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China’s sent-down generation

Rene, Helena K. China’s sent-down generation : public administration and the legacies of Mao’s rustication program. Washington, DC : Georgetown university press, 2013. XIII-229 p. (“Public management and change series”). ISBN : 978-1-58901-987-4

 China's Sent-Down 2hr.inddDuring China’s Cultural Revolution, Chairman Mao Zedong’s “rustication program” resettled 17 million urban youths, known as “sent downs,” to the countryside for manual labor and socialist reeducation. This book, the most comprehensive study of the program to be published in either English or Chinese to date, examines the mechanisms and dynamics of state craft in China, from the rustication program’s inception in 1968 to its official termination in 1980 and actual completion in the 1990s.

Rustication, in the ideology of Mao’s peasant-based revolution, formed a critical component of the Cultural Revolution’s larger attack on bureaucrats, capitalists, the intelligentsia, and “degenerative” urban life. This book assesses the program’s origins, development, organization, implementation, performance, and public administrative consequences. It was the defining experience for many Chinese born between 1949 and 1962, and many of China’s contemporary leaders went through the rustication program.

Voir aussi

Bonnin, Michel. Génération perdue. Le mouvement d’envoi des jeunes instruits à la campagne en Chine, 1968-1980. Paris : Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales, 2004. 491 p.

Sur les traductions anglaise et chinoises de cet ouvrage, voir :

Monique Abud

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Monique Abud (26 janvier 2014). China’s sent-down generation. Carnets du Centre Chine (CNRS/EHESS). Consulté le 12 novembre 2025 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/melo


Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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