• Mei Lanfang was a legendary Chinese opera performer born in 1894 in Beijing.
  
• He started training in Peking Opera at age 8 and debuted on stage at 11.
  
• He became famous for playing female roles, especially the “Flower-Shattering Diva.”
  
• He stopped performing for five years during Japanese occupation, returning in 1946.
  
• Joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1959 and died in Beijing in 1961.

• Urban and rural revolutions: How did they change China?
• What are political campaigns? How did they work?
• How did ordinary Chinese experience the revolution? Did women have a Communist Revolution?

• 1953-07: Armistice concluded, with 4-km demilitarized zone along 38th and exchange of PoWs
• 600K Chinese killed, another 400K+ wounded
• 36K Americans, 520K North Koreans, 400K South Koreans
• Third deadliest war of the 20th century
• Military expenditures comprising of 55% of PRC gov spending, diverted from other programs

Boost to PRC prestige

• China as a rising international power
• Able to defend itself against superior American forces
• Not just a dependent satellite of the Soviet Union

Revolutionary diplomacy

• China as a protector and defender of non-Western countries
• Support of Viet Minh in war against the French
• Support to North Korean and North Vietnamese communist governments

Domestic boost

• Regime consolidation, popular mobilization, and total transformation of Chinese society

Max Weber

• Administrative institutions make the state visible and intelligible.
• States are comprised of formal organizations, which are in turn formed, staffed, and deployed by human agents.

Antonio Gramsci

• Cultural hegemony refers to domination or rule maintained through ideological or cultural means.
• Think about culture and tactics: how do state policies and the way in which they are implemented shape state capacity? How do citizens accept the norms and ethos of the state?

Pillars of control:

• Neighborhood organization
• Household registration
• Work unit
• Personal dossiers

• From cradle to death: Housing, goods, services formerly provided by private establishments
• Locus of personal identity: Self-contained communities with near permanent employment
• Organs of political and social control: Organization of political study, Approval of marriage diverse, Travel authorization, etc.

• 1920s: mass social movements in Republican China protesting weak, corrupt governments and foreign imperialism.
  
• “Campaign” encompassed diverse uses: physical exercise, military campaigns, grassroots protests, and state-led mobilizations by both Communist and Nationalist parties.
  
• Goal: extraordinary mobilization of people and resources to implement a specific program to accomplish particular goals in a defined period of time.

Suppression of Counter-revolutionaries (1950)

• Civil servant hold-overs from the GMD
• Urban secret societies

Three Anti campaign (1951–1952)

• Waste
• Corruption
• Bureaucratism

Five Anti campaign (1952–1953)

• Corruption
• Tax evasion
• Stealing state property
• Cheating on state contracts
• Stealing state economic secrets

Socio-political transformation:

• Changing thought and social relations

Economic development:

• Collectivize agriculture, socialize commerce, etc. through superhuman efforts

Early mobilization:

• Intense political study
• Work and production disrupted

Radical phase:

• Concrete targets identified for struggle session
• Organizational changes implemented on a trial basis

Coercive phase:

• Formal punishment
• Quota fulfilled

• Mao’s China as campaign state: at least one major campaign every year until 1976
• Tension and struggle are necessary for educating the people – and for defeating political enemies
• Bureaucracy: Instrument of rule, but also obstacle and source of frustration
• Disruption as feature, not a bug: campaigns as necessary adjunct to regularized party propaganda and coercion

• Campaigns are temporary, intense efforts to achieve a specific goal using lots of resources.
  
• Campaigns became a policy fixture during the Mao era.