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In Chinese Communist literature, men and women are primarily seen in their likeness as workers rather than in their sexual and emotional unlikeness as human beings. Women, as much as men, are praised for their socialist zeal and heroic capacity for work and condemned for being socialist sluggards indifferent to production. But despite its repudiation of "human interest" as a symptom of capitalist or revisionist decadence, even this supremely practical literature cannot begin to exist without some superficial attention to personal problems, and these problems, inevitably, attest to the persistence of biological instincts and immemorial habits of human civilisation. Until the techniques, Communist or otherwise, for dehumanisation are perfected, men and women will remain subject to irrational passions, and if circumstances permit, they will fall in love, get married, bring up children, and in other devious ways contrive for pleasure and happiness. In tracing the lot of Chinese women under Communism, I will therefore take for granted that the primary purpose of their earthly existence is to contribute to and assist in production and examine rather their residual personal problems in the context of the overriding importance of socialist construction. The results of niy investigation, if my women characters, drawn invariably from short stories, are at all typical, will show, not surprisingly, the pathetic adjustment of their feminine instincts and interests to the jealous demands of Party and state. The exceptions that I will take notice of—sympathetic victims and challengers of the impersonal Communist bureaucracy—are all heroines of revisionist fiction that has been subject to vehement attack by the press.

A report to the Party commission on theoretical aspects of work among women, Aug. 9, 1948.

The 8th Central Committee (CC) of the Chinese Communist Party, elected in September 1956, consists of 94 men & 3 women, including almost all of the full & alternate members of the 7th CC elected 11 yrs earlier, a remarkable showing of leadership stability. Instead of having a proletarian background the leaders were mostly born to Mc or UMc families. With a (mean - average) age of 53, they are time-tested & dedicated Communists. Coming largely from the Middle Yangtze basin, with Hunan Province (home of Mao Tse-tung) sharing nearly 33% of the (total - sum) membership, an overwhelming majority of the members are well-educated & have gained recognition by working principally as military commanders & party organizers. By holding multiple, strategic posts in the party, gov & mass org's, these 97 leaders have effective control over all aspects of the national life. But the membership list also shows that a rigid seniority rule has been developed in the party that may unduly restrict the party's ability to accommodate brilliant new converts. AA-IPSA.

At its national congress, September 15 to 27, 1956, the Chinese Communist Party, among other items of business, elected a new group of leaders officially known as the Eighth Central Committee. For some time to come this group of men and women will have a highly influential role in the affairs of their party and of the Chinese nation. What they say and do may also affect the course of world events.What kind of people are they? What are their social and educational backgrounds? How long have they been in the Communist movement? By what roads have they been able to reach the summit of their party hierarchy? What kinds of influence can they exert in the various fields of national affairs? To what extent did their election to the central committee represent a "status mobility" within the party? Answers to these and similar questions should illuminate some broader questions: (1) whether the Chinese Communist Party is really led by the working class as the Communists themselves have claimed; (2) what are the typical features of the Chinese Communist leadership; (3) how the characteristics of that leadership have been conditioned by those of Chinese society; and (4) what are the strengths and weaknesses of the Communist leadership? This paper is addressed to these questions.