A Social History of Maoist China

New Approaches to Asian History

by Felix Wemheuer

When the Chinese communists came to power in 1949, they promised to ‘turn society upside down’. Efforts to build a communist society created hopes and dreams, coupled with fear and disillusionment. The Chinese people made great efforts towards modernization and social change in this period of transition, but they also experienced traumatic setbacks. Covering the period 1949 to 1976 and then tracing the legacy of the Mao era through the 1980s, Felix Wemheuer focuses on questions of class, gender, ethnicity, and the urban-rural divide in this new social history of Maoist China. He analyzes the experiences of a range of social groups under Communist rule – workers, peasants, local cadres, intellectuals, ‘ethnic minorities’, the old elites, men and women. To understand this tumultuous period, he argues, we must recognize the many complex challenges facing the People’s Republic. But we must not lose sight of the human suffering and political terror that, for many now ageing quietly across China, remain the period’s abiding memory.

Genres: China, History

348 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2019

About the author

Felix Wemheuer is Chair Professor of Modern China Studies at the University of Cologne.

Reviews

[Leo46 · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Social history” Is basically wemheuer’s excuse of not fully understanding the politics, economics, and theory that ties into this history. There are so many contradictions made within his claims for the obvious purposes of anti-communist propaganda and attempts to give himself authority by citing Chinese titles that were done shittily with pinyin without tonal accents or Chinese characters themselves (which he uses performatively at the beginning of each chapter along with the glossary). There are so many claims, facts, and numbers he never cites, too. His definitions of trade unionism and economism are laughably bad and he seems to put everything in quotes that he doesn’t understand including “class struggle,” “counterrevolutionary,” “rightist,” “ultra-leftist,” and more as if they were arbitrary labels to be wielded by the party to purge whoever they wanted. At least it gave a generally quick easy overview and some interesting graphs and statistics.

[Marvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detaillierter Überblick über die Fort- und Rückschritte von verschiedenen sozialen Gruppen in China unter 毛泽东 (Mao Zedong). Ohne Verherrlichung; ohne Anti-Mao-Furor, sondern ausgewogene wissenschaftliche Darstellung.

[Rebecca Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really helped me understand why the Chinese Communist Party did what they did in the 1940s-70s, what they were trying to achieve, and where they were successful and where they weren't.


The author describes the socialist goals and intentions of the CCP as they evolved over time. He evaluates the CCP against their own goals rather than arrogantly passing judgment based on Western values. He comes to the conclusion that things like the Great Leap Forward were failures -- and this is much more believable because he uses the CCP's own socialist goals rather than imposing Western values.

[Wujianan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very rich and substantial work on the social history of the first thirty years of the People's Republic of China. It provides many details that official histories have overlooked: for example, a complete picture of urban-rural life, resistance to the unified purchase and distribution system and the bureaucratic system, and so on. I found the most interesting part to be the account of the adjustment measures taken after the failure of the Great Leap Forward. These measures continued into the Cultural Revolution and served as the starting point and target of many of its policies and mass movements.

[Jotunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

+ This book discusses existing academic materials before stating the author's own opinion, which is of great value for a newbie unfamiliar with Maoist China.

+ The content about sexuality and ethnicity in Maoist China is enlightening.

- Some periods in Maoist China are discussed very briefly. For example, the author doesn't bring anything new about the Cultural Revolution.