China’s Sent-Down Generation: Public Administration and the Legacies of Mao’s Rustication Program

248 Pages·2013·1.78 MB·English

by  Helena K. Rene

CHINA’S SENT- DOWN GENERATION
Public Management and Change Series
Beryl A. Radin, Series Editor
Editorial Board
Robert Agranoff William Gormley
Michael Barzelay Rosemary O’Leary
Ann O’M. Bowman Norma Riccucci
H. George Frederickson David H. Rosenbloom
Titles in the Series
Challenging the Performance Movement: Accountability, Complexity, and Democratic Values
Beryl A. Radin
Charitable Choice at Work: Evaluating Faith- Based Job Programs in the States
Sheila Suess Kennedy and Wolfgang Bielefeld
Collaborating to Manage: A Primer for the Public Sector
Robert Agranoff
The Collaborative Public Manager: New Ideas for the Twenty- fi rst Century
Rosemary O’Leary and Lisa Blomgren Bingham, Editors
The Dynamics of Performance Management: Constructing Information and Reform
Donald P. Moynihan
Federal Management Reform in a World of Contradictions
Beryl A. Radin
The Future of Public Administration around the World: The Minnowbrook Perspective
Rosemary O’Leary, David M. Van Slyke, and Soonhee Kim, Editors
The Greening of the US Military: Environmental Policy, National Security, and Organizational Change
Robert F. Durant
High- Stakes Reform: The Politics of Educational Accountability
Kathryn A. McDermott
How Information Matters: Networks and Public Policy Innovation
Kathleen Hale
How Management Matters: Street- Level Bureaucrats and Welfare Reform
Norma M. Riccucci
Implementing Innovation: Fostering Enduring Change in Environmental and Natural Resource Governance
Toddi A. Steelman
Managing within Networks: Adding Value to Public Organizations
Robert Agranoff
Measuring the Performance of the Hollow State
David G. Frederickson and H. George Frederickson
Organizational Learning at NASA: The Challenger and Columbia Accidents
Julianne G. Mahler with Maureen Hogan Casamayou
Program Budgeting and the Performance Movement: The Elusive Quest for Effi ciency in Government
William F. West
Public Administration: Traditions of Inquiry and Philosophies of Knowledge
Norma M. Riccucci
Public Values and Public Interest: Counterbalancing Economic Individualism
Barry Bozeman
The Responsible Contract Manager: Protecting the Public Interest in an Outsourced World
Steven Cohen and William Eimicke
Revisiting Waldo’s Administrative State: Constancy and Change in Public Administration
David H. Rosenbloom and Howard E. McCurdy, Editors
CHINA’S SENT- DOWN GENERATION
Public Administration and the
Legacies of Mao’s Rustication Program
HELENA K. RENE
Georgetown University Press
Washington, DC
© 2013 Georgetown University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Rene, Helena K.
China’s sent- down generation : public administration and the legacies of Mao’s rustication
program / Helena K. Rene.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 1- 58901- 987- 4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Urban youth—Government policy—China—History—20th century. 2. Forced migration—
China—History—20th century. 3. Urban- rural migration—Government policy—China—
History—20th century. 4. Administrative agencies—China—Evaluation. I. Title.
HQ799.C55R37 2012
305.2350951'091732—dc23
2012038648
o This book is printed on acid- free paper meeting the requirements of the American National
Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
First printing
This book is dedicated
To my father, Mark A. Rene, who taught me, age thirteen, my first words in
English when we first immigrated to the United States;
To my mother, Zhang Wei, who taught me to always dare to dream
the impossible;
To all the first- generation Chinese immigrants who aspire to achieve the
American dream;
To the people of China whose resilience and spirit will always live on;
To China, a nation of 1.3 billion, once ravaged by wars and decades of political
turbulence but that now stands tall and thrives on the world stage;
And to the United States, a land of opportunities that has given me so much, a
nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
List of Abbreviations xvii
1 The Problem: How Was China Able to Send Seventeen Million
Urban Youth to the Countryside during the Cultural Revolution? 1
2 Administering Economic Development: A Prelude to the Cultural
Revolution and Rustication 15
3 The Politics of the Cultural Revolution (1965–67):
Toppling Bureaucrats, Perduring Bureaucracy 37
4 Rustication: Policy and Administrative Implementation 75
5 Public Administration and the Sent- Down Experience 103
6 Conclusion: Rustication as Public Administration 163
Appendix A: Interviewee Profi les 181
Appendix B: Interview Schedule 211
Glossary 215
References 217
Index 223
This page intentionally left blank
Illustrations
Tables
1.1 Interviewee Characteristics: Sent- Downs 10
1.2 Interviewee Characteristics: Controls 11
3.1 Deposed CCP Bureaucrats by 1966 57
Figures
2.1 Timeline of Administering Economic Development: A Prelude to the
Cultural Revolution and Rustication 17
3.1 Timeline of the Politics of the Cultural Revolution (1965–67):
Toppling Bureaucrats, Perduring Bureaucracy 39
4.1 Timeline of Rustication: Policy and Administrative Implementation 77
Photographs
4.1 Two young women in Tiananmen Square 79
4.2 A youth propaganda team 80
4.3 Two young men who were sent down to a military farm 83
4.4 and 4.5 Young women in the rustication program 88
5.1 Transportation of sent- down men on a fl atbed truck to
rustication destinations 129
6.1 Three sent- down women happily studying Mao’s Thought for
the camera 166
Boxes
1.1 Sent- Down Destinations 9
2.1 Mao in the Eyes of My Interviewees 20