Word: peasant
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Renewed Concern. The beginning of that dialogue has stirred up all sorts of hopes and interests about China among Americans. Some of the interest is pure fad-the fascination with baggy peasant suits and spicy Szechwan cooking, for instance. But the fact is that the last 23 years of ill will and hatred represent an aberration in the history of Sino-American relations, and the renewed concern about China is a restoration of normalcy. America's attachment to China dates back to the mid-19th century, when the U.S. derived considerable moral satisfaction from befriending the helpless, prostrate country...
...vivid A thmtic account of life in China, Journalist Ross Terrill suggested that the foundation of its revolution rests on what he refers to as a "Blessed Trinity": the peasant, the worker and the soldier. A descriptive summary of their routine lives says much about what China is like today...
...PEASANT. A worker at the Ma Chang Commune in Honan will rise at dawn, come rain or shine. Before a breakfast of corn dumpling soup and tea, he will spend two hours plowing the stony earth while his wife cleans their two-room hut, then joins him in the fields. A member of a 300-man production team-one of six on the commune-he will then have to face three hours in the field before a brief lunch of millet, sorghum and tea. Then it is back to the fields until sundown. Before supper-occasionally it may include meat...
...this particular commune, the pay of a peasant is 30 yuan a month -roughly $12. But the farmer pays only 1 yuan a month in rent, 60 to 80 for cigarettes and, as likely as not, nothing at all for books or magazines; despite the massive literacy campaigns, the majority of peasants are still functionally illiterate. The farmer's children, though, attend the commune school, where elementary math is taught in concrete, even ominous terms. A typical question: "How many guns have four militiamen each armed with two guns...
...basic foodstuffs-rice, noodles and breadstuffs-are obtained by the peasant as his share of the production of his commune, which is run by a revolutionary committee. Medical care is free, thanks to the "barefoot doctors" -medical technicians who are assigned to all communes. Television on the commune is, of course, unheard-of. Many families have radios, though, and from time to time entertainment is provided by touring companies of actors and musicians...