and Social Change: A Reexamination of the ‘Voluntarism’ in Mao's Strategy and Thought.” Modern China 3: 125–160.

[58] Wang, H. (2006) “Depoliticized Politics, From East to West.” New Left Review 41: 29–45.

[59] Wei, L. (2015) “China's Central Bank Expands New-Style Easing: PBOC to Let Commercial Banks Use Loan Assets as Collateral as a Way to Boost Lending.” Wall Street Journal . Available at https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-central-bank-expands-new-style-easing-1444649102 (accessed 24 January 2018).

[60] Weil, R. (2006) “Conditions of the Working Classes in China.” Monthly Review 58: 25.

[61] Weiran, L. (1996) An Abortive Chinese Enlightenment: The Cultural Revolution and Class Theory (Doctoral thesis). University of Wisconsin—Madison.

[62] Whyte, M. K. (1973) “Bureaucracy and Modernization in China: The Maoist Critique.” American Sociological Review 38: 149–163.

[63] Wright, C. (2013) Badiou in Jamaica: The Politics of Conflict . Melbourne: Re. Press.

[64] Yanqi, T. (1995) “Mass Alienation under State Socialism and After.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 28: 215–237.

[65] Yun, M. S. (1990) “The Rise and Fall of Neo-Authoritarianism in China.” China Information 5: 1–18.

[66] Zhao, S. (1993) “Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour: Elite Politics in Post-Tiananmen China.” Asian Survey 33: 739–756.

[67] Zhao, S. X., et al. (2017) “How Big Is China's Real Estate Bubble and Why Hasn't It Burst Yet?” Land Use Policy 64: 153–162.

[68] žižek, S. (2014) Trouble in Paradise: From the End of History to the End of Capitalism . London: Penguin.

Journal of Global Faultlines

The Mass-Line, 1917 to 1989: Chinese Experience

Contributors

Journal

Article

History

Categories

Comment on this article