Page 26 - C.A.L.L. #38 - Summer 2014

the food they grow. They also sleep Chairman Mao.
together, in small dormitories.
“Because China now has the largest
The farm grows eight or nine crops of wealth gap in the world, it is normal that
organic vegetables and raises sheep and people are missing the past,” said Mr
free-range chickens. Three or four local Han.
farmers have taught the students how
to manage the land. This year, the Most of these new Maoists are too
strawberry crop has been particularly young to remember the viciousness of
successful, with enough left over to his rule, and have only been taught in
make plenty of jam. “We sell our school to lionise him as China’s saviour.
produce to Beijing for quite high prices,”
said Mr Han. Mr Han said his students all practice
“Mao Zedong Thought”. But what they
“We work every day. take from it is not the fire of furious
We do not have
weekends,” he said.
“But we respect the

traditional Chinese
holidays. And when
the students have
free time they study.
There is a small
library with books on
agriculture, history
and philosophy. The
students are free to
learn by themselves

what interests them.”
Students from Beijing make preserves from organic strawberries at
Mr Han, an economist the Zhengdao Farm in Hebei, China

by training, is one of
the most famous critics of China’s revolution, but the freedom to drop out
economic liberalisation and has become of the pressure cooker of modern
notorious as a co-founder of the Utopia Chinese society.
website, one of the leading Maoist
forums. “What it means to me is serving the
people,” said Yang Ling, a recent
In recent years, those left behind by graduate. “The current value system
China’s economic miracle - the workers where everyone wants to make a better
fired from the state jobs that were life for themselves, to be successful,
once as secure as an “iron rice bowl”, or stops you from feeling for others,” she
those who have struggled to get on the said.
property ladder - have begun to wax
nostalgic for the “good old days” under “I do not have any desire for a fancy
house or car. I have friends in Beijing

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