Essay On The Peasant Life In China Before The Cultural Revolution

Being a peasant in China before the Cultural Revolution was rough. During the Cultural Revolution we see huge changes in the peasant lifestyles. The vast population of China was farmers that had either little land to work on or land that was rented out by landlords. The novel Frog by Mo Yan is an excellent novel in, which Mo describes the lives of peasant people, one child policy, family planning, and the role of women in china during the cultural revolution. In this essay I will be arguing the positive effects of the Cultural Revolution that happened for the peasant class. For instance what major impacts happened to the peasant life during the Cultural Revolution, why were the peasant class for Mao Zedong, and what made their life easier. …show more content…
The vast amounts of China’s population were farmers who had to work rigorously and at the end still not have much leftover. The social structure of the peasant life in China was the peasant worked and gave the earning to the landlord. The workers them self needed more labor therefore producing more kids meant having more help for the farm. In the novel Frog Mo’s narrative tadpole gives us a look of poverty in the beginning by saying “people would eat coal” that’s how worse it got for the peasant people of China. The landlords were not looked upon as saviors because they were also the officials therefore if you couldn’t pay the landlord the fees not only would there be punishment for that, but also a government punishment as well. The peasant life mainly revolved around the farm the children did not have much education because of the labor needed in the farm. Some peasants were beggars and would have to live off the streets in able to get what they needed. In the novel Mo often describes the life of peasants for instance over two year period there was a famine in which the peasant women disrupted women’s menstrual cycles, and made men into eunuchs. This meant that not only were there a physical breakdown in the women, but men also had a mental breakdown in where they basically were the same as female hopeless but they were just in a male’s body that could not do anything for their family. An …show more content…
Mao coming from a peasant family knew what it was like growing up not having food or having to see his parents give their hard earned food to the landowners. The peasant class saw Mao as their savior in a sense because they knew that their voice would be heard through Mao. The support of the peasant population for Mao was incredibly high because of the all the promises he made to the peasant class of China. Farmers in China also wanted the Japanese to get out of china so therefore they also teamed up with Mao to get their country. Mao used this against the peasant by brainwashing them into the great leap then into the Cultural Revolution by involving the youth. By telling them that they are they future of china people will see china through the youth. Many people also supported Mao because they felt that Mao also understands them and no one would go out their way to help the peasant community besides Mao. The people of China had very deep feelings for Mao in the past they were very happy that these revolution, reforms, modernizations happen. Also the concept of Mao out with the old in the with new gave the youth of China that no the power is really in the hand of the youth. And that they can become anything they want with this power, they can marry who they want, be what they want, did not have to listen to their elders no more all in all it was more like freedom for the youth of