So i'm in this class on the history of the People's Republic of China. It's quite fascinating.

We're at the Great Leap forward now, and honestly, it is hard to read those readings. Not because they are boring, but because i feel emotionally raw and distruaght after reading each piece. It just tears my heart to read about the personal accounts of this famine that killed 30 million people. That's the most people that have ever died in any famine in human history. What is more tragic is that as people were dying of starvation, China actually had an increase in its exports of grain during those years. Can you believe that? none of the grain that you worked so hard to harvest can be used for you to survive, all because of some guy's quest for grandeur and proving to all the other countries that he was a worthy leader???

some thoughts i've been having on this:

1. Mao was a genius in terms of leadership. This isn't to say he was a good person or to justify him 30 million people, nor is it to say i agree with all his leadership philosophy. It goes to prove, though, that he WAS a powerful leader. He knew how to inspire and mobilize people. He knew how to use the idea of utopia as more than a distant goal, but a goal that could be achieved in the present. This is how he motivated people. With his leadership skills, he was able to change and mobilize a country of 600 million people (of which the population grown to over 1billion today). that is simply staggering. It makes me realize the responsibiilty that comes along with leadership. The huge burden that it brings for talented leaders- How will leaders use their skills of leadership to lead people and to what end?

2. The communist dream sounds so much like christianity, except without a God. It is the secularized version of heaven. And somehow that equated to hell during the great leap forward.

3. It amazes me how much China's politics are about proving itself to the rest of the world. It's all about bringing it back to the glory of its several-millenia long history. They use a victimization tactic in their politics in which the rest of the world is picking on China and taking away its top position that is rightfully to be in the hands of the Chinese.

However, China has been a victim in these last 150-200 years. The history is so tragic. Although china's victimization tactics in politics are motivated by pride and the desire for more pride, I cannot argue that China has NOT been the victim all these years. The west has victimized and pillaged China with imperialism and cultural hegemony.

4. However, the biggest victims are the peasants, and they are not the victims of a foreign power, but of their own government. The Chinese Communist Party built its victory and control of China on the backs of the peasants. Yet the peasants were the ones who worked to de@th and starvation during the cultural revolution. All the government's promises have proven empty. Now, instead of fulfilling the promises of equality with the urban sectors of China, the government has made the gap between teh rich and the poor even wider than ever before. CHINA OWES A GREAT DEBT TO ITS PEASANTS.

okay no more thoughts. maybe for another time.