Thesis (Ph. D.)--Boston University, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 335-350).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1975. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 735-750).

published_or_final_version / History / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong. / Typewritten.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 427-438).

The peasant movement that swept China in the mid 1920's originated in Kwangtung Province in 1922 when P'eng P'ai organized peasant unions in Haifeng hsien. The unions spread into neighboring hsien, but not until 1924, following the reorganization of the Kuomintang and its alliance with the Chinese Communist Party and the subsequent creation of the Peasant Bureau and Peasant Institute, did the peasant movement spread throughout the province. The peasant unions grew rapidly and by June 1927 they had enrolled perhaps 700,000 members. The very explosiveness of the movement's development and the increasingly violent tactics used by peasant organizers to mobilize the peasants aggravated a growing rift between factions within the Kuomintang. This rift led to the collapse of the United Front of the KMT and CCP and destroyed the peasant movement. Beginning in June 1926 counter-revolutionary forces attacked the unions. Peasant forces that survived these first onslaughts were crushed by regular Kuomintang troops in 1927 and 1928. This thesis is an examination of the peasant movement in Kwangtung from 1922 to 1928, and it seeks to explain why the movement ended in failure. To answer this question various characteristics of seven regions within the province are discussed, providing the material for an analysis (that appears in Chapter III) of why some regions organized peasant unions more successfully than others. The second chapter traces where and when unions developed and how strong they became. The third and concluding chapter of the thesis compares and contrasts the material presented in the preceding chapters, and it concludes that not only the breakdown of the United Front doomed the Kwangtung peasant movement to failure, but that the strength of the local, traditional society determined how successful the unions would be. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

Political scientists generally recognize two explanations of the extensive peasant support which the Chinese Communist Party acquired in North China during the so-called "Yenan Period" of 1937-1945. One theory posits that the North Chinese peasants gave their allegiance and support to the Chinese Communists at this time because the Communists were the only force resisting the Japanese invasion and occupation of North China; the second theory claims that the peasants supported the Communists because Communist agrarian reforms at this time liberated the peasants from centuries of poverty and class exploitation. Unfortunately, the sharp debate which has taken place between the adherents of these two theories has tended to obscure the search for additional explanations of Communist growth during the Yenan Period. Reliable Communist sources and economic surveys indicate that in two key Communist base areas, the "peasant nationalism" and "agrarian revolution" theories do not explain pre-1940 Communist growth as well as they explain post-1940 Communist growth — additional research on the growth of Communist political authority prior to 1940 is needed. This thesis contends that a comparison of the public behaviour of the Communist armies with that of the warlord armies which preceded them in North China helps explain why Communist rule was accepted by so many peasants during the years 1937-1940. Rape, looting, terror, and crushing military taxes were common fare for the millions of North Chinese peasants who lived under warlord rule from the death of Yuan Shih-k'ai in 1916 until the Japanese invasion in 1937, In contrast, the Communist armies were indoctrinated against molestation of the peasantry, and made every effort to help the peasants economically rather than burden them. The peasants were favorably impressed by the virtuous behaviour of the Communist soldiers, and gave their backing to the political movement these soldiers represented. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate