DATE=8/26/1999 TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT TITLE=MODEL MAO VILLAGE NUMBER=5-44138 BYLINE=STEPHANIE HO DATELINE=NANJIE VILLAGE CONTENT= VOICED AT: // EDS: can be used in relation to China's 50th anniversary on October first // INTRO: In the heart of China's countryside, one village has resisted the capitalist trend that has swept over the rest of the county and is opting, instead, for the benefits of communal living. V-O-A Beijing correspondent Stephanie Ho reports that the village's authorities are relying on the socialist principles popularized by former Chairman Mao Zedong more than 50 years ago. TEXT: For many Chinese, Chairman Mao is still a figure of almost mythic proportions. He is personally identified with the founding of the People's Republic of China - a status with special significance this year, as the country celebrates its 50th anniversary. Mao died in 1976, but his spirit is alive and well in Nanjie - a neo-communist village that lies among the cornfields in China's most populous province, Henan. Here, Mao is treated as a god-like figure. A ten- meter tall statue of the Chairman presides over the village, with one arm outstretched as if bestowing a blessing. Nanjie's 31-hundred residents receive roughly the same salary - about 30-dollars (250 RMB) per month. The village provides them with free housing, schooling and medical care. On the surface, Nanjie looks like any of China's thousands of other villages. In the evening, as in communities all over China, about two dozen women of all ages amuse themselves by line-dancing to the strains of a modern pop song. // MUSIC - FADE IN, EST, FADE OUT // This dancing is one of the only forms of entertainment available, though. There are no karaoke bars. There are no movie theaters. The model village of Nanjie is in a time warp - where the collective values and strict morality of the Maoist era have proven to be the secrets to its success. Once every three months, villagers are subject to evaluation under a 10-star system that rewards them for adherence to Maoist principles of thrifty living, good hygiene and selfless deeds. For each of the ten points a household is found to be lacking, it loses one of its food benefits - including flour, eggs, cooking oil and meat. Local authorities assure visitors that only a few households hold the lowest score of six stars. Three times each day, the village government broadcasts three different songs eulogizing Mao and Mao-thought. // SONG - FADE IN, EST, FADE OUT // This classic song, called "The Great Helmsman Sailing on the Seas," describes Mao as the man who successfully led the Chinese people through turbulent times. Nanjie's living local hero is Communist Party Secretary, Wang Hongbin, who started the village down its collective road in 1984. Its return to communism came as the rest of China was heading in the opposite direction and dismantling collective agriculture in favor of private enterprise. Although it is Mao's communist spirit that permeates Nanjie, Mr. Wang does give some credit to an unlikely person -- Deng Xiaoping - Mao's successor, who launched China's capitalist-style reforms. // WANG CHINESE ACT - IN FULL, FADE OUT // He says that in the Deng era, Nanjie was free to develop itself however it wanted - even if that meant returning to a collective economy. Although Nanjie emphasizes communal living, it has made good use of the market economy that has emerged in China. In 1984, the value of Nanjie's total production was 90-thousand dollars (740-thousand RMB). Last year, the figure jumped more than two-thousand percent to 193-million dollars (one-point-six billion RMB). Agriculture makes up less than one percent of Nanjie's total production. The village now makes most of its money from its 26 enterprises - which turn out products ranging from beer to chocolate to color- printing. Meantime, Nanjie has become China's instant noodle base - producing about 400 tons each day. Keeping all these factories going is not an easy endeavor. Nanjie gets by with something that was not available in Mao's day -- the help of more than 10- thousand migrant workers, who are not granted the full range of benefits allotted to residents. Nanjie resident, Bi Guoping, says although villagers respect Deng, they will not clamor any time soon for a statue of him to go along with the heroic figure of Mao. // BI CHINESE ACT - IN FULL, FADE OUT // He says the main Nanjie philosophy is that a person should be round on the outside and square on the inside. (wai yuan, nei fang) Although he may not think highly of Dengist ways, Mr. Bi says being round on the outside means putting up with the more capitalist values that have become the norm in China after the institution of Deng's reforms. To him, though, being square on the inside means reserving his heart for Mao. (Signed) NEB/HO/FC 26-Aug-1999 00:38 AM LOC (26-Aug-1999 0438 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .
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