Research Of Winter School Movement In Neihuang County(1949-1956)

Winter School,a kind of social education in rural area of China,was usually held in winter.It appeared in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and extended to other places.After 1949,when the People’s Republic of China was found,Winter School continued to develop until the late 1950s.As a kind of adult education,its main members were rural young adults.Such education served dual purpose.It taught people literacy,arithmetic,production technology and other practical knowledge.At the same time,it was also an important form of political and ideological education.Compared with the superficial social education implemented by the Kuomintang,the Winter School Movement truly affected the grassroots,which not only united the revolutionary groups,but also endowed them with new political identity.This feature was more prominent after the founding of the People’s Republic of China.Since then,it had continued to educate farmers through the Winter School Movement.Its main purpose was not to obtain economic growth,but to strengthen political education,so as to build farmers’political identification with the People’s Republic of China and their understanding and support for policies.The main reason for this was that the people’s democratic dictatorship led by the proletariat and based on the alliance of workers and peasants needed to be consolidated at the ideological level.It aimed to transform the professional identity of peasants into the political identity of the people,which makes the Winter School fundamentally different from the traditional political education.In fact,the Winter School Movement was not only a new form of education,but also a new style of political life that gathered people to learn political and cultural knowledge for the farmers who lived in Neihuang County,Henan Province.The Winter School Movement combined political propaganda and cultural education,created a comprehensive public opinion environment by mobilizing cultural resources and using mass media,and subtly brought farmers into the country’s political life.The final effect of the Winter School Movement depended on human factors.Village officials,volunteer teachers and students were the three key factors.The establishment of various models had standardized specific evaluation criteria for reference.The establishment of a role model was a psychological suggestion that guided participants to learn from role models and improve themselves,and finally promoted the development of the Winter School Movement.However,such change became a challenge to farmers’ inherent methods of production and living habits,so they had a hard time accepting the concept.Although political identity could be shaped,farmers’ inherent thought was not easy to change.From the perspective of using the Gregorian calendar alone,it was very difficult for farmers to accept a new set of calendars to replace the traditional Chinese counterpart,not to mention the acquisition of ideological concepts and political awareness.Only by completely changing the mental state and lifestyle of farmers can they truly realize the transformation of their political identity,otherwise blindly mobilizing can only be superficial.Although there was a gap between ideal and reality in the process of carrying out the Winter School Movement in Neihuang County,its political goals were basically achieved.From 1949 to 1956,the Winter School Movement in Neihuang County cooperated with other key work,brought farmers into political life,and gradually transformed them into the new political identity of people,which consolidated the foundation of state power.However,what was undeniable was that changing the mindset of farmers is one thing,but completely transforming their identity was another.For some time,the Winter School Movement had only partially achieved its goals.Since 1956,when the socialist system was established,the government had begun to use other means to educate and transform farmers.