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submitted 5 days ago by RNAi@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

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[-] MizuTama@hexbear.net 77 points 5 days ago

Funnily enough Mao's landlord policy is something I've had the least push-back from libs when talking about. Fuck landlords.

[-] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 51 points 5 days ago

I've also had success explaining to people that while Mao may have facilitated or encouraged what happened, it's not like he personally sentenced all landlords to death. They were brought to trial and sentenced before their own tenants who testified as witnesses, many of whom were starved, brutalized, or had family killed by those same landlords in the past when unable to pay their rent or for organizing for their rights as tenants.

People are more sympathetic when tenants are the ones responsible, but they'll still hit you with "private property, bro" sometimes.

[-] Lavender@hexbear.net 14 points 5 days ago

Are there good documentaries, articles or books about this that I can forward to people I know?

[-] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 6 points 4 days ago

I'm also curious for these recommendations!

I have to admit I don't have anything that goes into this in detail, or maybe I do but I haven't read those books yet, but I'm piecing things together.

The People's History of Ideas podcast is REALLY good to get insight into pre-revolutionary China, but it's very dry and not yet finished after many years. The guy who does it is apparently a professor and is very knowledgeable, his discussion about what tenants went through under landlords and Mao's history as a peasant-tenant organizer made everything click in terms of why people were so ready to kill landlords and why Mao permitted it. Totally understandable, honestly.

I can't remember what I've engaged with in terms of the trials and Cultural Revolution era type stuff anymore. This is the only article I could find in my bookmarks at this point: https://archive.is/41gu3

[-] bubbalu@hexbear.net 6 points 4 days ago

@Lavender@hexbear.net I strongly recommend reading 'Fanshen' which is a classic account of land reform in a single village.

The documentary 'How Yukong Moved the Mountains', in the chapter 'A Woman, A Family' contains a horrific description of one woman's life during landlord rule.