The Communist Takeover of Hangzhou
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Existing literature on the Chinese Revolution takes into account the influence of peasant society on Mao's ideas and policies but rarely discusses a reverse effect of comparable significance: namely, how peasant cadres were affected by the urban environment into which they moved. In this detailed examination of the cultural dimension of regime change in the early years of the Revolution, James Gao looks at how rural-based cadres changed and were changed by the urban culture that they were sent to dominate. He investigates how Communist cadres at the middle and lower levels left their familiar rural environment to take over the city of Hangzhou and how they consolidated political control, established economic stability, developed institutional reforms, and created political rituals to transform the urban culture. His book analyzes the interplay between revolutionary and nonrevolutionary culture with respect to the varying degrees with which they resisted and adapted to each other. It reveals the essential role of cultural identity in legitimizing the new regime and keeping its revolutionary ideal alive. Based on extensive research in regional and local archives in Zhejiang province
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For anyone who is doing research on the history of crucial turnover period of the late civil war to early 1950s in China, then this is an important city study that provides a lot of rich local detail and findings based on a variety of great archives. It also is a great example of a turnover which involves CCP cadres from Shandong, mostly rural Luzhongnan, in a mid-sized city.
There is not too much new here, and the arguments advanced are neither terribly original or the writing inspiring. There is an emphasis in the introduction of the book on political ritual and transformation of political culture, but the book seems to stray considerably from this and resemble much more closely a description of Hangzhou's experience of some of the important events that most books on China during the period address: the disciplined nature of troops when taking over the city, the gradual squeeze, the suppression of counterrevolutionaries, the three antis, the five antis, and the new three antis, with a chapter on cultural reforms and women cadres thrown in which both feel a bit detached.
It was, however, all interesting material and looks solid in terms of content and research.
