Editing Work unit (section)

== The political use of the ''danwei'' system ==
Briefly mentioned earlier, the late nineteenth century saw a surge of "public social consciousness" which brought the public's attention to many social, political, moral, and sanitary dangers of urbanized areas.<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|page=68}} So when the CCP defeated the [[Kuomintang]] in 1949, they sought to consolidate urban rule quickly for their own interests and that of the general populations'. By 1957, over 90 percent of the urban population belonged to a ''danwei.''<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|page=94}} The ''danwei'' became as much of a social and political tool as it was an economic one. The CCP's creation of a ''danwei'' system that was based strictly on functionalism represented a break from the previous [[imperial China]]'s focus on [[Confucianism|Confucian principles]] of hierarchy and order.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Bray |first=David |title=Social Space and Governance in Urban China: The Danwei System from Origins to Reform |date=2005-03-04 |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |isbn=978-1-5036-2492-4 |doi=10.1515/9781503624924}}</ref>{{Rp|page=67}} Thus, ''Danweis'' were themselves a product of socialist ideology but furthermore, they were "key sites" for the CCP-led government to promote their [[Egalitarianism|egalitarian]] ideology.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dutton |first=Michael |date=24 Jun 2008 |title=Passionately governmental: Maoism and the structured intensities of revolutionary governmentality |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13688790801971563 |journal=[[Postcolonial Studies]] |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=106 |doi=10.1080/13688790801971563 |via=Routledge |access-date=31 May 2024 |archive-date=31 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531010621/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13688790801971563 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> As a result of ''danweis'' being such a socially enclosed and monitored environment, people became hyperaware of their behaviour and strived for absolute conformity which gave way for the "penetration of the Leninist state in urban society."<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last1=Dittmer |first1=Lowell |last2=Xiaobo |first2=Lu |date=March 1996 |title=Personal Politics in the Chinese Danwei under Reform |journal=[[Asian Survey]] |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=249 |doi=10.2307/2645691 |jstor=2645691 }}</ref> ''Danweis'' became successful vessels for political mobilization as the encouraged relations between employees were founded upon and channelled into political participation, often against an enemy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dutton |first=Michael |date=24 Jun 2008 |title=Passionately governmental: Maoism and the structured intensities of revolutionary governmentality |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13688790801971563 |journal=[[Postcolonial Studies]] |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=107 |doi=10.1080/13688790801971563 |via=Routledge |access-date=31 May 2024 |archive-date=31 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531010621/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13688790801971563 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> An example of this would be the massive workers' [[Strike action|strikes]] during [[Mao Zedong]]'s [[Hundred Flowers Campaign]] where in the span of 6 months between 1956 and 1957, over 10,000 strikes had occurred nationwide in favour of Chairman Mao's attack on [[bureaucratism]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lu |first1=Xiaobo |last2=Perry|first2=Elizabeth J. |title=The Changing Chinese Workplace in Historical and Comparative Perspective |date=Jul 28, 1997 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=9780765636195 |edition=1st |location=Armonk, New York |pages=48 |language=English}}</ref>