ABSTRACT
The structure and cohesion of the production brigade are a direct legacy of the natural village. Agriculture is the mode of production unifying the group, basic relationships are in a family household, and interaction is face to face. The agricultural Mecca for the Chinese and their guests is a commune named Tachai, from which all rural agriculture communes are expected to “learn”. The central government sets quotas for local units in production and also moves people throughout the enormous land to develop production and to thin overpopulated areas. Eventual recognition that communes so constituted were counterproductive prompted the Chinese government to make revisions. Communes are administrative organizations, but Production Brigades, that is, villages, are the units of ownership. Communist control came to various parts of China at different times. The pao-chia system leaders were replaced by various “responsible persons,” local Communist cadres.
