Red Silk: Gender, Industry, and Locality and the Diverse Outcomes of the Chinese Revolution

• In Event: Industrial Citizenship in Maoist China

Abstract

The Communist takeover of China in 1949 produced diverse outcomes for working-class people depending on factors such as locality, industry, factory regime, as well as the characteristics of the workforce including age, skill and gender. In the context of the Yangzi Delta silk industry, suffering from years of occupation, war and economic crisis, two groups of workers experienced very different revolutions. Shanghai silk weavers, overwhelmingly male, well-paid, and politically-connected, benefitted greatly from the Communist seizure of power, accomplishing many of the labor movement's goals of the previous thirty years. In contrast, silk filature workers in Yangzi Delta cities, overwhelmingly young, female, and fiercely independent, found that goals such as democratic management, improved working conditions, and liberation from the abuse and oppression they had experienced for decades, eluded them for years under the institutions of New Democracy and Communist Party rule.
This paper, based on archival research and oral histories, highlights the diverse experiences of revolution and liberation among the silk workers of the Yangzi Delta, revealing the scope and limitations of revolutionary transformation under Communist Party rule in China.

Author

• Robert Cliver, Humboldt State University