In China, What was the Down to the Countryside Movement?

The Down to the Countryside Movement was a policy instituted in the People’s Republic of China under the regime of Mao Zedong. The exact translation of this movement from the original Chinese term is “up to the mountains and down the the villages.” However, in English, it is simply referred to as the Down to the Countryside Movement. The movement took place between the late 1960’s and the early 1970’s, during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the officials of the Maoist regime were very anti-bourgeoisie. They decided to “re-educate” young urban individuals being brought up in privileged bourgeoisie families. In order to re-educate these young people, the government sent them into small towns in the mountains and farming villages. They were usually sent off in this manner after completing their high school education. There, the youths would work, and the intention was that their bourgeoisie viewpoints would be eradicated, or at least tempered, by what they learned from their work in the country.

The people who were affected by the Down to the Countryside Movement are often referred to as the “lost generation.” They are referred to this way because many of these individuals, by being sent to the country right after high school, lost their chance to attend university in order to continue their education. Not only did the movement interrupt their education, but it also removed them from their friends, families, and all that was familiar.

Some of the people who experienced the Down to the Countryside Movement have written about this era. Some famous authors who have written about their re-education during Chairman Mao Zedong’s rule over the People’s Republic of China. Some of these authors include Zhang Chengzhi and Jiang Rong. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie is a very famous novel about the Down to the Countryside Movement. Although the story and the characters therein are presented as fiction, most readers agree that the information in the text are largely based on the experiences of the author, who was re-educated as a young man. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress was first written in French and has been translated into dozens of languages. This book has also been turned into a motion picture.

Written by Diane Goettel