Chinese labour heroes represent an idiosyncratic expression of a broader twentieth-century phenomenon of promoting worker emulation through the hailing of model labourers. Taken from a comparative perspective, the Chinese practice can be seen not only as modelled on an earlier Soviet development, but also a broader need felt in totalitarian regimes in the 1930s and 1940s that workers needed to be ‘remoralised’ through the establishment of cults of workers and work. Recently revived in the People's Republic of China in the form of patriotic movies and television shows, the main historical development of the Chinese articulation of this broader historical labour phenomenon is assessed in light of recent studies of Soviet and National Socialist attempts to heroise labour.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	labour heroes, China
Research Division:	Philosophy and Religious Studies
Research Group:	History and Philosophy of Specific Fields
Research Field:	Business and Labour History
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding Knowledge in Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services
UTAS Author:	Mees, B (Dr Bernard Mees)
ID Code:	128993
Year Published:	2013
Web of Science® Times Cited:	2
Deposited By:	TSBE
Deposited On:	2018-10-31
Last Modified:	2018-12-17
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