Thursday, January 24, 2008

Not so New

Well, maybe Wu Ping's resistance concept is not such a new idea in China. In reading this week's lesson, from The Changing Face of China, Gittings mentions a group of peasants that resisted an airfield development.  With a barrier of children, women, and young men the peasants forced the hand of the developers.  Instead of simply being asked to leave, they were relocated.  This sounds similar to Ping's neighbors being given new homes or compensation.  

Mao described this a "win" for the peasants although in the end they were still displaced and the airfield built.  It seems that Mao attempted to turn any situation into a positive for the Party regardless of the truth.

At least Ping remains defiant and by so doing has prompted change.  The "hold-out" concept may be the same, but the end results are drastically different...marking the slow but positive change.

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