DBW-3: the Spirit of Daguan Village, Part 1
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DBW-3 1997 EAST ASIA Daniel Wright is an Institute Fellow studying ICWA the people and societies of inland China. LETTERS The Spirit of Daguan Village Leadership and Poverty (Part 1) Since 1925 the Institute of Current GUIZHOU, China DECEMBER 1997 World Affairs (the Crane-Rogers Foundation) has provided long-term fellowships to enable outstanding I used to believe that because China is a huge agricultural country — 80% of its young professionals to live outside the population lives in the countryside — only those who understand Chinese rural United States and write about interna- society can really know China. But when I traveled to survey impoverished moun- tional areas and issues. An exempt tain regions in provinces like Guizhou, Guangxi and Yunnan, I was stunned to operating foundation endowed by the discover poverty that surpassed even that which I had encountered more than late Charles R. Crane, the Institute is twenty years ago when I was sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revo- also supported by contributions lution. This forced me to reconsider: our country has been industrializing for more from like-minded individuals than forty years, we have been reforming for almost twenty years; how can these and foundations. areas’ economies remain in such primitive autarchy, in such abject poverty? Now I have come to believe that China is a large developing country of extreme imbal- ance, almost twenty years of reform have only exacerbated this disparity. Only TRUSTEES those who understand Chinese rural poverty can really know China.1 Bryn Barnard —Hu Angang, Economist, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Carole Beaulieu Evelyn Cohn By Daniel B. Wright Richard Dudman Peter Geithner Fifty-five pairs of eyes stared intently at me across the classroom. Pensive and Thomas Hughes serious, the 55 town mayors and party secretaries listened as I introduced vari- William E. Knowland eties of worldwide poverty and current economic development models. As we Stephen Maly exchanged eye contact, I could only imagine the weight of concern that must oc- Mildred Marcy cupy these men’s and women’s minds — they are responsible to for leading rural, Peter Bird Martin mountain townships in counties that are poor, so poor they have been designated Paul A. Rahe as “impoverished” by Guizhou’s provincial government.2 And this is within one Carol Rose of China’s most backward provinces. Indeed, the men and women who sat across John Spencer from me lead China’s poorest of the poor. Edmund H. Sutton Sally Wriggins Provincial and prefectural leaders realize they must get through to the minds of local officials if poverty alleviation efforts are to fully take hold. Toward this HONORARY TRUSTEES end, Qiannan Prefecture’s Office of Poverty Alleviation began a project this past summer to organize semi-annual, week-long training seminars that will last A. Doak Barnett through the year 2000. Over a three-year period, more than 300 town mayors and David Elliot party secretaries will receive training in poverty alleviation policy, management David Hapgood techniques and development models, as well as enjoy the camaraderie of shar- Pat M. Holt ing a week with others who face similar challenges. Edwin S. Munger Richard H. Nolte Qiannan Prefecture’s People’s Congress President, Mr. Wu Jiapu, delivered Albert Ravenholt Phillips Talbot 1 Kang Xiaoguang, Zhongguo fupin yu fan fupin lilun (Chinese Poverty and Poverty Alleviation Theory) (Nanning: Guangxi People’s Press, 1995), 9. The Institute of Current World Affairs 2 Seminar participants represented five of Qiannan Prefecture’s seven “impoverished” THE CRANE-ROGERS FOUNDATION counties: Changshun, Dushan, Huishui, Libo and Sandu (Luodian and Pingtang not 4 West Wheelock Street included). Qiannan Prefecture has a total of ten counties and two cities. The poverty line Hanover, New Hampshire 03755 is based on an average annual rural per-capita income of 650 yuan ($79) and average annual per-capita grain production of 650 kg. the training seminar’s opening address. “Comrades, Many of the serious dispositions lightened a bit as we had each of you comes here today from the front lines of time to get to know each other during breaks and after the poverty’s battlefield.” The president spoke without ex- session concluded. In fact, to my delight, a casual refer- pression. Mentally pacing back and forth, he spoke in ence I made during the presentation to my love for fish- slow, measured sentences; thin streams of cigarette ing resulted in invitations from several mayors. “We’re smoke rose gently above his head during the periodic si- poor, but we have lots of fish in our rivers!” one mayor lence. “Your task in the fight against poverty is both chal- said proudly. lenging and glorious.... You carry heavy burdens.... You must reject blind optimism... You must emulate the hard- “Prefecture leaders from the capital [Duyun] come to working, never-say-never spirit of Daguan Village.” my town to fish; I stand right next to them when we fish, we use the same bait, but they catch all the fish. Could The reference to Daguan Village caught my attention. you come to my place and show me some tips?” another I am familiar with the Dazhai production brigade of the mayor remarked. Typical fisherman humility, I thought 1950s, a model commune (not called village at the time) to myself. in Shanxi Province that, be- cause of its residents’ hard “Emulate Daguan Village in our work for “Of course. I’d love to,” work, reported a dramatic I accepted. “We can chat as fivefold production increase. twenty years and there would be no one we fish.” Dazhai’s work ethic and in our country that lacked food to eat.” stunning results were said to Others, however, re- prove Mao Zedong’s vision —Jiang Zemin mained quite serious, even of rural self-reliance and in their private comments. revolutionary zeal. To promote Dazhai’s spirit to the na- “Foreigners underestimate the seriousness of our pov- tion, a front-page article in a December 1964 edition of erty,” one mayor told me. People’s Daily featured a photograph of Dazhai brigade leader Chen Yonggui standing next to Chairman Mao. Another official lamented, “Our town faces tremen- The caption below the photo read: “In agriculture learn dous difficulties.” from Dazhai.” Chen quickly climbed to prominence, all the way to a position in China’s Politburo, China’s high- I wanted to follow up on these invitations immedi- est governmental body.3 ately, but I decided it would be best to look first into the ideal each was supposed to emulate in their leadership of I have also heard and read much about the revolu- local poverty reduction — the spirit of Daguan Village. tionary soldier of peasant background, Lei Feng, who was canonized by Mao Zedong as a model proletarian EMULATE THE SPIRIT OF DAGUAN during the 1960s. Though killed in 1963 by a falling tele- phone pole, the 23-year-old peasant conveniently left Though Daguan Village sits high in the remote karst4 behind a beautifully written diary that displayed an un- mountains of Luodian County in southern Guizhou usual selflessness and passion to serve the people. As one Province, it has become a nationwide phenomenon. All of his many quotable quotes, Lei Feng wrote, “I will be a major newspapers and television documentary programs screw that never rusts and will glitter anywhere I am have told Daguan’s story. A photographic exhibition has placed.” After Mao Zedong eulogized Lei Feng, he in- even taken the spirit of Daguan on the road. Daguan stantly became a model for all to emulate. “Learn from Village’s leader, Party Secretary He Yuanliang, has risen Lei Feng” campaigns — in which his “spirit of a screw” to national fame as well — he is a “national model and other admirable qualities were exalted for all to fol- worker” and was a delegate to this year’s Fifteenth Party low — sprang up nationwide in the 1960s; they were res- Congress in Beijing. The Guizhou Province delegation urrected in the early 1980s and then again immediately hosted a booth and press conference at the Congress to after the events of 1989. promote the spirit of Daguan Village. Since the campaign to emulate Daguan began at the end of 1996, some 80,000 But I had not heard of Daguan Village. A Dazhai for visitors — mainly busloads of government officials — have the 1990s? The spirit of Daguan Village was something I made the journey to “learn from the spirit of Daguan.” That’s would have to look into after the training seminar ended. an average of over 200 a day! Apart from my disappoint- Meanwhile, the afternoon seminar with the town mayors ment with not being able to interact with Daguan’s and party secretaries turned out to be quite enjoyable. villagers, my trek to Daguan Village, just a seven- 3 With Deng Xiaoping’s rise to power in late 1978 and official permission to criticize the Mao-era, Dazhai commune was publicly discredited by a People’s Daily article in 1980. Chen Yonggui had overreported production figures, underreported available land and exaggerated grain sales. Chen Yonggui lost his Politburo seat in 1981. 4 Karst describes rocky geological configurations characterized by irregular limestone formations. In karst mountain regions, the barren mountains are completely rock-covered with little soil. Rainfall drains off immediately; cultivation and irrigation are practically impossible. 2 DBW-3 RUSSIA SICHUAN KAZAKHSTAN Heilongjiang MONGOLIA Jilin Nei Mongol KYRGYZSTAN (Inner Mongolia) Liaoning Zunyi • Tongren NORTH • AFG. Xinjiang Beijing✪ KOREA Hebei SOUTH • Bijie PAK. Shanxi KOREA GUIZHOU Shandong Yellow HUNAN Ningxia Sea Qinghai Gansu Guiyang Henan Jiangsu Liupanshui • Shaanxi Xizang • Kaili AREA OF DETAIL Anhui Shanghai • (Tibet) Anshun Hubei Sichuan Zhejiang • NEPAL • Jiangxi Duyun BHUTAN Hunan Fujian Guizhou Daguan Village INDIA BANGLA- TAIWAN DESH Yunnan Guangdong Yunnan Guangxi Hong Kong YUNNAN Hong Kong • Xingyi CHINA MYANMAR VIETNAM • 0 60 km South China Sea Bay of Bengal LAOS GUANGXI Hainan 0 40 mi 0 Miles 50 THAILAND PHILIPPINES hour bus ride from Duyun, was well worth the trip.