The Role of Internal Labour Migration in the History of the Daqing Oil Field (1949–1978)

Abstract

This paper determines the role of the Chinese state policy in using internal labour migration to ensure accelerated socialist construction of such large industrial facilities as the Daqing Oil Field. The history of the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to 1978 is rich in examples of labour mobilization of military and technical workers as well as young people for the construction and organization of industrial enterprises in adverse climatic conditions. After the discovery of the Daqing Oil Field in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang in 1959, more than 40,000 military men, engineers and oil workers were relocated to this facility. Chinese workers from the eastern and western provinces took an active part in organizing the process of exploration, drilling, oil extraction and transportation, as well as launching water supply and building storage facilities. Labour migrants were quick to establish new modern settlements in the oil field area under extremely harsh northern conditions. Daqing Oil Field workers steadfastly endured all the hardships, their main slogan being as follows: “Work hard, overcome difficulties, do your best to fight”. The selfless work of internal migrants was highly appreciated by the Chinese government and the Chinese society as a whole. Over 5,000 factories and enterprises throughout China manufactured mechanical and electrical products as well as equipment for the Daqing Oil Field; 200 research and development departments provided technical support to its workers. In the 1960s, an economic campaign “Learn Everything from Daqing” was launched, aimed to share the experience of building this oil field with other regions of China. Party and government officials Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Dong Biwu, He Long and Chen Yi had repeatedly visited Daqing to inspect the work and evaluate the role of labour migrants from other provinces in the development of the oil industry in Northeast China.