The Pilot Land Reform Program and Land Reform in Pilot Villages: A Study of Pilot Land Reform and Party Consolidation in Lucheng, Shanxi

Abstract

William Hinton’s widely influential Fanshen is notable for its nuanced description of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) consolidation and land reform in Long Bow village (Hinton’s pseudonym for Zhangzhuang 张庄). But how representative was Long Bow? What was the situation in other villages? Did Hinton accurately describe what really happened in the party consolidation and land reform? Or did he miss important points? Scholars have either considered the situation in Long Bow as representative of the general situation of party consolidation and land reform in northern China or else have left these questions open, and thus have failed to distinguish between pilot programs of party consolidation and the overall consolidation of the party. Based on documents from the Communist Party Committee of Lucheng county and pilot villages including Long Bow, this article seeks to clarify the sequence of events surrounding party consolidation and land reform in Long Bow and its role in the pilot program of land reform and party consolidation in Lucheng county by setting Long Bow in the context of the larger administrative region of which it was part and reviewing the historical process of the land reform and party consolidation pilot program. In this way, this article reveals the historical significance of land reform and party consolidation for rural political change and democratic development.