Chinese CP cuts the crap

[Saul Thomas <stthomas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 From the Guangzhou Ribao (Guangzhou Daily) of Nov 25, 1998.

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'Capital' Getting Thinner and Thinner
--An Instructor at the Central Party School Views Twenty Years of Changes

Twenty years ago when Zhang Yanxi first began teaching at the Central Party
School, the required reading 'Capital' was composed of three large volumes.
When stacked up together they were thicker than three bricks.

But today, all that remains of the Party School's 'Capital' textbook is a
selection of 150 pages, and the curriculum has been greatly reduced.

Looking at the various editions of and scholarly works on 'Capital'  that
cover most of the walls of her study, all sorts of feelings well up in
Professor Zhang Yanxi. "For the past twenty years, 'Captial' has remained
required reading, but the textbook has become thinner and thinner. In
additition, there have been two major changes in the content of the
instruction. "

Fifty year old Zhang Yanxi entered the Central Party School in 1975, and
has taught the course on 'Capital' for twenty years.

"During the Cultural Revolution, after reading the first volume, 'the death
knell of capitalism had sounded', and the teacher's task was finished."

During the third year of Zhang Yanxi's teaching career--1978,  China
experienced the grand scale Thought Emancipation Movement. Economic
development replaced class struggle as the center of the country's work.
The content of teaching 'Capital' changed from politics to economics, and
teaching emphasized the second volume--the theory of the development of
industrial equilibrium.

In 1992, China declared the implementation of a "socialist market economy".
The bookbags of students at the Party School included textbooks on
microeconomics, macroeconomics, and western management techniques.

Faced with the 'Capital' textbook getting thinner and thinner every day,
Zhang Yanxi used  to have some misgivings. But a 1992 talk by Deng Xiaoping
set her and the other teachers' minds at ease. In Deng Xiaoping's famous
talk given during his trip to the south, he said, "When studying
Marxism-Leninism you have to get the essence, you have to take what is useful."

"The changes in the teaching of 'Capital' reflect people's changing
attitudes toward Marxism. After twenty years of searching, people have come
to realize that Marxism is not a dogma. It is our mission to connect
Marxism with China's actual development," says Professor Zhang.

Nowadays it's not only in the Party School that professors introduce the
theory of the market economy, but universities and high schools also
introduce stocks and the market. Young people's understanding of socialism
now deepens along with the "market", and not with "planning".

"Twenty years ago, professors found it difficult to connect 'Capital' with
reality. Students picked up 'Capital' and asked, 'What is this capital,
labor power, and market that Marx talks about?' Teachers found it difficult
to answer, because China was still a planned economy and didn't have these
things."

But now it's different. When faced with the students' sharp questions,
Zhang Yanxi can take ample material from many sources and patiently answer.

-------(end)

Professor Zhang doesn't have to look very far to find the answers to other
sharp questions about Marxian concepts now, either: "What is this surplus
population, expropriation, and exploitation that Marx talked about?" Or
perhaps these bizarre and antiquated concepts didn't make the cut into the
150 page digest of 'Capital' now used in the Central Party School. After
all, Deng taught us to take what's useful from Marx....Thank God for
Thought Emancipation!

Saul Thomas