Class Identity: Construction of Farmer Status and Reconstruction of Rural Order

A common academic question often explored or asked by scholars studying the Chinese revolution is how did the Chinese Communist Party grow from a military and political weakling to a national power. In other words, how did a political force external to the farmers’ living space mobilize them and establish a corresponding “community consciousness”? From the perspective of identity politics, the focus is on why and how class identities with clear class distinctions emerged during the revolution led by the Chinese Communist Party. Furthermore, how are the various class identities determined in policy texts and practice? How did each class identity evolve and dissolve in the historical processes of land reform, cooperative movement, and people’s commune movement? What are the historical missions of class identification actions? How they are historically evaluated? Based on these questions, this article takes class identity as the core research theme; sorts out the basic types, generating factors, and policy practice processes of class identity; and explains the historical mission and fate and comments on the political sociological significance.