Matt and Rudy join Dongping Han, author of The Unknown Cultural Revolution: Life and Change in a Chinese Village for a discussion on his experiences growing up in Maoist China. We discuss his hometown in Jimo County, his experiences with the Great Leap Forward and how they compare to common historiography of the period, the attitude of Communist Party officials and how the Cultural Revolution changed the long tradition of politics in rural China by empowering the common people to fight back against corrupt officials, the educational reforms during the Cultural Revolution and how it helped bridge the urban-rural divide. We finish by discussing the end of the Cultural Revolution and how the Deng reforms set back the countryside.
Cosmopod