Source base questions - KMT-CCP rivalry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Source base questions - KMT-CCP rivalry - Essay Example This was the classic method of raiding a village. Sometimes we killed and carried away little pigs weighing around thirty catties. We took corn, rice, potatoes, taro. Did we take money? No. There was no money to be had anyway. e.g. in Source A, the cartoon shows us that the KMT (Kuomintang or Nationalist Party) officers were totally on the side of the rich landlord demanding greater taxes. Exploitation of the peasants took various forms. Not only were heavy taxes levied, many of which were collected in advance, but also peasants were forced to provide carts, animals and farm produce. The source also shows one such officer in hostile action against a peasant and his family. Judging from their poor attire and the fact that the loss of the two bushels of food grain represented a great loss to them, we understand that this family is a very poor one. The officer is commanding the peasant to hand over grain to the landlord. The peasant is very angry at the unfair demand, which is evident by his clenched fists. It also shows his impotence to offer any stiffer resistance to the officer and the landlord due to the overall cloak of oppression that has smothered the populace during the domination by the KMT regime. The peasant’s wife is beseeching the landlord to have mercy as they need that food for their family, especially the crying child. In response, the obese landlord is pointing a jocular finger at the wailing child meaning that he does not care about the wellbeing of a brat like that. The cartoonist is telling us that despite the oppressive hardship and poverty of the peasants, the corrupted KMT government was still exploiting them unmercifully. Source A seems to drive the message that the communists were sympathetic about the hardship of the people and this is in stark contrast to the corrupt Nationalists. Source A is also a communist cartoon and thus may be a propaganda tool to incite the sense of anti-KMT feeling among the peasants and thereby