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The Down to the Countryside movement was a policy by Mao Zedong in the 1960s and 1970s to send urban youth to work in villages to remove bourgeois feelings and reduce urban population. It aimed to increase agricultural production and reduce urban unrest, but had negative physical and psychological effects on those involved. It resulted in the ‘Lost Generation’ who were never given the opportunity to attend university and experienced long-term health problems.
The Down to the Countryside movement was a policy instituted in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) by Mao Zedong in the 1960s and 1970s. Although it is known as “Down to the Countryside” in English, the exact translation from the original Chinese term is “up the mountains and down the villages”. The youth of the city were sent to work in the villages to remove any bourgeois or privileged feeling and reduce the urban population. This had generally negative physical and psychological effects on those involved. After Mao’s death in 1976, many of those involved in the project were able to go home.
Official purpose
During China’s Cultural Revolution, Maoist regime officials were very anti-bourgeois, believing that the revolutionary force that would lead the world towards socialism could be found in peasant peasants. These officials decided to re-educate urban youth raised in privileged families by sending them to small mountain towns and agricultural villages. They were usually expelled this way after completing high school. There, the young men would work, and the intention was that their privileged views would be uprooted, or at least mitigated, by what they would learn from their work in the country.
Practical reasons
In practical terms, this policy was designed to reduce the unrest in urban areas that had arisen in response to the early years of the Cultural Revolution. The social structure of many areas had been destroyed by the government’s anti-hierarchical policies, with people arrested, imprisoned and tortured. Many people were unhappy with the witch hunts that began in the early 1960s and the fanaticism of the Red Guards, who were groups of students who idolized Mao. They were notorious for their often brutal behavior and wanton attacks on those they deemed capitalist or bourgeois. By sending educated young men, many of whom were Red Guards, out of the cities, Mao hoped to assuage urban unrest.
There were also a number of practical problems that Mao hoped the Down to the Countryside movement would solve, including urban overpopulation and unemployment. He also hoped to increase agricultural production and develop the country’s rural areas. Moving large numbers of people out of cities would help with urban overpopulation and consequently reduce the number of people needing work there. As most of these people were put to work on farms and development projects, agricultural production could also be boosted and the frontier developed.
effects
While the sudden mass movement of people from the cities reduced overcrowding and unemployment, it had many negative effects on those displaced. Those affected by the Down to the Countryside movement are often referred to as the ‘Lost Generation’, as many of them were never given the opportunity to attend university. It also distanced them from their friends, families and all that was familiar, and many had long-term psychological issues from the sudden loss of their former lives. Furthermore, many people who have participated in the movement have experienced long-term health problems due to poor living conditions in their workplaces.
