Peasants in the Chinese Social and Political Systems (Essay Sample)

Student’s name
Professor’s name
Course
Date
Peasants in the Chinese Social and Political Systems
Peasants have become important in modern Chinese literature playing the main characters. The peasant acts as lenses through which the reader can view the social and political atmospheres of China. The peasant is utilized in these stories as vehicles for relaying the concerns of modern China; the dearth of basic needs, poverty, lack of education, and the obscurity of the future. Peasants in China were perceived as a conduit for progression, but they were just workers, unimportant when measured up against the grand dream. In spite of this, a large selection of Chinese literature depicts the peasants as soul and heart of the Chinese society (Tsu 4). This essay presents a critical analysis of Li Rui’s "The Brake-stone" and “Electing a Thief” with the aim of delineating the role and place of peasants in the 20th century Chinese society. “Electing a Thief” is selected for this analysis since it offers an analogy between the villagers’ relationship with their social condition and sociopolitical issues in China at the time. On the other hand, "The Brake-stone" focuses on the ordinary lives of peasants and the sense of justice during the same period.
A playwright of Xungen pai, the Root-seeking school, Li Rui starting writing fiction in 1974 after becoming a zhiqing (sent-downyouth) in a place close to the Luliang mountains, Shanxi province. He remained relatively unknown until his collection of eighteen short stories Deep Earth was publicized in 1988. Famous for his brief style of writing, Li combines his empathy with a precise illustration of the vulnerability and unproductivity of village life against a somber landscape. Li’s fascination with the village life became prevalent in his second and third novels No-Wind Tree (published in 1966) and No clouds for Ten Thousand Miles (1988). In the novels, Li employs villages as the main narrators, allowing them to air their views and feelings, while creating a polyphonic impact (Tsu 14). What is more, the expert utilization of dialect gives his stories a natural flavor while ensuring the audience connects with the relayed events. Given that most of Li’s stories take place in the remote areas of the Luliang mountains, a few critics link his to the “Potato school” (Shanyaodan pai) that started in the 1940s and thrived in the 50s with renowned writers like Ma Feng and Zhao Shuli. In reality, LI’s village narratives have to do with the melancholic aspects of rural china as opposed to the positive depiction of socialist ideologies of the school.
Despite the fact that the villager has become a leading subject in Chinese fiction, it is worth noting that the peasant is a general term referring to a great number of people. Individuals categorized by their situation in life; therefore, peasants have analogous traits such a lack of education, extreme poverty, low wages, and overexploitation. Besides, it is vital to understand that the peasant is not all-encompassing and singular, there are various illustrations of the peasant to depict their different sides. Despite the fact that the peasant in Chinese literature is mostly submissive and illiterate, they manifest in many ways. In the "The Brake-stone," the peasant is introduced through the eyes of brakeman maneuvering a rocky path of the mountains ferrying his boss, a man who had sex with his wife when he was unable to cater for her and their child (Zhao 21). In the "The Brake-stone," Li Rui throws a skeptical jeer at the customary feeling of equity by gathering all the natural elements of the grudge plot structure before surprising the reader; the peasant hero unexpectedly tosses aside his complaints against his offensive and exploitative manager to join the latter in a shameful "gentlemen’s agreement" of wife-switching.
In “The Brake-stone” the audience is introduced to an ambitious and persevering albeit native peasant, the brakeman. The peasant is presented as the cart-driver’s assistant but he is seen as a human. Prior to becoming a servant, he was a person who had dreams and aspirations. He had been found happiness and built a world for his family (Zhao 23). However, the harsh realities of life had removed the hope and joy from his eye and replaced them with a set of eyes that had known sorrow intimately. Despite being a follower, he remains persevering, thinking of the best way to exact his revenge on a boss who cheated on his wife. The woman in the story is portrayed as one who cannot stand on her own. She encourages her husband and her boss to drink more as a way of inspiring their benefactor; but after several drinks she lets her guard down and fornicates with the driver (Zhao 23). Even with her insensibilities, it might be assumed that she was ‘repaying a debt’ that her husband would have been unable to settle with his meager earnings. She kept silent never telling her husband whatever happened maybe due to the existing social prejudices at the time or because she wanted to remain a submissive wife. Evidently, the husband’s behavior emanates from cultural upbringing and lack of education – in his case; he never understood that he could get back at the driver by sleeping with his wife or killing him (Zhao 24). In addition, he only knew manual labor, and that was how he was going t repay the 80 Yuan he was lent. Nonetheless, losing confidence in the power of revenge, he endured the ordeal in spite of his disappointment in the person who employed him.
“Electing a thief”, a tale composed by Li Rui, has various emblematic and symbolic undertones pitting the peasant against the Chinese political system. The tale focuses on a village leader who notices the theft of a pack of grain from the storage facility and thought of the possibility of a vote-based system to get pieces of information on finding the thief (Li 321). The leader needs every one of the men from the town to vote in favor of a thief; shockingly however, it becomes clear that the whole vote is collectively against him. The leader furiously rescinds his duty and every one of the villagers i exceptionally amped up for the joke they played on the chief but shortly, their hearts become loaded with dread. The author mentions, “When they’d had their fill of laughter, some began to worry” (Li 321). Despite their dislike for him, they gradually perceive his significances to the town and now, being at a misfortune, they choose to go as a gathering to apologize for their indiscretion. There is almost certainly that the loss of a helpful leader is the irony of the tale yet this intrigue is the face of the more comprehensive incongruity that the writer is attempting to pass on to the audience. On his part, Li Rui is attempting to utilize the story to show the ironical elements of the political framework in China.
Although the tale appears to be straightforward, the irony that occurred amidst the story is somewhat trivial and phony. It starts after the locals annoyed the leader of the production group as they have voted en masse that he is the person who stole the sack of grains. The head got extremely furious about the outcome and chose to abandon the villagers and not to care aout them henceforth. It is very clear that the villagers hate the head and they maybe just want to teach him a lesson at first. In addition, they endeavor to express to him their feelings of oppression, yet at that point, they understand that his existence is important to the town since he is the person who solicits for the reprieve of their credits and grains. “Who’ll we pick? You? Will you be able to bring us back relief loans and relief grain at the end of the year?” (Li 323). The phrase indicates how unexpected it is that the individual they detest is also the individual they need the most for their survival. In return for the few minutes they spent messing with the headman, they are presently faced with a progression of issues to confront. “If he really quit, then from now on there’ll be no one to call us to work and assign tasks. If we mess up, the wheat harvest really will be delayed, a man can’t walk without a head, and a bird won’t fly without a leader” (Li 323). Without the head, they will not have the capacity to go to work, which implies that in a way, they lose their main income source. They cannot stand to be jobless in light of the fact that they make do with t...