The Rusticated Youth of China (Chinese: 知识青年; pinyin: zhīshi qīngnián), also referred to as zhiqing, is a term used in the People's Republic of China to refer to a young person who had received a high level of education, especially those who, beginning in the 1950s until the end of the Cultural Revolution, willingly or under coercion, left the urban areas and were rusticated to rural areas to assume peasant lives.[1] The vast majority of those who went had received elementary to high school education, and only a small minority had matriculated to the post-secondary or university level.
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After the People's Republic of China was established, in order to resolve employment problems in the cities, starting in the 1950s youth from urban areas were organized to move to the rural countryside, especially in remote towns to establish farms. As early as 1953, the People's Daily published the editorial "Organize school graduates to participate in agricultural production labor". In 1955, Mao Zedong asserted that "the countryside is a vast expanse of heaven and earth where we can flourish", which would become the slogan for the Down to the Countryside Movement. Beginning in this year, the Communist Youth League organized farming, and encouraged the youth to cultivate the land. From 1962, it was suggested that the Down to the Countryside Movement be nationally organized, and in 1964 the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China established an oversight group.
In 1966, under the influence of the Cultural Revolution, university entrance examinations were suspended and until 1968, many students were unable to receive admittance into university or become employed.[2] Additionally, the chaos surrounding the Revolution from 1966 to 1968 caused the Communist Party to realize that a way was needed to assign the youth to working positions, to avoid losing control of the situation. On December 12, 1968, Chairman Mao directed the People's Daily to publish a piece entitled "We too have two hands, let us not laze about in the city", which quoted Mao as saying "The intellectual youth must go to the country, and will be educated from living in rural poverty." In 1969 many youth were rusticated.[3] Middle school students were organized and assigned on a national level to the countryside. In 1971, numerous problems with the movement began to come to light, at the same time as the Communist Party allocated jobs to the youth who were returning from the country. However, the majority of these re-urbanized youth had taken advantage of personal relations to leave the countryside. Those directed to deal with the "Project 571" coup denounced the entire movement as being disguised labor reform. In 1976, even Mao realized the severity of the rustication movement and decided to reexamine the issue. But in the meantime, over a million youth continued to be rusticated every year.
After Mao's death in 1976, many of the rusticated youth remained in the countryside, some of whom had married into their villages. In 1977, university entrance exams were reinstated, inspiring the majority of rusticated youth to attempt to return to the cities. In the winter of 1978 in Yunnan, the youth implored the government to hear their plight in the form of strikes and petitions, which reinforced the pressing nature of the issue to party authorities.[4] On March 8, 1980, Hu Yaobang, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, proposed ending rustication. On October 1 of the same year, the party essentially decided to end the movement and allow the youth to return to their families in the cities. In addition, under age and marriage restriction, one child per family of the rusticated youth were permitted to accompany their parents to their native cities.
In the late 1970s, the so-called scar literature included many vivid and realistic descriptions their experiences, becoming the first public exploration of the cost of the Cultural Revolution.
From 1962 to 1978, it is estimated that there were almost 18 million rusticated youth.[5]
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