NationStates Jolt Archive

The sky is still black when the village loudspeaker blazes the revolutionary song The East Is Red. A three-story-high statue of Chairman Mao Zedong looms over a Tiananmen-like square flanked by giant portraits of the socialist all-stars: Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin.

A new day has arrived in this commune on China's central plains where residents enjoy free food, housing, healthcare, schooling - even free weddings and funerals.

As the rest of China struggles with mounting social problems brought on by two decades of turbocharged economic reforms and vanishing social safety nets, the decidedly retro Nanjie seems to have found the good life. It is the best known of a handful of villages that have returned to the country's communist past.
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/Weekend/GA22Jp11.html

Good to see that our Chinese comrades working toward a revolutionary society.

And in Hong Kong Disneyland, Mickey Mouse will from now on wear a Mao suit.

Although the teachings of Mao serve as the moral compass for the 3,100 people of Nanjie, the real secret to its collective well-being is, well, capitalist: Two dozen village enterprises manufacturing all sorts of things - noodles, beer, pharmaceuticals. One even promotes ``red tourism.''

Hmm...

Well, I figure if this is the way they want to live, no reason to stop them.

It is the best known of a handful of villages that have returned to the country's communist past.


Ah, the glories of the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward. Nothing makes me quite as nostalgic as famine. *sigh* *stares dreamily off into space, remembering the better days.*

Ah, the glories of the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward. Nothing makes me quite as nostalgic as famine. *sigh* *stares dreamily off into space, remembering the better days.*

Nah, it's gotta be gunning down people in the streets.

*nods*

Paradoxical sort of thing, the Maoist dream funded on a capitalist exports.

Good to see that our Chinese comrades working toward a revolutionary society.Oh, yeah, this place. It only works because they have non-benefitters working for them, you know...

A three-story-high statue of Chairman Mao Zedong looms over a Tiananmen-like square flanked by giant portraits of the socialist all-stars: Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin.

"All religions, with their gods, demigods, prophets, messiahs and saints, are the product of the fancy and credulity of men who have not yet reached the full development and complete possession of their intellectual powers" -- Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Bakunin) (Socialist All-Star (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_Socialism))

Good for them if they want to live that way, it has some good elements and some bad/stupid stuff. Marrying in front of a Mao statue wtf?

I think of the immortal words of the Oak Ridge Boys who said, "Giddy Up Oom Poppa Oom Poppa Mao Mao" *nod*

Paradoxical sort of thing, the Maoist dream funded on a capitalist exports.

Not really. Communism isn't so much an anti-capitalist system as it is an anti-"someone else having the capital" system.

Good for them if they want to live that way, it has some good elements and some bad/stupid stuff. Marrying in front of a Mao statue wtf?Ooh good for them. Go ahead and side with the bourgeois exploiters like Eureaka Australis then. Let the poor working class lose its rights.

Mao's utopia would involve a lot more dialectics and a lot less harmony. Particularly some nice, heated intergenerational dialectics.

Mao's utopia would involve a lot more dialectics and a lot less harmony. Particularly some nice, heated intergenerational dialectics.And a classless society, which Nanjie clearly is not.

Good to see that our Chinese comrades working toward a revolutionary society.

Sure they enjoy those benefits if they don't do anything like dream of democracy and freedom. Or if they don't somehow piss off the ruling commies to provoke them into revoking those benefits. Sure it would seem like it's doing all right until you get into the level of bureaucratic corruption and the amount of bribing needed to make an official look the other way if you do something naughty like have premarital sex.

Good to see that our Chinese comrades working toward a revolutionary society.

What about the sparrow beating? Where does the sparrow beating fit in their overall plan?

Simple dismissal of this isn't really fair, the idea isn't instrinsically bad.

The Mao worship is regrettable but it's cosmetic to the actual functioning of the place.

It's a collective, there's nothing wrong with selling to the market when the workers own the means of production.

I am slightly troubled by the tourism aspect, it does run the danger of becoming a little Disneyland.

Ultimately, however, I quite like this concept, I wish them the best of luck but I wonder what real market competition would do and I wonder whether excess prodcution would willingly be given to those living in less convenient locations rather than to the market.

I am slightly troubled by the tourism aspect, it does run the danger of becoming a little Disneyland.

As I mentioned in the second post, it is Disneyland that is turning into them. Mickey really wears a Maosuit now.

Oh, yeah, this place. It only works because they have non-benefitters working for them, you know...

I'm no maoist, but that is kind of the idea to socialism. Non-profit, need-based econometrics.

Simple dismissal of this isn't really fair, the idea isn't instrinsically bad.It actually is. The idea of affording an elite a certain amount of exclusive rights denied to the people that are largely responsible for sustaining said rights is bad.

And that's exactly what's happening here.

It's a collective, there's nothing wrong with selling to the market when the workers own the means of production.Sure, but not all of the 11,000 workers are actually citizens that get the benefits of being in the collective. Only 3,100 do.

What about the sparrow beating? Where does the sparrow beating fit in their overall plan?

Don't you mean sparrow eating? ;)

It actually is. The idea of affording an elite a certain amount of exclusive rights denied to the people that are largely responsible for sustaining said rights is bad.

Why ? It is -ironically- how capitalism works.

Why ? It is -ironically- how capitalism works.Except that most capitalist societies have less class distinctions than this town does. Considering that Communism is supposed to struggle for a class-less society, its failed completely when you consider this experiment has spawned the class of the citizens of the town (called "bourgeoisie" for simplicity) and the class of the migrant workers toiling in the factories (called "working class" for simplicity).