Never Forget the Struggle over Class: An Introduction to the China Rural Revolution Dataset – Siqing

Matthew Noellert, Hitotsubashi University

By way of introducing a novel dataset constructed from class status registration forms created in the mid-1960s, this article calls for a review of some of the basic assumptions about "class struggle", i.e. socialist class formation and stratification, in the early People's Republic of China (PRC, 1949-1979). Class status in the early PRC comprised a combination of ascribed family traits and achieved personal and political traits. Central policies and local practices were often at odds and fluctuated over time in their emphasis on such ascribed vs. achieved measures, reflecting a serious struggle to come to terms with stratification in a socialist society. Previous research, largely based on published sources and retrospective self-reporting and colored by the Cultural Revolution, fails to account for the complexities and larger implications of this struggle. The format and content of the class status registration forms, which record detailed economic, social, and political histories for every adult individual, challenge attempts to define class as simply ascribed hereditary categories or arbitrary political labels.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 121. Power Dynamics: Patriarchy, Slaveholding, and Class Struggles