Government

lawowalker
September 26, 2008, 12:59 AM posted in General Discussion

How does communism effect the urbanization of China?

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pearltowerpete
September 26, 2008, 05:51 AM

Hi user20941

Sounds like a doctoral thesis in the making. In short, I'd say that for the first thirty years, the effect of Communism was much greater on village life. Collectivzation, cracking down on landlords, and the various mobilization campaigns had a massive impact on villages, which is where the vast majority of Chinese lived.


Since reform and opening began in the late 1970s, the huge unwritten story of China is the massive flow of people from the villages to the cities (first the coastal juggernauts like Shenzhen and Shanghai, and now more inland cities). Such massive internal migration is unprecedented in human history, and it presents challenges for both villages and the cities that are absorbing these millions of people.

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tvan
September 26, 2008, 12:36 PM

If you want to know how Communism affected China, look at pre-1980's China.  I think the relevant question(s) going forward should be, "How does capitalism, consumerism, and freedom (e.g. to move) affect China?" 

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bababardwan
September 26, 2008, 01:41 PM

re:pearltowerpete's comment about mass migration.I saw a really good documentary about this on telly a while ago but don't recall the title of it ,etc unfortunately.In trying to look for it I found a documentary on the subject that looks interesting here

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lawowalker
September 27, 2008, 03:42 PM

what happened during the event when the army ran over students in tiananmen square. I asked my dad but he said it never happened even thugh it was being shown on tv.

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vikram
September 27, 2008, 03:57 PM

user20941

reserve such politically sensitive comments as above to other forums or look it up . Wouldnt want cpod to come under the censorship radar.

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lawowalker
September 27, 2008, 04:22 PM

yeah see what what you mean  but do they really check for anythng that undermines the country? (the government)

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pearltowerpete
September 27, 2008, 11:55 PM

Hi user20941

It's great to discuss politics but this is not the appropriate venue.

CPod is for learning about Chinese language and culture.

I encourage you to hit up the library to find out more about these important issues. Like me, you seem to be fascinated by the history of modern China. If you like you can send me a PM and I will give you some reading recommendations.

On behalf of the CPod team, thanks for your understanding and consideration of what we are trying to do here.

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tvan
September 28, 2008, 01:05 AM

user20941,  I think the problem CPod faces is that the their website is in the U.S. on the side of the other Great Wall.  The same issue came up during an earlier discussion (since deleted), namely that CPod's Shanghai staff could be cut off from their own (foreign hosted) web site.

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chanelle77
September 28, 2008, 01:21 AM

I wish the website was in China. Lately I have been having a lot of troubles with using foreign websites (speeds < 1kbps, or blocked). The Internet provider says (after i refuted their arguments) it is my "computer setup". Sure :-). Personally I think and fear something is changing.