Small-town nerds and Maoist thought: my intellectual journey

 

(Translator's preface: This is the 23rd and final chapter of a 2020 research study of contemporary Chinese workplaces. I've only previously put up one of the chapters (here: servethepeople: Day in the Life of a Chinese Telemarketing Company (mike-servethepeople.blogspot.com)) and hope that one day the entire work can be posted somewhere. The image is the front cover of Life Weekly, a mainstream Chinese publication which, whilst recognising the existence of the problem of "small town nerds", tries to convince them that there are solutions to their problems.  Its caption reads: "Small town nerds: how to stand on your own two feet".)

Chapter 23: Small-town nerds[1] and Maoist thought: my intellectual journey

Editor's note: This article is very well written. Firstly, it is good in that it is highly representative and typical; secondly, it is good in that it is logically clear and draws out a narrative of how the children of the proletariat wake up from the delusion of education to change their class; finally, it is good in that the author bravely points out that the way out for the small-town question-makers lies in returning to the proletariat.

The author of this article is a "small-town nerd", that is to say, he comes from a poor background, relies on his own efforts to get into a prestigious school, but after entering society, he finds that the prestigious school does not change his fate. He is struggling in the cracks of the class, but society does not stop beating him because of his struggle. It is against this backdrop that the author comes across the writings of Chairman Mao. Reading Chairman Mao's writings gave the author new tools to observe and analyse society. The author finally realised the nature of the current higher education, "essentially the bourgeoisie, in order to ease the class contradictions, has deliberately taken out a little resource to distribute to the highly educated people, creating a belief system for the proletariat to obtain a high income by acquiring a high degree ...... Under the poison of highly educated beliefs, the proletariat at large has pinned its hopes on its next generation, given up its rights and interests, and its sense of struggle has been constantly weakened. And the highly educated next generation they have so painstakingly nurtured, the few who have tasted the sweetness of capital and are rapidly turning around to oppress the proletariat, while the others who are struggling for the scraps they have sought but not received, are the small-town nerds."

What is even more rare is that the author not only recognizes the nature of higher education, but also recognizes that the proletariat is the real friend of the small-town nerd: "The real friend of the small-town problem nerd is the proletariat that has painstakingly nurtured itself, just like the frog that has climbed to the mouth of the well, its friend is always the others of its kind who are still struggling at the bottom of the well. Chairman Mao said that the intellectuals are the hair and the proletariat is the skin; if the skin does not exist, how can the hair be attached? The real enemy of the small-town nerd is the bourgeoisie, the people who forge highly educated beliefs. We should not be grateful for this access; on the contrary, this access was forged by the bourgeoisie with the blood and tears of our fathers and should be acutely aware that those who built it are the real enemies."

The author concludes by talking about the confusion of small-town nerds and Marxism, parts of which I don't agree with. For example, the author says, "As the number of students from humble backgrounds who can get into prestigious schools gradually becomes smaller due to the Matthew effect on educational resources, the number of small-town nerds will also decrease, and the group of people who can quickly understand Marxism will shrink. But in the long run, when access is completely closed, more people are bound to take up the arms of Marxism and Mao Zedong Thought (they just won't understand it relatively quickly)." In fact, it is possible that the bourgeoisie will expand its intake in order to ease the pressure of employment, and although the friends being expanded are not the so-called prestigious schools of 985/211[2], the numbers are huge and groups like the small-town nerds will only grow. In addition, it is not only some of the small-town nerds who have gone to the working people, but also some of the children of urban middle class families who are bravely moving forward in the pursuit of truth, which is something that needs to be seen.

Our friends are all over the world, and our songs are spreading in all directions. As social tensions become more pronounced, there will only be more and more of such people.

I. The confusion of a small-town nerd

I am a small-town nerd from a working-class family, and I was once as confused as most people in this group. It was only after coming into contact with Mao Zedong Thought that I realised that the plight of small-town nerds was mainly the result of a failure to recognise their own class, and that only by relying on the proletariat could they have a real future.

I was born in 1996 in a rural village on the south-east coast that has since developed into a small town. My parents, both post-65, were poorly educated and worked at the lowest level of manual labour. My father was a construction worker whose smell of masonry and concrete accompanied me as I grew up, and the long hours of heavy physical labour left him with injuries and illnesses. My mother was an electronics factory worker, working an assembly line job with two days off a month and more than 11 hours a day (sometimes more than 11 hours, and only the excess was considered overtime), and with a piece-rate wage that left her with little rest. Under such working and living conditions, they spared no effort to belittle their own work, apart from hoping that I would study hard and get into a good university, so that I would never be like them.

Under the influence of this philosophy, I worked tirelessly for my university entrance exams and finally got into a 985 university. However, there was no one to tell me what to do after I went to a good university. I had nothing but problems for the previous ten years and there were people in my new environment who were better at it than me, plus I was bored with the science major I was in and even less motivated to study.

A consequence of my high-pressure state before the entrance exams, was that I began to indulge myself. I found that I had lost even my previous nerd-like skills when I graduated. I had failed two exams, had no glamorous resume, and watched many people who were not as good at swotting as I had been in the past go on to graduate school. Perhaps out of jealousy, I began to doubt my past pursuits and began to think seriously about what the aura of high education really meant. When I hit the biggest low point in my academic career, I thought of revolutionaries who had also hit low points in their lives in the past, and I wanted to understand that period of history and how Chairman Mao had come out of his low point in life. Therefore, I bought a set of Mao's Selected Works and was instantly fascinated by it.

II. Mao Zedong's thought has caused a change in my mind

In fact, every Chinese is no stranger to the life and thought of Chairman Mao, but the impression is mostly that of textbooks with their running biographies and grand political declarations, like a mathematical problem for which the answer is given directly and the middle process is omitted, which is somewhat offensive. Chairman Mao explains in detail, in plain language, how he refined his ideas step by step during the revolutionary struggle. Both of my examinations ended in failure, but they did allow me to take to heart famous historical events of the modern era, and I was quickly surprised by Chairman Mao's conviction as I knew exactly the revolutionary situation that corresponded to the writing of each essay in Mao's selection. Chairman Mao's most outstanding characteristic was not his wisdom or literary skills, but his consistent belief in the power of the people, regardless of whether the objective situation of the revolution was at a low ebb, and his confidence in the people was never at a low ebb. I was strongly attracted by Chairman Mao's ideas, which drove me to learn more about his deeds and Marxist ideas, and to start thinking about my own life and the current state of society.

In July this year, I joined a manufacturing central enterprise, along with several other undergraduates and postgraduates who graduated from 985 and 211. Shortly after joining the company, the leaders (who have a PhD) organised a welcoming wine party and forced the newcomers to drink baijiu[3] and to play the game (that is, to have a drink with each person at the table), and I could barely cope with it. After the drinks had been consumed, the leaders started to gather around the only female employee in the room and started to "educate" us newcomers that the company would focus on training us, that we should adapt to the workplace as soon as possible, and that we should learn to say appropriate things to liven up the atmosphere at the drinking party. Perhaps in the past I would have taken these "teachings" as true and aspired to be a leader, but after learning about Mao Zedong's thought, I realised that in the past I was only after the high income and social status represented by a high degree, whereas Chairman Mao was a minister of the Guomindang at the age of 33, but gave up his high position for the sake of the people at the bottom. I have since changed my past pursuits and become a committed Marxist.

With the explosion of small-town nerds, I also learnt online that many people come from similar backgrounds to me and have the same troubles. After reading Mao I knew that there must be a deeper reason for this social phenomenon and I began to try to analyse the plight of the small-town nerd in terms of Mao's thought.

III. Looking at the small-town nerd in the light of Mao's thought

It seems to me that the 5 volumes of Mao's Selected Works are about two issues throughout, one is how to distinguish between friends and enemies; the other is how to unite friends to defeat enemies. These two issues are not isolated but interlinked; as events develop, old enemies are destroyed and then new ones are created, and these new enemies may also be former friends who need to be distinguished again. These two issues cover the whole course of history from individual to national development. I used to think that by going to a prestigious school I would be able to make more friends with the upper echelons of society, thinking that all prestigious students were like-minded friends. But when I realised the gap between myself and the rest of my classmates, I was thrown into doubt. For the small-town nerds, getting into a top school is like frogs that have climbed so hard towards the top of the well that most need to stop and rest and marvel at the size of the world, and hardly know where to go next right away; whereas those with social resources are like a bird resting at the well, having seen the world beyond and knowing exactly where they are going to fly. The biggest delusion of the small-town nerds and the people around them is that frogs that have reached the same height as birds can naturally fly. I thought it was easy for students from famous schools to understand each other, so I shared my experience of studying Mao Zedong Thought with my new colleagues from the same famous school. As a result, they were dismissive, and one of them even said that I had been brainwashed. I really couldn’t imagine a CCP member who graduated from 985 graduate school, who would denounce Mao Zedong Thought as brainwashing. At that time, I realized that frogs and birds can never be the same.

So according to Mao Zedong's thought, who are the friends and who are the real enemies of the small-town nerds? In the past, high education represented high quality and the assumption of more social responsibilities, but nowadays high education is linked to high income. In essence, the bourgeoisie, in order to ease class conflicts, has deliberately taken out a little resource to distribute to the highly educated people, creating a belief system for the proletariat that acquiring high education will lead to high income, which I call the highly educated belief. Under the poison of highly educated beliefs, the proletariat at large have pinned their hopes on their next generation, given up their rights and interests, and their sense of struggle has been constantly weakened. The highly educated next generation they have painstakingly nurtured, a few of whom have tasted the sweetness of capital, are quick to turn around and oppress the proletariat, while others are struggling for the scraps of food that they have not yet received, and these are the small-town nerds. But they generally despise the manual workers and few, if any, turn back to the proletariat that nurtured them.

Unlike Hinduism, which emphasises the reincarnation of nothingness, highly educated beliefs still have a very small chance of success, but those who do succeed invariably betray the proletariat. Under the influence of highly educated beliefs, more and more parents are sending their children into this only avenue, and with the downturn in the world economic situation making the bourgeoisie reluctant to put up the resources they had originally parted with, the avenue is narrowing, a phenomenon some call “involution”.

It follows that the real friend of the small-town nerd is the proletariat that has painstakingly nurtured itself, just like the frog that climbs to the mouth of the well, its friend is always the rest of its kind that is still struggling at the bottom. Chairman Mao said that the intellectuals are the hair and the proletariat is the skin; if the skin does not exist, how can the hair be attached? The real enemy of the small-town nerd is the bourgeoisie, the people who forge highly educated beliefs. We should not be grateful for this access; on the contrary, this access was forged by the bourgeoisie with the blood and tears of our fathers and we should be acutely aware that the people who built it are the real enemies.

In my opinion, small-town nerds are people who can understand and accept Maoist thought. Firstly, we have a certain stock of knowledge and the ability to learn, we know the history of the revolution and can understand and digest the theoretical knowledge of Marxism; secondly, the increased difficulty of acquiring wealth and status for small-town nerds has forced us to re-examine the highly educated beliefs built by the bourgeoisie; finally, small-town nerds are able to understand the condition of the working class, their families of origin are either proletarian or other underclass groups, who are naturally on the side of the proletariat.

We have a strong desire to change the situation of our fathers and mothers, and we should and must extend our sympathy for our parents to the working class and working people as a whole if we are to have any hope.

Opposing highly educated beliefs does not mean that one should give up high qualifications, but that one should not pursue them for material gain. On the contrary, the proletarian ranks need highly educated and qualified people, and they need someone to study in-depth knowledge of Marxist theory. The old generation of revolutionary leaders basically had a solid theoretical background. Small-town nerds should actively study and spread Marxism and Mao Zedong Thought in the present day. However, there are still many small-town nerds who dismiss these theories as "brainwashing". For this reason, Marxist-related courses in universities are largely to blame. The content of textbooks nowadays is always geared towards examinations, and the questions in examinations are simply about what Chairman Mao did and what ideas he put forward at what time. Apart from being boring and dogmatic, such content is also filled with a heroic view of history. Although there are phrases such as "Chairman Mao relied on the people to achieve victory", there is no explanation of the role played by the people, and the constant repetition of such phrases only reflects the role of Mao Zedong alone. The heroic view of history can stifle human initiative, erase the contribution of the people in history, and make people think that revolution is only the business of one or two leaders. Throughout his life, Chairman Mao devoted himself to mobilising the power of the people and raising their consciousness. The language of Mao's Selected Works is so approachable also because Chairman Mao tried so hard to pass on his ideas to his readers, and he wanted everyone to carry on his cause: "The spring wind blows amid profuse willow wands, Six hundred million in this land all equal Yao and Shun"[4].

IV. The present difficulties of small-town nerds and other Marxists

One is the influence of negative paternal thinking. Under the influence of highly educated beliefs, parents devalue the manual labour they perform, while having a weak sense of rights and struggle, and this thinking more or less affects the next generation. For me, the mud-covered workers were my parents, the group I knew and was closest to, while the well-dressed capitalists in the city skyscrapers did not interest me even if they earned more. And there are many small-town do-gooders who are influenced by their parents and their highly educated beliefs to look down on manual labourers and to be willingly exploited by capitalists.

Secondly, because of the Matthew effect on educational resources, the number of students from humble backgrounds who can get into top schools will gradually become fewer, and the number of small-town nerds will also decrease, and the group of people who can understand Marxism quickly will shrink. But in the long run, when access is completely closed, more people are bound to take up the arms of Marxism and Mao Zedong Thought (they just won't understand it as quickly, relatively speaking).

Thirdly, society as a whole has a mindset that emphasises science over literature. Science and engineering education strengthened people's understanding of the natural sciences and promoted scientific and technological progress. But it has neglected thinking about social issues and the cultivation of the humanities. Except for a few highly qualified scientists, the vast majority of people trained in science and engineering will become a screw in the service of capital operations, a product of the alienation of labour, thus neglecting to think about social humanity. I was also disgusted with my undergraduate major because I understood that the prospect of the major was to spend day after day in a lab, and felt that life was meaningless, when for some people this kind of work is the only opportunity for upward mobility. This is one of the reasons why I went from small-town nerd to Marxist.

 

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[1] "Small town nerds", is a new item of online vocabulary, and refers to "young students who were born in small towns, study hard, and are good at taking exams, but lack a certain vision and resources."  “Small town nerds” originated from a group of more than 50,000 members on Douban.com. The group stated in its introduction that the main function of the group is to "share failure stories" for "failed students" in "985" and "211" universities. They are part of the same generation whose dissatisfaction with social competitiveness has led to the phenomenon of “lying low”.

[2] See Note 1, chapter 4.13

[3] Baijiu is a colourless spirit usually distilled from sorghum, but may have other grains as well. It can range from 35-60% alcohol by volume and is usually consumed in quite small glasses at banquets and meals. Probably the most famous baijiu by brand name is Maotai.

[4] Lines from Chairman Mao’s poem Farewell to the God of Plague written on July 1, 1958. Yao and Shun were legendary monarchs in ancient China, believed to be saints and wise leaders of the people.