Socialism before "Market Socialism": Pedagogical and Political Considerations in Teaching David Hare's Fanshen.

This article discusses the challenges of teaching students about socialism in China before the establishment of markets in 1976. The author uses the play "Fanshen" by David Hare to illustrate the transformative effect of the revolution on the economic and political lives of Chinese peasants. The politics of China following the establishment of the Zhongguo Gong Chan Dang, or Chinese Communist Party (CPC), government in 1949 are characterized in terms of how "Fanshen" presented the issues behind the cultural revolution, the hundred flowers campaign, and the great leap forward. Efforts to relate Chinese discussions of what made a worker and the relationship between politics and technical expertise to the experience of students in the U.S. are addressed.