Research Question:
To what extent did the uprising of peasants during the Sino-Japanese War in 1937 contribute to the Chinese Communist Party’s victory over the Chinese Nationalist Party in the Chinese Revolution in 1946?
Relevance of the Source:
The two sources that are evaluated are Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village by William Hinton and The Reluctant Combatant: Japan and the Second Sino-Japanese War by Lin Si-Yun and Minoru Kitamura. These sources are relevant to my research question because many peasants lived in rural areas of China, and Hinton wrote about the social and economic structure of a Chinese village, Long Bow during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Revolution. Lin Si-Yun and Minoru Kitamura …show more content…
Although this book was published in 1966, the notes that this memoir was based on is from 1948. This book was also published for the English-speaking demographic to show the progress of China’s revolution. Fanshen consist of different villager’s accounts on the village’s conditions, and reformation during the Chinese Revolution. A value in its origin is that this book compiles deplorable conditions that the villagers were in. For example, Hinton reiterates how a girl at the age of nine, had to work as a peasant for six years. Then, she married into the family only to be shackled by the wealthy family’s oppression and abuse. Many other peasants experienced similar or even worse fates, and Fanshen shows why the peasants would harbour resent against the many gentries who represented the Kuomintang Party. Hinton was a foreign English professor who was teaching in China at that time. He wasn’t a fellow villager, nonetheless a member of the secret Communist Party that was established to resist the Japanese. Therefore, his access to underground movements within the peasants were limiting. In fact, many villagers had to keep their membership in these militias a secret because if “the enemy” returned, they would be …show more content…
This book was published in 2014 in the United States and United Kingdom and it shows a more modern view on the Second Sino-Japanese War. Lin Si-Yun and Minoru Kitamura want to use this book to resolve misunderstandings in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Lin Si-Yun graduated from Nan-Jing University. His background and expertise is valuable because he understands the implicit positions during the war and the Chinese Revolution. For example, Lin Si-Yun investigates the position of the “doves” and the hawks”. The “doves” wanted peaceful negotiations with Japan while the “hawks” wanted to wage war. The peasants had to suffer the consequences of these activists’ decisions by being forcefully drafted into the war and having to supply the army with food and clothing despite having numerous famine such as the one in 1942. This source is limiting because the authors have a more political interpretation over the conflict. The authors mentioned how the government were able to receive food and wealth from farmers. They also said that the farmers’ livelihoods were not threatened which is inaccurate. Peasants mainly worked for wealthy landowners and they were forced to work in poverty and starvation until they die. This Chinese feudal system existed long before the Chinese Civil and continued until the Chinese Communist Party’s
To what extent did the uprising of peasants during the Sino-Japanese War in 1937 contribute to the Chinese Communist Party’s victory over the Chinese Nationalist Party in the Chinese Revolution in 1946?
Relevance of the Source:
The two sources that are evaluated are Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village by William Hinton and The Reluctant Combatant: Japan and the Second Sino-Japanese War by Lin Si-Yun and Minoru Kitamura. These sources are relevant to my research question because many peasants lived in rural areas of China, and Hinton wrote about the social and economic structure of a Chinese village, Long Bow during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Revolution. Lin Si-Yun and Minoru Kitamura …show more content…
Although this book was published in 1966, the notes that this memoir was based on is from 1948. This book was also published for the English-speaking demographic to show the progress of China’s revolution. Fanshen consist of different villager’s accounts on the village’s conditions, and reformation during the Chinese Revolution. A value in its origin is that this book compiles deplorable conditions that the villagers were in. For example, Hinton reiterates how a girl at the age of nine, had to work as a peasant for six years. Then, she married into the family only to be shackled by the wealthy family’s oppression and abuse. Many other peasants experienced similar or even worse fates, and Fanshen shows why the peasants would harbour resent against the many gentries who represented the Kuomintang Party. Hinton was a foreign English professor who was teaching in China at that time. He wasn’t a fellow villager, nonetheless a member of the secret Communist Party that was established to resist the Japanese. Therefore, his access to underground movements within the peasants were limiting. In fact, many villagers had to keep their membership in these militias a secret because if “the enemy” returned, they would be …show more content…
This book was published in 2014 in the United States and United Kingdom and it shows a more modern view on the Second Sino-Japanese War. Lin Si-Yun and Minoru Kitamura want to use this book to resolve misunderstandings in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Lin Si-Yun graduated from Nan-Jing University. His background and expertise is valuable because he understands the implicit positions during the war and the Chinese Revolution. For example, Lin Si-Yun investigates the position of the “doves” and the hawks”. The “doves” wanted peaceful negotiations with Japan while the “hawks” wanted to wage war. The peasants had to suffer the consequences of these activists’ decisions by being forcefully drafted into the war and having to supply the army with food and clothing despite having numerous famine such as the one in 1942. This source is limiting because the authors have a more political interpretation over the conflict. The authors mentioned how the government were able to receive food and wealth from farmers. They also said that the farmers’ livelihoods were not threatened which is inaccurate. Peasants mainly worked for wealthy landowners and they were forced to work in poverty and starvation until they die. This Chinese feudal system existed long before the Chinese Civil and continued until the Chinese Communist Party’s