Across the Great Divide: The Sent-Down Youth Movement in Mao’s China, 1968–1980 (Cambridge Studies in the History of the People’s Republic of China)

Product Description

The sent-down youth movement, a Maoist project that relocated urban youth to remote rural areas for ‘re-education’, is often viewed as a defining feature of China’s Cultural Revolution and emblematic of the intense suffering and hardship of the period. Drawing on rich archival research focused on Shanghai’s youth in village settlements in remote regions, this history of the movement pays particular attention to how it was informed by and affected the critical issue of urban-rural relations in the People’s Republic of China. It highlights divisions, as well as connections, created by the movement, particularly the conflicts and collaborations between urban and rural officials. Instead of chronicling a story of victims of a monolithic state, Honig and Zhao show how participants in the movement – the sent-down youth, their parents, and local government officials – disregarded, circumvented, and manipulated state policy, ultimately undermining a decade-long Maoist project.

Review

‘A wonderfully nuanced and insightful study of China’s monumental Cultural Revolution campaign that sent millions of urban youths to the remote countryside. Based on a wide array of rich archival and interview sources, this is a first-rate work of scholarship that is also eminently readable. Highly recommended for academic and general audiences alike.’ Elizabeth J. Perry, Harvard University, Massachusetts

‘Across the Great Divide changes our understanding of the sent-down movement and Mao’s China. Focusing on Shanghai youth sent to villages, the book documents not only their experiences, but also the connections and conflicts between them and villagers and between rural and urban officials and parents. The result is a remarkable new history.’ Guobin Yang, University of Pennsylvania

Book Description

This revisionist history of China’s sent-down youth movement draws on rich archival research to show how participants in the movement – the sent-down youth, their parents, and local government officials – disregarded, circumvented, and manipulated state policy, ultimately undermining a decade-long Maoist project.

About the Author

Emily Honig is Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has written extensively on issues of gender and sexuality during the Cultural Revolution. Her books include Sisters and Strangers: Women in the Shanghai Cotton Mills, 1919-1949 (1986) and Creating Chinese Ethnicity: Subei People in Shanghai, 1850-1980 (1992).

Xiaojian Zhao is Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of Remaking Chinese America: Immigration, Family and Community, 1940-1965 (2002), which was awarded the History Book Award by the Association for Asian American Studies. More recently, she authored The New Chinese America: Class, Economy, and Social Hierarchy (2010).