ABSTRACT
Danwei is a term that originates from the military as the Chinese equivalent of the English concept of unit. The Communist Party of China and the People’s Liberation Army, although theoretically separate entities, have always been extremely closely organized. During the revolutionary years in which the Communists gradually expanded their territory they established ‘revolutionary bases’. Those bases were governed by local military leaders and all social organizations like farms, schools, enterprises, etc., were referred to as units (danwei). Each citizen of a revolutionary base belonged to a certain unit (Dutton 1998: 53). This unit provided a salary, housing, food and clothing, etc. Moreover, a person’s unit was responsible for keeping a file of that person’s course of life, including family members, friends, associates, social behaviour, membership of organizations, political reliability, etc. Such a file became known as a person’s dossier (dang’an). Many people had access to your dossier (your superiors, their superiors, the police, etc.), however you yourself were not allowed to know its contents. When you were moved from one unit to another, your dossier was moved as well. Seen from a political angle, the unit system was the ideal form of social control.
