Model worker
Echoing the gender equality advocate of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), both men and women comprise the pool of model workers.
Higher authorities take charge of the decision on selecting model worker based on their work performance, and political consciousness, patriotism, "worship of science," activities in environmental protection, and the pursuit of excellence.
The party leaders introduced the Soviet Stakhanovite model and hoped to increase agricultural and industrial productivity when it was cut off from military resources in the Shaan-Gan-Ning border region.
It plays a key role in many of the political campaigns such as the Great Leap Forward by setting up exemplary workers who define the ideal production.
As a propaganda tool, the Model Worker has wide visual representations in cinema and posters to broadcast the ideals of the socialist state to China's vast population.
Underlying the propaganda, the appeals of nationalism, the development of socialism and economic prosperity based on a new system propel the application of Model Worker in the People's Republic.
[2] The Maoist ideology composed of these three elements seeks to transform people's thought and behaviors on the road of creating new citizens for the new socialist China.
The Model Workers represents the concrete examples of how the state wishes to intervene in the daily lives and production of ordinary people.
Under the influence of the Stakhanovist predecessor, Model Worker campaigns were launched to increase productivity and the popularity of the Party among the people in the border region.
[7] When the Soviet Stakhanovite movement was about to run out of steam due to routinization by mid 1930s, the Chinese Communist Party sought to borrow the idea to the border region under its control.
Yu Miin-lin notes that the earliest CCP mentioning of Stakhanovism can be dated back to 1936, though the Party did not implement Stakhanovite campaign until 1942 when the Kuomintang cut off from supplies in the border region.
In the Great Production Campaign, a factory worker named Zhao Zhankui 赵占魁 was chosen by the Party leaders as the Chinese Stakhanovite.
The CCP leaders avoided using the wording of “Stakhanovite” to simplify the propaganda and Zhao Zhankui became equivalent of hard work and high political consciousness.
[11] As the Zhao Zhankui campaign proved successful, CCP routinized the Model Worker system in the border region and carried it over across 1949 after its victory over the Kuomintang.
Mao Zedong delivered a speech at the beginning of the Conference to celebrate liberation of major parts of China thanks to the “excellence performance of workers from the military and economic fronts.”[13] Although the Party just won in the Civil War over Kuomintang, Mao warned that China still confronted the military threats from the “American imperialists” and Chiang Kai-shek regime on Taiwan, so that it was imperative for the Chinese workers to continue consolidating national defense for the construction of the nation in the long term.
[14] In 1956, the Second National Conference for Advanced Producers was held in Beijing to sum up the experiences of the social-political movements during the first half of the 1950s and to motivate workers for China's First Five Year Plan.
[20] The third National Conference for Model Workers was held in 1959 at the peak of the Great Leap Forward which called for accelerated speed of production and socialist construction.
All kinds of posters and stories about heroic deeds of Model Workers in iron production were disseminated nationwide as inspiration for people to believe in the possibility of “Overtaking the Britain and Surpassing America.”[21] As women became increasingly needed to work in agriculture and industry, and encouraged by policies of the Great Leap Forward to do so, the phenomenon of Iron Women model workers arose.
[22] In June 1960, The National Conference for Advanced Producers in Education, Culture, Public Health, Sports, News was held in Beijing.
James Farley argues that the Model Workers propaganda campaigns in fact laid the foundation for the arrival of the Cultural Revolution.
For example, Lei Feng embodies all the qualities the state requires for socialist construction, including love for the nation, selflessness, devotion to work without thinking about repayment, etc.
[24] During the Cultural Revolution, many Model Workers were heavily struggled against by the Red Guards because of their family background and/or their previous association with “bourgeois” lifestyles.
In 1979, another national conference was held to award “Advanced Producers” in industrial transportation, agricultural, finance and trade, education, and scientific research.
The specific requirements for the contribution to the society vary due to different levels (national, local and departmental) of the Model Workers.
Model Workers at all levels need to adhere to four principles: correctly treat the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, Marxist–Leninism and Mao Zedong thought, People's Dictatorship, and the socialist course.
The CCP leadership sought to use the Zhao Zhankui Campaign to improve people's attitude towards work, and to promote the overall productivity in the border region.
Like other National Model Workers, Huang Baomei received the rare chance to meet Chairman Mao and then went to Beijing by train.
[41] Just like other propaganda films of this period, Huang Baomei was filled with state indoctrination, urging viewers to participate in the socialist construction whole-heartedly like the protagonist.
By the example of Huang Baomei, Professor Gerth argues that the state sought to channel people's consumerist desires to the direction it wanted.
He was elevated to leadership positions in the municipal governments of Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin, and became a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party.
