Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village (Paperback)

~ (Author) "LONG BOW VILLAGE lies in the southeast quarter of Shansi Province on the high plateau country that butts against the back of the Taihang Mountains..." (more)
Key Phrases: fanshen movement, provisional league, accounts examination meeting, Long Bow, Communist Party, Ch'i Yun (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An epic; one of the most important books about China which has been written since the Revolution. . . . For anyone who wants to understand anything about the Chinese revolution of our time, the reading of this book is an absolute necessity." -- Joseph Needham, Tribune (London)

"Fanshen is an extraordinary book. It will, one may hope, dispose of many myths, both those of the Left and of the Right." -- C. P. Fitzgerald, The Nation

"This is a different kind of book about the Chinese revolution. . . . It provides us with a vivid and compelling 'grass-roots' account of life in the village precisely during the period in which the new Communist power was establishing itself. Mr. Hinton has made valuable and in some ways unique contributions to our understanding of life in a northern Chinese village on the eve of the Communist takeover." -- Benjamin Schwartz, New York Times Book Review

Review

One of the most important books about China which has been written since the Revolution. . . . For anyone who wants to understand anything important about the Chinese revolution of our time, the reading of this book is an absolute necessity. - Joseph Needham, London Tribune

A vivid and compelling ‘grass-roots’ account of life in the village precisely during the period in which the new Communist power was establishing itself. . . . [A] unique contribution to our understanding of life in a northern Chinese village on the eve of the Communist takeover. - Benjamin Schwartz, New York Times Book Review

Fanshen is an extraordinary book. It will dispose of many myths, both those of the Left and of the Right. - C. P. Fitzgerald, The Nation

Fanshen is an important book. . . . It is an arresting narrative [on] the agonizing story of rural China in turmoilÂ…told with a remarkable evenness of temper and a rare understanding of human weaknesses and strengths. The lessons of Long Bow village, so movingly and compassionately recordedÂ…should be studied and restudied by all. - C. T. Hsu, Saturday Review --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 670 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (December 22, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520210409
• ISBN-13: 978-0520210400
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #115,823 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What they didn't teach you in school, July 17, 2000

By	Gina Arias (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This book is a must read for all of those interested in getting a more in-depth view of the impetus for the revolution in China, namely the absolutely horrific living and working conditions of poor peasants which included years of famine, exploitation by the landlords and barbaric victimization at the hands of the ruling gentry. Also gives an in-depth view of the committment and work of both Communists and non-Communists toward transforming Chinese society and correcting centuries of injustices. Especially if you were raised in America during the McCarthy era you will benefit from reading this book, by balancing the propaganda you have recieved through the media, the education system and rascal politicians your whole life.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Revolution at the grassroots, June 3, 2002

By	Smallchief - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

You've heard the old joke about the guy who says he would rather be a drunk than an alcoholic because alcoholics have to go to all those meetings. That's what this book is about: meetings -- innumerable, endless meetings in a small village in revolutionary China. For three years (1946-1948, it seems that the peasants in this village met every day to discuss how to divvy up the land taken from the landlords, select their leaders, discuss the correct "line" of the revolution, criticize each other, and punish evil doers.

Hinton is an enthusiast for Chairman Mao and the communists, but he doesn't gloss over the excesses of the revolution. He paints a vivid picture of life in prerevolutionary China and an equally vivid picture of the implementation of Maoism in the countryside with all its violence, doctrinal hair-splitting, changes in direction, and imperfections. At the end of the book, he concludes that the peasants and the revolution have achieved a proper balance between equity and production in the Chinese countryside and presumably everyone will live happily ever after.

As a story about life in the countryside this book is outstanding. As a book about the makings of a revolution at the peasant level it is outstanding. As a book about land reform and Maoism, it is much, much less than prophetic. Hinton leaves us with a warm, post revolutionary feeling that all was well in the Chinese countryside in 1948. But all was not well. Tens of millions of Chinese peasants starved to death in the 1950s. Maybe they were spending too much time in revolutionary meetings and not enough time working in their fields. Revolutionary enthusiasts such as Hinton need to be called to account for the errors they make in their ardor and naivete. Perhaps we should have a meeting on that....

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Monumental; a paragon of documentary work, April 4, 2005

By	Phil Myers (Brooklyn) - See all my reviews

A sweeping, nuanced, and deeply humane account of the changes in a single village during the land reform process that brought China out of feudalism in the 1940s. Hinton's saga immerses the reader in the shocking, brutal war of each against all that characterized life in rural China in the years before the revolution, and the struggles, challenges, excesses, and corrections that realized the equitable redistribution of agricultural land from the hands of a few landlords to the peasants who tilled it.

Eighteen years in the making, the book presents a revolutionary process of rich complexity, constructing a narrative with deep insight and revealing illustration that ranges beyond simple class and economic analysis into questions of organization, family, gender, sexuality, and human frailty, courage, discipline, and altruism.

Like the real work of revolution, the long narrative has its slow, grinding parts, but the book is punctuated with many moments of clarity, humor, and human recognition, and rewards the diligent reader immensely.

Contrary to the crude and invidious red-baiting review posted by Mr. Collins on this site, Hinton in fact takes great care to examine the violent excesses of the early days of the revolution in the village; indeed the latter half of the book is concerned precisely with the attempts of the community to come to terms with the initial violence and authoritarianism of the Communist Party members and cadres.