Anth230: Anthropology of East Asia

According to this website I found, it seems as though the Nationalist goverment which ruled China before the Communists took control failed to be able to take care of their country; their corruption-filled government grew weaker by the day and failed to lead a country (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/special_report/1999/09/99/china_50/guomindang.htm).

This website gives a readable, somewhat brief description of the govermental transition from nationalism to communism, as well as events following the revolution.

Michael

What actually happened in China and in most communist countries in Eastern Europe was a result of the appeal of the communist idea. Pre-communist chinese society was very strongly divided in classes, where peasants and servants represented the greater part of the population. Just like in most Eastern European countries those people lived in extreme poverty and were heavily exploited by the landlord class. When the communist idea of ultimate equality and elimination of class division was introduced and assimilated by the masses, it actually gave people hope. For the opressed equality meant that they would no longer struggle with poverty and everybody would share everything. For an individual who has never owned anything in his life, sharing actually seems a pretty good idea. Since in all of those countries peasants represented the greatest part of the population, communism was concidered a form of liberation and it ultimately conveyed the idea that through a people's revolution, like the one in Russia, poverty and struggle will stop and everybody will be equal.