Zeng Fanmei and Tang Shuiqing: The Multi-dimensional Shaping of National Identity in the Early Period of the People's Republic of China
After the founding of New China, the Communist Party of China (CPC) undertook a series of measures across the political, economic, social, and cultural spheres. Through institutional and practical innovation, the Party rapidly restored the national economy, consolidated the nascent people's political power, and won the heartfelt support of the masses as well as a high degree of identification with New China.
Political Identification is the Core
Political identification was the core task in shaping New China. Starting with the takeover of political power, the CPC gradually achieved the concentration and standardized operation of state power through institutional planning and organizational construction, thereby establishing the authority of the central government and building political identification with New China.
The establishment of political power organizations at all levels vigorously promoted the systematization of state power. On the eve of the founding of New China, the CPC invited representatives from various circles—including democratic parties, people's organizations, the People's Liberation Army, various regions and ethnic groups, and overseas Chinese—to convene the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and adopt the Common Program of the CPPCC [1].
On October 1, 1949, the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China was established. On October 19, the third meeting of the Central People's Government Council reviewed and approved the list of appointments for the first Government Administration Council [2] and its subordinate committees and ministries, marking the formal establishment of the organizational structure of New China’s highest executive organ. At the local level, a four-tier administrative structure of "Greater Administrative Areas—Provinces—Counties—Townships" was established, which remained until the Greater Administrative Areas were abolished in 1954. In December 1950, the Government Administration Council promulgated the General Rules for the Organization of Township (Administrative Village) People's Governments, establishing the township (xiāng) as the primary-level organization of political power in our country. This allowed state power to truly extend into rural society. Consequently, China initially constructed a national administrative system that was vertically integrated, centralized, and efficient, facilitating high-intensity organizational mobilization. This represented a major breakthrough in China's political structure.
The implementation of democratic systems provided crucial support for the political legitimacy of the new regime. The 1949 Common Program of the CPPCC and the 1954 Constitution of the People's Republic of China established the nature of the state as a people's democratic dictatorship and defined the principles of political organization. The Constitution explicitly stipulated that "all power in the People's Republic of China belongs to the people," providing the fundamental legal basis for national political restructuring. Specifically, by absorbing representatives from various strata—including workers, peasants, intellectuals, and democratic personages—into the deliberative process, the social base of the new regime was expanded, and the people's sense of identification with the state was enhanced.
Economic Reconstruction is the Foundation
In the early period of New China, economic reconstruction took the stabilization of prices, the restoration of production, and the improvement of people's livelihoods as its core objectives. Through measures such as rectifying the economic order, transforming the relations of production, and promoting urban-rural interaction, the economic decline of Old China was gradually reversed, and a new economic system with public ownership as the mainstay was constructed.
The establishment of a state-owned economy of a socialist nature was the key to economic reconstruction, and the confiscation of bureaucratic capital [3] to be placed under state ownership was the most important physical prerequisite for establishing the state-owned economy. In newly liberated cities, Military Control Commissions took over bureaucratic-capitalist enterprises in their entirety under the principle of maintaining "original positions, original wages, and the original system," transforming them into state-owned enterprises owned by the whole people. By early 1951, the work of confiscating bureaucratic capital to establish the state-owned economy was completed nationwide. From then on, the People's Government controlled the economic lifelines of New China and the economic base related to the national economy and people's livelihoods.
Rectifying the economic order was the prerequisite for economic recovery. Addressing the hyperinflation left over from the Kuomintang (KMT) era, the Central People's Government rapidly stabilized prices through a series of measures: unifying fiscal revenue, unifying cash management, reducing currency issuance, and rectifying taxation. This created the necessary conditions for restoring and developing production and stabilizing the lives of the people. More importantly, it initially constructed a financial and economic management system based on centralization and unity. Simultaneously, the Party reasonably adjusted industry and commerce, properly handled the relationship between public and private sectors, ensured a smooth transition of the urban economic order, and promoted the division of labor and cooperation among various economic entities under the leadership of the state-owned economy.
Political stability and the rectification of the economic order—particularly the establishment of the state-owned economy's leading position over the capitalist and individual economies—provided a rare historical opportunity for large-scale economic construction. In 1951, China began drafting the First Five-Year Plan for the development of the national economy, a process that lasted four years. The formulation and implementation of this plan sparked the largest and most concentrated wave of industrialization in China’s modern history. It significantly enhanced China’s industrial capacity and technical level, provided path guidance for subsequent industrialization and the long-term development of the national economy, and laid a solid material foundation for shaping and consolidating the masses' identification with New China.
Social Revolution is the Guarantee
Social revolution was the primary policy explicitly proposed by the CPC from its very inception. Its most fundamental demands were the abolition of the feudal land system, the complete breaking of the economic shackles restricting the development of rural productive forces, and the establishment of an economic and social structure compatible with industrialization. After the founding of New China, carrying out Land Reform in newly liberated areas such as East, Central-South, Southwest, and Northwest China became an important and urgent task. Following preliminary preparations and pilot projects—including the suppression of bandits and local tyrants and the reduction of rents and interest—an unprecedented Land Reform movement was carried out in an orderly manner from the winter of 1950 to the end of 1952, following the steps of classifying class status, distributing land, building democratic political power, and re-examining the results of the reform.
Land Reform was not only an economic revolution centered on the transformation of the land system but also a profound social revolution and a systematic reconstruction of rural society. It uprooted the economic and social foundations of the old regime, expanded the political participation of the rural populace, and initiated the process of organizing the daily lives of primary-level masses. Within this historical process, it powerfully shaped the rural masses' identification with New China.
The transformation of the feudal marriage and family system and its attendant concepts was another vital link in the CPC's advancement of social revolution. The promulgation and implementation of the Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China on May 1, 1950, liberated women—who comprise half the population—from the dual oppression of family and society. It fundamentally shook the feudal marriage system and old family relations, promoted changes in the ideological concepts and traditional customs of the masses, uprooted the foundations of the ruling forces of the old society, and expanded the mass base of the Party’s governance.
A further mission of the CPC’s social revolution was to ban "the three vices" (prostitution, gambling, and drugs), washing away the "filth and muddy water" [4] that had poisoned the Chinese people for centuries in the old society and purifying the social atmosphere. As early as the Soviet period [5], the Soviet government had taken multiple measures to govern these vices with unprecedented success. After the founding of New China, the Party and the government rapidly launched special struggles to sweep away these social ills. Through three years of effort, these chronic social maladies—which had been impossible to prohibit in Old China—were basically eradicated. The entire social atmosphere, social life, and the mental outlook of the people were refreshed. The masses personally experienced the determination and courage of the Party and government in social transformation, which also solidified their confidence in "following the Party."
Cultural Reshaping is the Support
Cultural reshaping aimed to construct an ideological and cultural system compatible with the new society. Through measures such as clearing away the dross of old culture, popularizing new ideological concepts, and developing education, the "breaking of the old and establishment of the new" was achieved in the cultural field, providing ideological, cultural, and spiritual support for national reconstruction.
In the face of the diverse, mixed, and ideologically complex cultural landscape of Old China, the nascent people’s regime promoted ideological reconstruction through a systematic project of cultural transformation. As early as July 1949, the First National Congress of Writers and Artists established the guiding status of Mao Zedong’s thought on literature and art, achieving a historic shift in the guiding ideology of culture. It explicitly put forward the direction that "literature and art should serve the people, and first and foremost, the workers, peasants, and soldiers." The formulation of this cultural policy established the direction and principles for cultural construction in New China.
The ideological remolding of intellectuals from 1951 to 1952 was a major task of cultural reshaping. On October 23, 1951, in his opening speech at the third session of the first National Committee of the CPPCC, Mao Zedong emphasized that ideological remolding—primarily that of various intellectuals—should be regarded as one of the important conditions for the thorough realization of democratic reforms and the gradual realization of industrialization in all aspects. In response to Comrade Mao Zedong's call, the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles decided to begin a rectification study movement in the literary and art world starting in late November 1951, initially to clear out the influence of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideologies. On November 30, the CPC Central Committee issued the Instruction on Carrying Out Ideological Remolding and Organizational Cleanup in Schools, requiring preliminary ideological remolding for all school staff and students above the senior high school level. In January 1952, the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the CPPCC made a Decision on Launching the Ideological Remolding Study Movement for People of All Circles, and the movement gradually expanded from the literary and educational circles to the entire intellectual community. The ideological remolding movement had a profound impact: it established the guiding position of Marxism in the fields of ideology, culture, and education, laying the ideological foundation for shaping New China’s cultural identification.