A Commune of 21th Century

Multiple Texts > China Events
By Admin

South Street Village
Divided We Fall; United We Stand Tall
10 January 2010

Huaxi Village (华西村) is arguably the richest village in China, and the villagers would tell you that it is because they run a collective economy. However, others may dispute that Huaxi is situated in the most fluent region in the nation, the outskirts of Suzhou.

But South Street Village is in China’s one of the poorest provinces, Henan (河南), and it also becomes one of the most developed modern villages in the country. Like Huaxi, it has a commune system in place; in the past 30 years, its GDP has grown almost 2,100 times, its total annual income reaches a massive 1.6 billion yuans and its per capita income is more than 3 times above the national rural average.

A commune structure is a revolution created by Mao Zedong and Chinese Communist Party, which had transformed a thousands year-old Chinese rural system, that in China’s reality today is a breeding ground for polarisation of land-haves and have-nots and a hurdle for upgrading farming methods and technologies, into a foundation for common wealth and rural modernisation.

Regretably, this new inspiration was forced to end about 30 years ago, as some certain decision-makers in the same CCP seemingly decided that anything that is not modelled after that of America should be considered as backward thus ought to be trashed.

However, thirty years on, China comes to witness a farce played out by rural reform pioneer Little Hilltop Village (小岗村), that gives an insight into the dark human nature: selfishness, laziness and dishonesty.

And thirty years on, China also comes to witness the wonderful achievements accomplished by Dazhai (大寨), Huaxi and South Street (南街) villagers, who have long returned to a commune system.

As the result, they have nurtured a better community, not only in material sense, but also in spiritual realm. It is a place that at night you don’t need to shut your doors when sleep, and it is a place with zero crime rate.

The villagers in the South Street received fixed wages; on the top of that they are provided welfare that include house, furniture, food, drinks, water, power, healthcare, free educaton and old-age pension. In a reality of today’s China that most people cannot afford a moderate flat, South Street stands out like a crane in a chicken yard.



The village centre		The collectively owned farming equipments



The GDP chart		The aspiration



Villager's residential buildings which are offered to villagers for free.		The free accommodation flats provided to workers migrated from other villages



Village high school with no schooling fees charged		Villagers enjoy home-made beer at the village canteen



A village park		A lotus pool