Why Did Humanism Become Important in China after 1976 - Essay Example

Humanism in China Name Course Instructor’s name Date According to The Free Dictionary, as sited in Globalization and Cultural Trends in China by Kang Liu (Liu 212), Humanism is “A system of thought that rejects religious beliefs and centers on humans and their values, capacities, and worth.” It is therefore a system that totally or almost totally does not believe in religion and supernatural matters, but mainly focuses on human beings and issues related to them. Mao Zedong was the figure of authority in China as far as the humanism era is concerned. The policies set by Mao as regarding to humanity put the republic of China in a position of economic disaster and national disaster. One of the greatest and worst disaster occurred towards the end of the 1950s, whereby Mao and other humanism leaders caused a man-made famine in the name of making the Great Leap Forward. This famine, in which millions of Chinese citizens starved to death, is so far the largest worldwide (Kuiper 342). Mao was not, however, allowed to have a smooth ride as he ruled over China in the humanism era; he faced great opposition from other great leaders such as Liu Shaoqi. Another great leader who opposed Mao’s rule was Deng Xiaoping. The fact that there were opposing leaders caused great political unrest in the whole of China, especially in the early to mid 1960s. Mao Zedong was a leader full of charisma and a rare character type, which he used to his advantage to gain the loyalty from citizens and to scare away any opposing leaders or parties. One of the supposedly craziest things that Mao ever did to prove the point that he was still young and capable of ruling China was his iconic swim in the Changjiang River. It is in this huge and flooded river that he swam for an hour and five minutes, and he is said to have covered a distance of 15 kilometers. If this statistic is true, then it would be correct top say that Mao broke every world record of swimming speed and endurance to this date. Also, there is an instance where Mao went into a village whose dwellers mainly did farming and sitting down at the same level with the villagers, supposedly “discussing” on the way forward in the farming practices and problems in the village. Mao did this very carefully, his main intention being attaining undivided admiration and loyalty from the public. In other words, he did this so that the Chinese citizens would look up to him as a father and great leader who deserved adoration (Mote 122). The great Mao Zedong died in 1976, and a new dawn began then. However, some faithful leaders like Hua Guofeng tried to ensure continuity of what Mao started. However, these efforts were not successful. By the time Mao Zedong was dying, the republic of China was a messed up country, especially in economic and political matters. The educational sector had been adversely affected, because many schools had been closed, making many not to get education. Also, there were many other abstract changes after the Mao era. This is especially so because of the intellectuals, who were on the front line in criticizing the Mao humanism, and this caused many political changes in China. These Chinese intellectuals felt that a certain degree of liberation needed to come in China, but they did not want it to come from the western part of the world. The kind of transformation and liberation they wanted was to come through communism, and this was only achievable by having communist countries bring change in humanism by replacing it with the concept of individualism (Liu (b) 325). Individualism, even as the name suggests, is a concept in which the main belief is that every human being should be let to have the independence and self reliance they ought to have. These Chinese intellectuals believed that humanity and individualism were not only related, but they were somewhat compatible to some degree. This is because humanity has its main focus on human beings and on issues pertaining to them, and it placed little or no emphasis on religion and supernatural beings. Since individualism has its main focus on giving independence and self reliance on every human being, then these two were found to have a high degree of compatibility. However, times have changed, and these two are no longer compatible. This is mainly because the concept of humanity in today’s modern era has changed, and it is quite different from what it originally was meant to be. In today’s modern times, humanity accepts and has absorbed Christian policies within it, and it supports the belief in a supernatural being. However, the only difference is that the sacrifices and obedience made to this being are not meant to benefit God, but the benefits are believed to be of direct profit to human beings, because the basic concept here is humanism (Huang 164). Whatever the Chinese intellectuals hoped to achieve was impossible to fully achieve, basically because of the fact that humanism is a somewhat vague concept that cannot apply in the modern times we are in. humanism and, partly, individualism, are all focused on glorifying the individual. Today, industrialization, HRM and globalization are the major talks everywhere in the world. Organizations need to be effectively managed and run, and the concept of holding individuals in the highest regard above anything else can somewhat be a hindrance to the success of organizations. Activities in organizations tend to automatically create hierarchies in structure, and therefore every person cannot be free to do as they please or free to rule and take lead. Therefore, modernization, industrialization and globalization tend to be seen as movements and concepts that are against humanism and individualism (Rofel 200). After the death of Mao, there were calls for humanism, especially in the 1980’s. However, because of the Chinese intellectuals, communism started seeping into the Chinese democracy, since communism was intended to bring in individualism. This led to the historic protest by students in 1989 at the Tiananmen Square. These students felt that they had had enough of the communist government then, which had caused major inflation to the Chinese economy. Because of communism, the inflation had resulted to high food and fuel prices, basically because there was huge demand for consumption and a great need in China for flow of money. This inflation did not only lead to a rise in the cost of living, but the government and its bodies were infested with the parasite of corruption, and China seemed to be on its way to being the world’s most corrupt nation. This protest is historical not only because of the huge numbers of students who came to the square to protest, but also because of the thousands who were killed by the military because of protesting. The killing of more than three thousand students left the whole world baffled at the events in China (Zhang 160). Humanism became important to China after 1976 and after the death of Mao mainly because of economic and political reasons. These two areas needed major reforms and transformation, because the era before 1976 had left these sectors, among others, in tatters. Some of the economic field that had been adversely affected includes the steel industry, oil and gas, coal, transport (roads and railways) and infrastructure, which mainly included electricity and water. The steel production in China before this era used to go to almost twenty million tons per annum, and this reduced to less than ten million tons. However, after the Mao era of humanism, the production hot to seventeen tons and later to about twenty four million tons of steel per annum. The energy sector was also adversely affected, considering the fact that this is where most revenue used to come from for China. A ten year plan was devised through which the yearly production of coal, oil and gas would be doubled and stabilized. Many new mines were invested in, and nations in Europe and in America made donations worth sixty billon dollars for the funding of these energy projects in China (Pang 260). Agriculture is also another area that had been greatly affected before the death of Mao. Therefore, the agricultural sector had to be revived, ad this time round, mechanization of agricultural practices was the main aim of the Chinese reformists. Therefore, close to fifty billion dollars were invested in mechanizing of agriculture. Irrigation schemes were also stated and revived using the same funds. However, mechanization of agricultural practices has a disadvantage, because it would lead to the loss of employment of more than one hundred million workers in China. Therefore, as mechanization was being done, the government of China also simultaneously created other opportunities for employment and training for these people (or most of them) in other sectors (Pun 150). The education sector had almost collapsed, and most young people were not educated. This was a major crisis for China, especially considering the fact that these things were happening at the dawn of the era of the knowledge economy. Therefore, it became an uphill task for China to revive its industries and its IT sector, because of the shortage of technical human resource. The population of China was then one billion, and it was shocking to discover that for such a huge population, there were only fifty thousand workers who would be considered qualified for the science and technology related jobs. However, within a span of ten years or so, China had worked hard in reviving its education sector, and the number of science and technology workers had become more than eight times of what it was. However, even when this number of workers neared half a million, this would not be termed as a success because the number was still small for a population that was still growing from one billion (Ong 123). The population growth was immense and the government of China had to do something drastic and radical about it. In the dawn of the 1980’s the Chinese government introduced a policy that was received with mixed feelings and mixed reactions all over China and the rest of the world. However, surprisingly, the people of China (most of them) received this new policy with so much willingness, and this shocked the rest of the world, who expected an outrage of protests by the Chinese citizens. The One Child Policy was introduced, in which every urban couple was restricted to getting only one child. However, there were some exceptions to this, as provided for in the policy. This was passed to help in dealing more effectively with the economic, social and political issues that were at hand then. The government felt that it was impossible for the reformation processes to be effective if the population growth was not controlled (Wang 200). After the 1976 Mao era of humanism, the four major reforms included: economic, political, social and cultural. Major changes occurred, the first one being an agreement and partnership between China and the American government. The religious sector also changed majorly, as the communism movement was challenged. Even the churches agreed that communism was not the best way forward for China, because there was no way through which politics, organizations and industrialization was going to work with the mentality that obedience to authority should be blind irrespective of the circumstance requiring obedience. Somehow, even the Christians agreed that there had to be some value attached to every individual and some degree of independence and self reliance as well (Yan 253). There were a lot of problems and instability by the time Mao died, and there had to be a way through which these issues would be resolved. Therefore, the era of humanism after the death of Mao Zedong was of benefit to China mainly because it helped in phasing out the newly introduced communism in China. One philosopher said that there was no way the problems would be solved if people did not become truthful and if there was no room for discussion. Philosophers believed that there was a lot of “noise” in China while, in the real sense, nothing of benefit was being said that would help in the so much needed reform after the Mao era. Therefore, room had to be created for sound reasoning and critical thinking if China was to move forward (Chen 300). As said earlier, humanism after 1976 was of substantial benefit to China for various reasons. One of the major reasons why these were of benefit to China was because of educational reforms that happened after the death of Mao. As mentioned earlier, the educational sector had really suffered during the reign of Mao Zedong, and most young people did not get the chance of getting education. Therefore, lack of adequate literacy in China had posed a great danger to the government of China when there was need for skilled laborers in the field of science and technology. Therefore, a reform in the sector and the systems of education was a major benefit of humanism after 1976. Another benefit was that the citizens of China were relieved of the burden of paying some stamp duties that were previously attached on some items (Li 311). Birth control was another benefit of humanism after 1976, because through this the government was able to control the growing problem of overpopulation. This was done so that the government would be able to fairly distribute resources among its entire people. Other benefits of post-Mao humanism (also regarded as Humanism without Mao) included freeing of the Sunday from laws related to Sabbath, simplification of ceremonies of birth and death, and marriage laws among other benefits. This was of benefit both to the secular citizens and to the religious citizens of China (Jacka 287). Works Cited Chen, Nancy. China urban: ethnographies of contemporary culture. Michigan: Duke University Press, 2001. Huang, Chun-Chieng. Humanism in East Asian Confucian Contexts. Hon Kong: Verlag Publishers, 2010. Jacka, Tamara. 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