Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-v5vhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-15T06:52:10.190Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Communism in Action, 1949–57

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 June 2017

Get access

Summary

Expectations

We stood that day with hundreds of thousands in the square before Tien An Men – the Gate of Heavenly Peace – massive entrance to what had once been called the Forbidden City, the palace where for 500 years China's Emperors had ruled. Now, on the magnificent gate house, topped with tiles of Imperial yellow, Mao Zedong and his staunchest colleagues had gathered. Mao, the philosopher, poet, and historian, was surely profoundly conscious of the significance of that day as he ringingly proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China. […] The crowd had been silent at first, recalling years of suffering in fierce fighting. But now, at last, victory. A roar welled from thousands of throats, a heart cry of triumph and resolve.

We began to see changes almost immediately.

This was the scene on 1 October 1949, as recalled by the American Sidney Shapiro in his memoirs, An American in China. On that day, standing on a balcony in the old imperial palace of Beijing, Mao Zedong proclaimed the formation of the People's Republic of China. Its immediate aims were to bring Communism to China, to modernize the country and to make it into a strong, internationally respected state. In its first eight years there were only modest advances towards these goals, but at least it avoided the terrible mistakes that were to be made in the two decades that followed. No matter their political affiliations, most Chinese were profoundly relieved that the civil war years were over and, while not everyone welcomed a Communist victory, most were glad that the bloodshed and turmoil had ended and hoped that the PRC would inaugurate a more peaceful, prosperous era in China's history. Mao had presented the CCP as a less rigid Communist party with a more pragmatic approach which would countenance a mixed economy, adapted to the particular conditions in each region. He had also appealed to a wide constituency: not just the peasants, but also urban workers, smallscale traders, businessmen, farmers and intellectuals – all except for the old bureaucratic elite and the big capitalists. On the basis of this broad ideological appeal to a wide stratum of Chinese society, there were great expectations of Mao and the Communists in 1949.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Creation of Modern China, 1894-2008
The Rise of a World Power
, pp. 135 - 168
Publisher: Anthem Press
Print publication year: 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×