| It is helpful to understand Chinese social and historical changes between the endof1970s and the start of1980s via the analysis of social psychology change of theNobody in the reform of Chinese countryside, and it’s also helpful to understand theinfluence of Chinese society reform from tradition to modernization by Reform andOpening Policy by the research on the change process of people’s attitude,psychology, and values in the interaction between people and the social environment.Empirical investigation has been used with the center of Xiguan village in HenanProvince, apart from the material analysis method and Document investigation forhistorical materials such as Annals of Xiguan Village, Annals of Dengfeng Countyand Annals of Yuanyang County, the methods of individual interview andquestionnaire from people who experiencing the reform. And psychology change inthe countryside in Henan Province as the very location is analyzed in the context ofapplication of household contract responsibility system. Meanwhile, the attitudes,suggestions and psychology embodied by the important meetings, critical policydocuments and representative mass media such as People’s Daily has been intensivelyanalyzed. And the relationship between microcosmic changes of one place or manyplaces and the macrocosmic change of the whole countryside in China has beenestablished in order to show the live interaction between the reform measures andsocial psychology.Chinese farmers incarnate the characteristics of steno sis and occlusion, lowlinessand weakness, affinity consciousness and circle awareness after dipping in thecountryside culture of thousands of years and bound by natural economy supported bythe small production. Small farmers were used by Marx, Engels to describe thosebound by small plots of land and small production resulting in the personalitypsychology of authority submission, avoidance and exclusivism. Small production asan economic form doesn’t exist after the revolution and reform, but the psychology ofsmall farmers was still lurking in all the aspects of Chinese society, reflecting thestruggle between new and old, tradition and modernization in the process of Reformand Opening. Reform of three times household production of Chinese countrysideoccurring in1950’s and1960’s had been seen as the predecessor of householdcontract responsibility system because of the similarities in the cause, procedures and controversy. And it also became a collective memory for the carrier of language andwords. Many people still hesitated to move forward for the influence of causalparadigm in the memory of history, though the reform had been ongoing. Despite theconfusion situation, the stress of solving the problem of food and clothing andexplaining the society truth by new theory forced people to begin to have a doubtabout the legacy which has passed for many years and to make some changes. It wasthe will of both small farmers and the party in power that pushed Chinese history toenter the era of Reform and Opening. The3rd Plenary Session of11th Party CentralCommittee in the end of1978impressed the boundary, establishing the legitimacy ofevaluating one’s ability based on his properties, and reshaping the citizens who gotused to the doctrine of interpersonal priority which had existed for millennium by thespirit of contract and rationality, and putting forward the political mission of bringingup the citizens with independent thinking ability. Reform and Opening just beganunder the guidance of the spirit of The3rd Plenary Session of11th Party CentralCommittee. And the effectiveness of the following year convinced the cadres and themasses who were still hesitating temporarily. However, people who were still indoubt didn’t make preparations to re-recognize and understand householdresponsibility from theory and psychology, and the society still in the stage oftransition was not ready for pushing the reform either. Meanwhile, the causalparadigm of that household responsibility system would increase production wasoverstated by public opinion and obviously became a new ideology.The75th document from the center government provided both the room ofcontinuous exploring of reform and the limits of this exploring. The ambiguity ofpolicy blurred the future of household responsibility. In spite of the controversy, thepolicy of household responsibility had won more and more supporters with theadvantage of simplicity and the effectiveness of increasing production by thecomparison of benefits and demonstration, also obtained the legitimacy of theoreticalinterpretation at the national level. The development of productive force replaced thefocus on capitalist or socialist becoming the criteria of social progress. Reform passedone political restriction area. But the development of countryside landscape spoiledthe ban of no employment. Pros and cons appeared in People’s Daily, and therespective supporters tried to find proofs to persuade each other. Comparativelyspeaking, the ordinary farmers attracted easier by the high payment, while for those farmers who had just solved the problem of food and clothing, the being rich road ofChen Zhixiong only strengthened these farmers Conspicuous Consumptionpsychology. It was noticed that a pre-selected controversy which was demonstratedby the procedure which seemed public and fair would get its legitimacy for its result.Though it might reduce the cost of the reform vibration, but it still resulted in thegroup polarization.On one hand, the household contract responsibility system brought up thecontract sense, and contributed to the formation of the inner-motivated system, toeliminate the gap and indifference between social groups, and to cultivate a sense oftrust and security; on the other hand, it was useful for the social psychology change incountryside from self-closing to openness, from singleness to pluralism, fromexclusion to inclusion. Along with these positive effects, the limitations of thehousehold contract responsibility system had gradually emerged: short-term ofmanagement behavior of agricultural, being vague of the land property, frequentchange of the land contract period, separating from agriculture and countryside,intergenerational differentiation and so on. Encouragement from governments at alllevels boosted the public opinion atmosphere of Looking Down Upon the Poor andFlattering the Rich. The state of being poor and being rich depending on the incomehad gradually become the ideology of advancement and backward.The reform of countryside not only established household contract responsibility,but also terminated People’s Commune Institution. The sole responsibility and thesingle-ownership composition were like the two ends of a pendulum: people who lostcompetition would miss the old days with collectivism in which people were the samein every aspect, while those who won the competition would confirm the jungle law.Those who miss the old days included not only the weak but also the rich people wholack security because of the constantly updated technology and the increasingcompetition--------they responded the change according to their specific conditions inorder to maximize their safety in the process of transition from tradition tomodernization, and from obscuration to rationality. Those that could make peoplemore free, more initiative, more active could not always give people safety, just likethat the reform with the theme of modernization still could bring back the old idea,old way of thinking, old system and old power. In spite of this, people had to give upthe most intense part with the current conflict and cut the length of pendulum back and forth movement in order to be consistent with the trend of reform and theprogress of history and to maintain the stability and balance of personality andpsychology. The transition history of Chinese farmers who experienced small farmers,members of People’s Commune Institution, villagers and the current marginal peopleis the change history of social psychology which is increasing close to the rationalismwhile increasing far to the empiricism. It is helpful to establish a closer and tighterconnection between people and history, between people and politics, between peopleand society by surveying the progress of Reform and Opening occurred in more thirtyyears and the long march of modernization of Chinese nation in century. |
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