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Where Communism Still Exists in China

A few months ago, I wrote an post entitled Why China is no Longer a Communist Country. In the article, I detailed how China’s development over the past 30 years has taken it away from its communist upbringing and transformed it into a socialist system. Today, while China is still ruled under a totalitarian form of government, it is far from the communist state that Chairman Mao envisioned. However, communism is still very evident in one aspect of Chinese society. That is, the way in which Chinese families and friends take care of each other in the good times and the bad times.

Before Deng Xiaoping took power in 1978, the vast majority of people in China were peasants who were fighting for survival in a destitute and starving land. During my discussions with people from China’s older generation, I have heard many stories of Chinese people having to eat tree roots and grass when they were young. Others have told me that hunger was a feeling that they simply had to get used to;it was a way of life. There was no time to think about leisure or entertainment during these hard time. Every waking minute was spent figuring out how to ‘make ends meet’ so that there would be food on the table for the next meal.

It was this extremely difficult and often heart wrenching period of time in Chinese history, however, that helped to bring the Chinese people closer together than ever before. The survival of one’s own family was of course of utmost importance, but Chinese families and friends helped each other as best they could within their little communes by sharing food and other resources when possible.If someone in the community became sick, knowledgeable neighbors in the area would treat them with herbal medicines and others would help to take care of some of the daily chores. Extended family members, especially, took care of each other as much as possible, giving each other money and goods whenever someone had a little excess. The Chinese people knew that if there was ever any hope of bringing their generation out of the oppressive darkness, they would have to ’stick’ together.

Today, this communism in Chinese society has not dissappeared even 30 years after Deng Xiaoping opened China to the world. While China’s fortunes have greatly improved in the last few decades, there is still too much instability in this developing country and Chinese families often find themselves caught up in a frustrating cycle of comfortable prosperity and financial struggle.

“My relatives were very rich some years ago,” a friend explained to me recently, “so they lent my family money to start a business. Now our business is doing well but they are not as rich as before. We have had to lend them money.” Such stories are common in China. Friends and family members lend each other money willingly knowing that in a few years they may need to ask for help themselves.

Recently, I visited a friend in Central China who had recently undergone an operation in the hospital. Relatives from the countryside came to visit her and many of them gave her money before they left. I asked her why they did this and she said that it was a tradition in China for extended family members to give money even if the sick person did not need it.

“They’ll get their money back,” she said. “When someone in their family is sick, we will all donate to them. That is just the way it works.”

That is the way it works in a country where there is so much uncertainty. While Chinese families these days may not be struggling to put food on the table, there is security in knowing that your family members and friends will be there to help in an emergency.

In some small Chinese communities, neighbors still share dinner together. “At night in my hometown, we always went from house to house enjoying a tasty dish until we were full,” a young man explained to me. He described what sounded like a community potluck where the ‘townsfolk’ would mingle with each other while enjoying delicious food and interesting conversation.

The still commonly used greeting “have you eaten” may not hold as much significance as it once did in China but communism on a societal level is still alive and well here. As well it should be. Communism dictated to a society by a political entity can never work, but when it comes from the heart, the result is a society of people who rely on each other instead of on the government. This is communism at its best.

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