This study examines how patriotism during the Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea campaign evolved from a mere instrument of mass mobilization into a central rationale for the voluntary participation of the populace in economic construction during the Mao era. It traces how the ideology of patriotism—rooted in the principles of Resist America, Aid Korea—developed into the practice encapsulated in the slogan “production is patriotism,” analyzing its underlying logic, trajectory, and internalization among peasants, as well as its subsequent impact on rural society in Maoist China. Drawing on Zhongguo Nongbao, a newspaper launched in May 1950 for the education and propaganda of rural cadres and peasants and published until 1965, the study explores the concrete processes through which patriotic education, propaganda, pledges, and Fengchan campaigns unfolded in the countryside as part of the “patriotic production movement.”
Under the exceptional conditions of war, the concept of “patriotic production,” grounded in the logic of aiding one’s family and brothers, became entrenched as an ideology within the state-capitalist system of production mobilization, consistently demanding diligence and the attainment of production targets from peasants. The earlier logic of rural production for individual benefit—expressed in the slogan “develop production and improve livelihood”—was replaced by “patriotic production for defending the nation”, which soon expanded into a normative framework for “repaying the grace” of the Chinese Communist Party. Through repeated patriotic education and propaganda, peasants came to willingly dedicate their labor to present production for the sake of future prosperity, fostering a transformation distinct from that brought about by land reform.
By illuminating these processes, this study offers important insights into the changing consciousness of the rural masses during the Mao era and provides a basis for understanding production campaigns such as the Great Leap Forward. It further underscores the historical significance of patriotic production during the Korean War period by situating it within the broader context of subsequent rural production drives and state-led economic mobilization.