CHAPTER III

FROM CONFLICT TO FUSION

The Character of Conceptual Change in China’s Rural Areas in the

Initial Stage of Modernization

LI JUNRU

            As the much larger part of the Chinese population is rural, modernization in rural areas is the key to the modernization of China as a whole. In this process the change in the ideas of the farmers becomes a significant problem which requires our special attention. After making a through survey we discovered that "from conflict to interfusion" expresses the basic direction and character of conceptual change in the initial stage of China’s rural moderni-zation.

INTERACTION BETWEEN SOCIAL REFORM AND CONCEPTUAL CHANGE

            To follow the change of traditional concepts in the rural areas in the course of China’s modernization since May, 1988, we have visited Songjiang County in suburban Shanghai four times for social surveys. The past ten years have seen remarkable social and economic changes in this county. For the industrial structure, the figures from 1978 for the first, second and third industries respectively were 47, 67 percent, 38.99 percent and 13.34 percent. But the figures of 1988 became 27.34 percent, 51.31 percent and 21.35 percent; the same change also appeared in the structure of the labor force. In 1978 about 81 percent of the total labor force in this county was in the first industry, 15.2 percent in the second industry, and only 3.8 percent in the third industry. But in 1988 the respective figures became 31.33 percent, 51.36 percent and 17.31 percent. The above change of figures shows that by 1988 Song-jiang County had begun its economic and social transformation from a traditional agricultural society to an industrial or an even mo-dernized society. Living in such a historical period of great econo-mic and social changes, the Songjiang people could not help but alter their ideas and concepts.

            The traditional society of Songjiang was agricultural and based on the natural economy. The predominant view regarded ag-riculture as the very foundation of this society. The following is a quote from the survey records written in 1931 by the students from the Administration Department of the Central Political School of the KMT government after a several week survey of the county:

Wherever we went we discovered that the peasants looked so poor and hungry and the houses in the villages were all so small, low and dilapidated that a single glance would convince you that the peasants in Songjiang were in a very difficult condition, one of bankruptcy. In one of the villages we saw a couple which read like this: "Two things are really important; they are farming and reading." Simple as the words were, they described the true situation in most villages in the county.

            The above quotation tells of a typical phenomenon in China’s traditional agricultural society: the basic concept of China’s poor and backward peasants was the concept of farming and reading -- of farming in particular. Even if by some chance one started an industrial enterprise and made a fortune, he would not spend his money on expanding his enterprise. Instead, he would most pro-bably be satisfied with buying more land for the family, putting up new houses for themselves, their sons and grandsons, and living peacefully in self-sufficiency. This concept does not change much until the beginning of reform in the early 80’s. Only with the development of the industries in towns and the countryside, did this concept begin to give way to new ideas.

            The traditional concept is now challenged by the following concepts:

            - industry as a foundation,

            - commodity economy,

            - individualism which has close links with commodity economy,

            - pragmatism,

            - efficiency,

            - science, and

            - democracy.

In the past the people in Songjiang county devoted all their energy to the development of agriculture, but that failed to bring them affluence. They now begin to look for new ways to narrow the gap between city and countryside, between workers and peasants. In the 12 years from 1966 to 1977 the grain output in the county in-creased by 32 percent, but the actual income for each farmhand increased only by a half yuan during the same period.

            What can be done to end this situation? They have, of course, to restructure their agricultural production. But what is more im-portant, they have to develop industry in the countryside. Out of their own experience and practice they gradually formed a new concept, namely, that they cannot really become rich if they fail to develop industries. In doing our survey, we asked such question as, "What do you think are the most important, industry, agriculture, auxiliary production or commerce?" The reply was consistently the same: "Industry". Priority is already given to the development of countryside industries in mapping out work plans among the cadres at various levels in the countryside. This development has enabled them through the market to escape their narrow countryside and enter into the whole country and even the world. Thus a new concept has taken shape in their minds: "There is no progress without commerce."

            This change of concepts comes from China’s economic reforms in the 30’s, but in turn it promotes economic reforms. There exists a dialectical and interactive relationship between the change of concepts and economic reform. This is a distinguishing feature in the change of concepts in the rural areas of China today.

THE IDENTITY OF RENEWAL AND FUSION

            At the initial stage of the economic reform in 1980’s among the people across Songjiang county there arose lively discussion about "conceptual renewal". This resulted from the unavoidable conflicts between the traditional concept and the drive for moderni-zation which were expressed as follows:

            The contradiction between obligation and interests. In China’s traditional agricultural society Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism had a deep-rooted influence over the people. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, there emerged in Songjiang 408 Jinshi (successful persons who passed the highest imperial exams), which clearly reflected a prevalence of Confucianism. In old China, there were in the county proper 19 Buddhist temples, 20 convents, 45 other temples and 11 Taoist temples. This in one way showed how popular Buddhism and Taoism were among the people. One of the characteristics of such a culture was to emphasize control over one’s self-interest and in contrast to emphasize obligation so as to submit oneself to nature and society. For example, in Songjiang’s Fang Pogoda park, there stands a large sized brick, carved with a monstrous beast named "Tan" (greed). It was so greedy and un-satisfied that though it owned the earth and its power, it attempted to swallow up the sun, but only to fell into the East China Sea and drowned. The erecting of the figure by Taoists in the Ming dynasty was aimed at advising people to give up desires and let things take their own course. The concept "deny self and return to propriety", though it has its own place in the national culture, does not meet totally the needs of industrialized and commercial development. Therefore, some people proposed justifying "fame and gain", holding that without benefits there will be no incentive, nor any development. In the past, when a person was looking for a job he wanted to work in a big enterprise; now he is inclined to work where he can earn more money. In the economy, output value has come to be regarded as more important. As regards social value, in the past ideology always came first; now personal income stands in the front line. No wonder some old people found it hard to understand it, sighing that human morals were declining with each passing day.

            The contradiction between a stationary and a mobile stance. Due to the influence of natural economy, people in Songjiang are in favor of a stationary stance rather than mobility. Often they des-cribe Songjiang as a land of fish and rice, with the saying that "nine of ten (wild) deer (from Songjiang) turn around". The negative side of the legend illustrates the conceptual character of Songjiang people’s pursuit of a quiet life whereas the development of industry and a commodity economy has the character of intense mobility and change. At the initial stage of this rapid development of mo-dernization people felt conceptually inept and psychologically over-whelmed.

            The contradiction between "single and multiple". The pursuit of harmonious integration is an aspect of the traditional concept of Songjiang people’s. But a variety of economic patterns has emerged socially since the implementation of reform on the basis of the diversity of interests resulting from the emergence of various economic elements and commodity competition. A multiple price system has replaced the single price which used to be emphasized. As to distribution, there are several wage systems instead of a single one as in the past. Regarding the allocation of labor, multiple channels have been opened to substitute for the single one ope-rated by the state, etc. Diversified concepts have begun to take shape. Some are happy about this, whereas others are not be-cause it is very difficult to choose between "single" and "multiple".

            Confronted with such conceptual conflicts key persons in the forefront of the modernization drive called strongly for a renewal of the overall concept, to replace what is now obsolete by something brand new. But in the renewal of concepts three patterns have emerged:

            1. The co-existence of two concepts in an equilibrium within one overarching concept with mutual checks. When the concept of "taking industry as the foundation began to conflict with that of "taking agriculture as the foundation", people became anxious about agricultural development. However, the people of Songjiang have successfully created a new economic structure coordinating the development of industry, agriculture and auxiliary production by skillfully combining the two different concepts. They put forward a slogan of "stabilizing agriculture, developing auxiliary production, and focusing efforts on industrial development", they also formu-lated a policy of taking a part of the profits from industry to assist agriculture. Thus, a new concept of mutual assistance has been shaped. The formation of such a concept is quite complicated, but keeps a balance between the traditional concept of mutual sup-plementation and the modern concept.

            2. The two concepts, interacting with and infiltrating each other, have formed one. In the conflicts of concepts between obli-gation and interests, stability and mobility, monolith and multiplicity the people first complained that "society degenerates, morality declines". But before long they found that the two conflicting concepts could be combined into one. For instance, it is advisable to take into consideration the interests of people, so that it could be asked that obligations be performed on the basis of interests. When a conflict between obligation and interests undermines the public interests, people are asked to protect public interests through sacrificing "little" interests to perform "big" obligations. Also by appealing for the stability of the whole, considerable changes can be made within the material and psychological limits of accep-tability by the people. On the basis of multiple developments a new unity can be built, and within the demands of unity multiple deve-lopments should be allowed. For example, energy, raw materials and the funds used by township industrial enterprises all come from the market, and their products mainly go to market. It pertains to the nature of multiplicity, that the quota of production and profit for the township enterprises be fixed by the township governments; it is of the nature of unity, however, that people judge such combinations to be both viable and stable.

            3. One concept assimilates the other concept, to form mix-ture. The people of Songjiang traditionally enjoy local operas such as Shanghai Opera and Shaoxin Opera, but since the start of the "reform and opening" policy the noble performing arts of such local operas have been snubbed, while third-rate light song and dance has become a hit. In 1986 Shaoxin Opera performed 34 times, and Shanghai Opera 17 times at the Songjiang People’s Theater, while the Light Song and Dance Troupe performed 41 times at the same place. In 1987, Shaoxin Opera performed only 11 times, Shanghai Opera 18 times, while the Light Song and Dance Troupe performed 44 times with much higher priced tickets and a larger audience. This is unprecedented in the history of Songjiang county. A survey further reveals that those who still like the traditional local opera, are old people above the age of 50, while those who prefer light song and dance performances are all young people, men and women, below the age of 35. While aged people regard the light song and dance to be low class art, young people hold that the fast rhythm of light song and dance has a contemporary atmosphere.

            Obviously, this is a clash between old and new concepts, but things have changed since 1988. Now the most welcome per-forming art in Songjiang is the folk song sung to the rhythms of the pop music, or the traditional opera presented in the style of modern song and dance. A new cultural concept has emerged charac-terized by the mixture of Chinese and Western culture and an assimilation of modern culture by traditional culture, which itself is renewed in the process of assimilation.

            All the above three cases tell us that it is possible for the traditional concepts to be renewed, preserved and developed under new forms. It may well be said that the renewal and fusion of concepts is another important character of conceptual change in present China’s countryside.

THE COMPLEXITY OF NEGATIVE COMBINATIONS

            According to research, by no means has the conceptual change in Songjiang been ideal in the past ten years of reform and opening with the development of a commodity economy.

            The advocacy of a commodity economy was originally aimed at getting rid of the influence of feudal, autocratic and small pro-duction ideas deeply rooted in Chinese society. But other notice-able phenomena appeared in the course of the renewal of con-cepts.

            One is that the combination of the concepts of commodity economy and small production has distorted the image of socialist commodity economy. Egalitarianism, for example, is an important character of small production ideology, whereas, one of the goals of reform is to change the phenomenon of egalitarianism. It is historic progress that a batch of township and individual enterprises has emerged in the development of a commodity economy in Songjiang county. But the investigation showed that the internal management of the market enterprises bears a strong resemblance to the distribution system in the state-run enterprises, and still retains a largely egalitarian manner. The narrow-mindedness of the farmer’s small production, moreover, generates localism which accompanies the development of a commodity economy.

            Another new phenomenon is the combination between the concepts of commodity economy and feudalism, which has marred the socialist market economy. The concept of market economy should have restrained the concept of feudalistic privilege because it pursues equality and freedom. But Chinese traditional concepts of hierarchy and privilege are so persistent that they combine even with the concept of commodity economy, thus enabling profes-sional workers to "profiteer by using power". This accounts for the emergence of unhealthy trade practices which disgust people.