The Power of Words: Literacy and Revolution in South China, 1949-95This book is a social and political history of the struggle for literacy in rural China from 1949 until 1994. It aims to show how China's revolutionary leaders conceived and promoted literacy in the countryside and how villagers made use of the literacy education and schools they were offered. Rather than focusing narrowly on educational issues alone, Peterson examines the larger significance of P.R.C. literacy efforts by situating the literacy movement within the broad context of major themes and issues in the social and political history of post-1949 China. Following the recent trend toward regional and local history, this book focuses on the linguistically diverse, socially complex, and politically awkward southeastern coastal province of Guangdong. As well, Peterson conducted interviews with local officials and teachers in several Guangdong counties in 1988 and 1989. |
Contents
Literacy and Society in Modern China | 3 |
2 Minban Schools and the Reaffirmation of Voluntarism in Village Education | 22 |
3 The Contested Priorities of Early Postrevolutionary Mass Education | 40 |
4 The Problem of the Teachers | 58 |
5 Collectivization and the Increased Importance of Literacy | 73 |
6 The National Literacy Campaigns of 1956 and 1958 | 85 |
7 Beijings Language Reform and Guangdongs Opposition | 103 |
The Agricultural Middle School Experiment 195865 | 118 |
Other editions - View all
The Power of Words: Literacy and Revolution in South China, 1949-95 Glen Peterson Limited preview - 1997 |
The Power of Words: Literacy and Revolution in South China, 1949-95 Glen Peterson No preview available - 1997 |
Common terms and phrases
adult literacy agricultural middle schools anti-illiteracy areas baogao basic Beijing Berkeley cadres California Press Cantonese cent characters Chinese educational collectivization Communist Party countryside Cultural Revolution dialect early economic educa efforts elite enrolment eracy fazhan gongnong jiaoyu huiyi gongzuo Guangdong jiaoyu nianjian Guangdong jiaoyu yu Guangzhou Guanyu Hanyu pinyin Hong Kong hukou illiteracy illiterate jiaoyu yu wenhua jiji kaizhan Language Reform lineage literacy campaign literacy education literacy movement literate Liu Shaoqi Ma Xulun Mandarin Mao Zedong Mao's mass education Meixian minban schools mobility Modern China nongcun nongye official overseas Chinese Pearl River Delta peasants pinyin political popular primary school province regional renmin chubanshe Renmin jiaoyu ribao Roderick MacFarquhar saomang school education shizi sishu social socialist society Soviet Taishan teachers tion Union Research Institute urban village wenti workpoints xian jiaoyu zhi xiaoxue Xingning Xinhui xuexi xuexiao Yanan yeyu jiaoyu yundong Zhongguo jiaoyu nianjian zhuyin