Raised red: Party membership through three generations
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E-mail China.org.cn, July 7, 2016
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Ye Xinzhu, an 81-year-old member of the Communist Party of China. |
July 1st marks the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC). We talked to a number of Party members about why and how they signed up to the Party in the first place and how membership has changed their life.
For the 81-year-old Ye Xinzhu, being a member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is like the air she breathes every day.
She joined the CPC in 1956 when she was 21 years old. She didn't tell her family about it until being admitted, leaving her mother overjoyed when she heard the news. "She ran all over the neighborhood to tell all our neighbors about it," she said.
Ye was first impressed with the Party during the Chinese Civil War, also known as the Liberation War, in the 1940s. The capital city Beijing was under the reign of the Kuomintang (the Nationalist Party) before 1949 and the CPC only came to power after 1949.
"When the Kuomintang was there before the Liberation War, they often borrowed things from our families but never returned them. And when they came and asked my mother to cook pancakes for them, they never returned the flour. My mother always had to hide our flour from them, though it didn't work." Food and other necessities were rarities in the 1940s in China, especially for Ye's working-class family of seven people.
"So, later when the Eight Route Army came and borrowed things, my family and our neighbors were quite unwilling at first. But we were really impressed after seeing them return things at exactly the time they said. And all our cookeries they returned were fresh and clean! I'd never seen an army do that!" recalled Ye. The Eight Route Army, which later constituted the People's Liberation Army, was led by the CPC.
"I was in my formative teenager years then, so that registered deeply in my mind," Ye said.
When Ye began working at the National Planning Committee (which later became the present-day National Development and Reform Commission, China's economic planner), she found that most of her co-workers were CPC members. Living in the dorm provided by the committee, Ye and her colleagues, who were slightly older than her, bonded immediately.
"They often took us younger girls to the dances held in nearby parks. We would dance among ourselves, really enjoying the moment." For Ye, the sense of community and the wish to learn from her "more politically conscious" co-workers encouraged her to join the Party.
"Being a Party member means you care for the country and its people more than others do," Ye said, recalling all the work she has done to help the people around her.
Sixty years into Party membership, the grey-haired member said she still cares for the Party.
Being tech-savvy, she likes to read political news online and on WeChat (China's answer to WhatsApp and Facebook) to keep herself posted on what's going on in the country.
"What have I gained most (from joining the Party)? I would say political consciousness. When I see unjust things happen, I prefer not to look on with folded arms… I have always followed the calling of the Party my whole life," she said with pride.
Millennial Party members
Unlike Ye, who witnessed the CPC leading China through the country's darkest and most turbulent times, Wang Shujie and Pan Yue, two girls aged 20, are more proud of the Party and the country's present activities.
The two are what's called Yubeidangyuan, or probationary Party members, which means that they are not fully-fledged CPC members yet.
The process of being admitted into the Party is arduous, said the two Chinese literature students of Capital Normal University.
They filed an application to the Party unit of the Chinese Department of their college last year. After being recognized as active candidates, they need to write 3,000-word reports once a month regarding their opinion of the Party or a discussion of current affairs, attend Party-related sessions, take part in all the meetings organized by the Party unit and do volunteer work as much as they can.
Despite their tremendous efforts, only one or two students out of a 40-strong class will be admitted into the Party each year.
They believe joining the Party is "an honorable and purposeful thing to do."
Wang's parents and Pan's father are Party members, and they have influenced the two young women since they were children. But they are more drawn to the Party due to the miraculous achievements the Party and the country have made in the past few decades.
"For example, we now have quite good relations with the United States, our ties with Japan are improving, and we are good friends with South Korea. Thanks to the Party, China has more say in the world now than it did decades ago," said the two, beaming with pride.
They said they just had a debate in their dorm the night before, talking about the ongoing anti-corruption campaign in the country and various political systems throughout the world.
"Every political party has its problems, but it will improve itself if it keeps rectifying these problems, like the crackdown on corruption," Wang said.
Asked whether they admired the two-party or multi-party systems in other countries, they snapped, "No! They're unstable! They're not a match for China!"
Party training
Echoing the two's thoughts is Huan Lei, who is a teacher at the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC, the country's highest institution for training Party officials.
There are various training bases for Party officials in China, expanding from the capital to every province, city and county.
According to Huan, who has been a Party member since 2007, higher-ranking officials across the country are required to attend a two-month training session at the Central Party School at least once every five years, and other lesser Party officials are selected to attend other training sessions, which last half a year or an entire year.
The courses touch on a variety of topics, ranging from enhancing Party officials' belief in the CPC to their understanding of the history of the CPC, China's economics and the country's international relations.
"Each and every official comes here with many questions in their mind. Most of the questions focus on the development of their specific area," Huan said. His students include Tibetan officials, who he said cared about how to maintain stability and drive economic development in the highland area as well as how to interpret the central government's policies in Tibet. These trainings definitely benefit Party officials, said Huan.
Apart from Party school sessions which are intended for officials only, there are Party gatherings and sessions offered by what's called "grassroots Party units" for ordinary Party members.
For 81-year-old Ye and 20-year-old Wang and Pan, they attend these gatherings regularly. Most of the time they study the country's major policies, and they sometimes also reread classic Communist literature.
"I love attending Party gatherings very much. I wish there could be more of them," said Ye, whose Party unit holds such gatherings once every three months. When she is there, she likes to exchange ideas and sometimes debate with her fellow retired Party members about what's going on in the country.
The two girls love listening to heroic stories about Party members, where belief in the Party and the love for the country become inseparable. As to where the Party is headed, the young people are convinced it will lead Chinese people to a better future.
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