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E-book
Author Rene, Helena K.

Title China's sent-down generation : public administration and the legacies of Mao's rustication program / Helena K. Rene
Published Washington, DC : Georgetown University Press, ©2013

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Description 1 online resource (xiii, 229 pages) : illustrations
Series Public management and change series
Public management and change.
Contents The problem : how was China able to send 17 million urban youth to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution? -- Administering economic development : a prelude to the Cultural Revolution and rustication -- Mao's anti-bureaucratic ethos -- The politics of the Cultural Revolution (1965-1967) : toppling bureaucrats, perduring bureaucracy -- Rustication : policy and administrative implementation -- Public administration and the sent-down experience -- Conclusion : rustication as public administration -- List of references -- Appendix A : Interviewee profiles -- Appendix B : Interview schedule
Summary During China's Cultural Revolution, Chairman Mao Zedong's "rustication program" resettled 17 million urban youths, known as "sent downs," to the countryside for manual labor and socialist reeducation. This book examines the mechanisms and dynamics of state craft in China, from the rustication program's inception in 1968 to its official termination in 1980 and actual completion in the 1990s. Rustication, in the ideology of Mao's peasant-based revolution, formed a critical component of the Cultural Revolution's larger attack on bureaucrats, capitalists, the intelligentsia, and "degenerative" urban life. This book assesses the program's origins, development, organization, implementation, performance, and public administrative consequences. It was the defining experience for many Chinese born between 1949 and 1962, and many of China's contemporary leaders went through the rustication program. The author explains the lasting impact of the rustication program on China's contemporary administrative culture, for example, showing how and why bureaucracy persisted and even grew stronger during the wrenching chaos of the Cultural Revolution. The author also focuses on the special difficulties female sent-downs faced in terms of work, pressures to marry local peasants, and sexual harassment, predation, and violence. The author's parents were both sent downs, and she was able to interview over fifty former sent downs from around the country, something never previously accomplished. This book demonstrates the rustication program's long-term consequences for China's bureaucracy, for the spread of corruption, and for the families traumatized by this authoritarian social experiment
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Urban youth -- Government policy -- China -- History -- 20th century
Forced migration -- China -- History -- 20th century
Urban-rural migration -- Government policy -- China -- History -- 20th century
Administrative agencies -- China -- Evaluation
FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS -- Life Stages -- Adolescence.
FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS -- Life Stages -- Teenagers.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Affairs & Administration.
Administrative agencies -- Evaluation
Forced migration
Urban-rural migration -- Government policy
China
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 1589019881
9781589019881