Wake up（254）

 

254

 

Sun Yulan, Li Aiwen, and Qian Xiaojuan met alumnus Wanru. Wanru also introduced two of her college teachers, psychology professor Shen Zhirui and sociology professor Hong Wenxuan.

Two professors and four young people gathered at Lianxiang Tea Room. While tasting Lianxiang morning tea, the topic of chatting was more like crusade against the Cultural Revolution.

The topic, however, arose from discussing the current rural economy.

Sociology professor Hong Wenxuan said to several young students: I recently participated in a seminar on rural economic development. For a long time, the level of economic development in rural areas has lagged far behind that in cities, and the dual system of urban and rural areas is the basic national condition. The vast majority of social resources are basically only invested in cities, and the income of rural residents and the level of social and public services are seriously behind that of cities.

The "scissors difference between industry and agriculture" was once implemented. Through coercive force, agricultural products were purchased at low prices and industrial products were sold at high prices, so that farmers could only obtain lower incomes from farming, but had to purchase daily necessities and production materials produced by urban industries at high prices.

Economists collectively refer to the part of the price of agricultural products lower than its original value and the part of the price of industrial products higher than its original value as "excess tax". Value forced to move to the city to develop industry, so that farmers "tighten their belts."

Since the reform and opening up, my country's economic development level has been getting higher and higher. In order to change the situation that agriculture supports industry, a new measure of "industry feeding back agriculture" was proposed, and a large amount of subsidies were given to rural areas to improve farmers' living standards. However, due to the multiple constraints of the household registration system and the land system, farmers are very different from urban residents in terms of economy, status, and rights. Farmers can neither freely become citizens, nor can citizens freely become farmers.

Shen Zhirui, professor of psychology, said: Most subsidies and inputs cannot fundamentally change the reality, that is: farmers cannot turn land assets into liquid capital, and then break away from the constraints of agricultural production methods. If this fundamental aspect does not change, subsidies and assistance will inevitably fail. "Feedback" not only includes capital investment, but also talent and technology, so there is the current encouragement to go to the countryside to start a business.

Professor Hong Wenxuan said: But, on the premise of not changing the constraints of the system, can going to the countryside to start a business really make the countryside rich? Fundamentally speaking, the urban-rural dual system still needs to be resolved, otherwise the core problem of rural poverty cannot be solved. Looking back to more than half a century ago, there was also a mighty "going to the mountains and going to the countryside" movement at that time. The movement at that time was not aimed at solving rural problems at all, but created a large number of new problems, so that even today it cannot Completely eliminate the harm caused by this movement to society. Now that young people are being called on to start businesses in the countryside, will the new "going to the mountains and going to the countryside" movement be carried out smoothly? Maybe more people have forgotten that real history.

Professor Hong Wenxuan began to tell the history of the origin of "going to the mountains and going to the countryside" for young people:

The concept of "going to the countryside" has been a man-made movement since its inception, rather than a natural process of social and economic development. Since the beginning of human history, as long as the society is in a stable state, urbanization is basically going on slowly.

Regardless of whether it is the East or the West, ancient human settlements and ruins have been excavated. Only when large-scale human settlements similar to cities are discovered can they be named "such-and-such culture" and "such-and-such civilization", such as the "Sumerian civilization" in the Middle East. ", China's "Longshan Culture" or "Liangzhu Civilization", etc., if they are just village ruins, they can only be called "relics".

Therefore, cities are the product of highly developed human civilization, and with the development of cities, more and more rural population will inevitably move to cities. This is a historical law. It is unlikely that the population in cities will take the initiative to "go to the countryside".

The earliest "going to the countryside" appeared in Russia at the end of the 19th century, when the populists mobilized college students to go to the countryside. After the young college students who were encouraged to go to the countryside went to the countryside, these people carried a kind of religious fanaticism, but it didn't take long for them to return to the cities and colleges. This movement has no practical significance, but it has become a "pilgrimage" in the hearts of some idealists.

In 1919, Li Dazhao, then a professor at Peking University, called on young intellectuals to go to the countryside. The young people inspired by him played a huge role in the countryside, making farmers the main force of China's reform. But the leaders of this change ended up going back to the cities and into offices, and the peasants remained peasants.

Professor Hong Wenxuan told the young people about the land reclamation movement in the former Soviet Union.

In 1954, the leader of the Soviet Union Khrushchev mobilized young people to go to the hinterland of the Far East for reclamation, making a certain contribution to the increase of grain production in the Soviet Union. Beginning in 1955, China learned from the experience of the Soviet Union and began to launch a reclamation campaign.

At that time, the "three major reforms" had not yet been completed, because the "reforms" made people who used to own a lot of assets disappear, which caused a reduction in grain production in the countryside. In order to ensure food supply, a group of young people were mobilized to go to the countryside to reclaim wasteland. This was the earliest "going to the countryside" movement.

Those who went to the countryside at that time included not only young students, but also a large number of veterans. Among them, the total number of young students was not large, only a few thousand. The difference from the Soviet Union is that the Soviet Union has achieved industrialization to a certain extent, not only people, but also agricultural machinery and transportation. In our country, only people are sent to the countryside for reclamation, and there is no decent agricultural machinery and transportation, so it is impossible to achieve the progress of agricultural production, except for the model project "Northern Great Wilderness", which has become a modern farm because of the extensive use of advanced agricultural machinery. , the vast majority of those who went to the countryside to reclaim land got nothing.

Professor Shen Zhirui said: In addition to failing to achieve the goal of increasing grain production at that time, the fate of young people sent to the countryside was also an issue worthy of attention.

These young people were originally workers and cadres from urban families who were able to go to college, but after they went to the countryside, their "staffing" in the city was cancelled, and their personnel files were transferred to state-owned farms or remote rural areas. Not only could they not return to the city , Even unable to fall in love with or marry young people in the city, they can only be forced to "internal digestion" with other reclamation team members, or marry local villagers. The children born to these people are naturally the "second generation of peasants". Many of them have spent their entire lives begging to return to the city, but most of them have been fruitless.

From 1955 to 1958, the number of young people sent to the countryside was generally limited, and they were mainly urban workers and children of cadres. Although they also encountered the problem of invalid labor on the farm and could not return to the city, they To say how "tragic" their fate is, it's really impossible to talk about it. After all, the vast majority of them just lost the right to choose life, but they were not persecuted intentionally. Pastoral romanticism.

Professor Shen Zhirui said: The sudden change of circumstances began in 1958.

At that time, in China, a campaign to identify identities and origins was launched in cities, and unpopular people were designated as "five types of elements" and ruthlessly attacked. The so-called "five categories" refer to "landlords", "rich peasants", "reactionaries", "rightists" and "bad elements". Any specific standard, as long as it is unpopular and does not meet any category, can be designated as a "bad element."

The children of these "five categories" of people are considered to be of bad origin. They are discriminated against everywhere in the city. Some people voluntarily go to the countryside to work in agriculture because they cannot find jobs in the city. Sent to the countryside. However, what awaited them after they went to the countryside was not pastoral, but worsened bad luck.

The children of those urban workers and cadres will group together to bully the children of the "five types of elements". They occupy the power of labor distribution and let young people with bad backgrounds do the hardest, most tiring, and dirtiest jobs. There is nowhere to appeal for grievances, and there is no chance to apply to return to the city. Some young women with bad status were even raped on the farm, and some of the better ones were forced into marriage.

But even if they are the children of workers and cadres, they actually have no real way to return to the city. For example, Yan Geling's original work and Chen Chong's adaptation of the movie "Heavenly Bath" tells the story of young female students in Chengdu who were sent to a pastoral area to "learn herding" and sold their bodies in order to return to the city.

Professor Hong Wenxuan said: I have studied these issues with some experts and scholars, but unfortunately, there is no statistical data for the early years of the Go-to-the-Rural Movement that started in 1955. Including how many young people went to the countryside to work in agriculture, how much increase in food production did these young people bring after going to the countryside to work in agriculture, did the reduced population in cities lead to labor shortages, and what impact did it have on the economy? No data can be found in Chinese historical archives.

Professor Shen Zhirui said: These are eternal mysteries, and any research in future generations can only rely on guesswork, which has given many people a lot of room for imagination, imagining negative teaching materials as positive deeds. It is unbelievable that in the recent comments on the Internet, many people said that the movement to the countryside is good, and such remarks are quite deceptive. Because those high-ranking figures said the same thing. The group consciousness of the brainwashed Chinese people is all supremacy, and there is no free thought for independent thinking. The reason is simple. They are afraid of being labeled as "five types of elements", which will harm their descendants.

"Why do you want to go to the countryside?" Sun Yulan, Li Aiwen, Qian Xiaojuan, and Wanru all asked the same question to the two professors.