Story of China

The letters above the arch say, "The thoughts of Chairman Mao will shine forever." This is Nanjiecun Village in Henan, a tiny pocket of Chairman Mao's socialism in the great ocean of modern Chinese capitalism. (humming) Today, Nanjiecun is the last communist collective in China. It's still run as a worker's cooperative and here you can get a distant feel of Mao's brave new world. It was based on new values, doing away with centuries of stifling Confucian tradition. The Chinese people were to be reorganized into collective farms and work brigades. "Our economy will overtake Britain "in just a few years," Mao said. And all of it was directed by the rigid and secretive mind of the Communist Party, ruthlessly crushing dissent, needlessly imposing a one child policy, which has left a damaging mark on Chinese society till today. But there were real achievements, especially in public health, education and social housing, and there was a great improvement in the role and status of women. (speaking in Chinese) -

Translator

Life here is great. Food and housing and free. We can go to the supermarket and get anything. (singing in Chinese) -

Michael

And though completely out of step with the rest of China today, the mayor of Nanjiecun still believes in Mao's socialist vision. (speaking in Chinese) -

Translator

We communists have vowed to devote our lives to communism. We have given our word. We have to fight for it. (singing in Chinese) But Maoism went against the very grain of Chinese civilization. Its economic ideas were calamitous. The collectivization of farming massively disrupted society. Mao responded to the failures with the Great Leap Forward, a disastrous drive to industrialize the countryside. That led to the Great Famine. Between 1959 and 1961, it's now thought well over 30 million people died.