Abstract:
This thesis examines the everyday life of Chinese people at the grassroots during the
period of the Cultural Revolution (from 1966 to 1976). This research focusses on the
areas of Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality, mainly based on original
materials from Hechuan County (currently a suburban district of Chongqing
Municipality, but previously a county that belonged to Sichuan Province). Utilising a
bottom-up perspective and an everyday life angle, my project aims to present people’s
life experiences in the local society of Sichuan during the unprecedentedly politicised
era of the Cultural Revolution.
This study of everyday life shows that our understanding of the Cultural
Revolution needs more nuance and a recognition of the limits of the reach of the
party-state in the lives of ordinary people. In many respects, life in Hechuan did not
change very much after 1966. Habits of work, recreation, consuming and eating, for
example, in the Cultural Revolution decade were built on earlier patterns and in some
respects were further enhanced. This grassroots angle reveals new perspectives on
these years.
The case study of Sichuan, shows a direct relationship between residents’
experiences during the Cultural Revolution and the drastic economic transformation
in China since the 1980s—a striking and unexpected continuity at the local level. My
research about people’s everyday life during those years helps us rethink about the
legacy of the Cultural Revolution, which remains an influential and controversial
event in the modern history of China.