Genesis and undertaker of ‘quantification of social class’: On the technocrats in the early stage of the Chinese Communist Party's land revolution

Abstract

The Land Survey Movement ( chatian yundong) led by the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1933 incorporated, for the first time, quantified measurements into land reform. This became an established practice in the newly liberated areas after 1946 as well as in the nationwide land reform after the 1949 Liberation. The existing research on land reform has paid little attention to this important quantification method used to define rural social classes. Even those who did pay attention were mostly interested in the policy side of the practice. This study focuses on the architect of this quantification method – Wang Guanlan. Through historical archives, memoirs, and journal articles and documents, Wang's personal background, his education, and his involvement in the communist revolution are thoroughly examined to reach an accurate understanding of the person and the practice he was responsible for. In so doing, we gain some insights into the ‘technocrats’ in the CPC during that period and their pragmatism, the way in which the CPC turned a theoretical and ideological concept of ‘class’ into an applicable measurement to define rural classes, and the limitations associated with such a practice.