Growing US Tobacco in Native Soil: The Agricultural Reform and Rural Governance in Yunnan During the War and Beyond

This paper examines the state-led industrialization of tobacco farming in Yunnan during the full-scale Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45) and traces its far-reaching institutional and technological influence on the development of Yunnan’s tobacco industry before and during the PRC period (1949–). Against the backdrop of the growing influx of population and the Japanese seizure of critical agricultural production areas, the Long Yun government (r. 1928–45) launched an array of experiments to introduce new crop varieties that aimed to promote the commercialization and industrialization of local agricultural products. The US tobacco, exemplified by the most famous “golden dollar”, stood out from other crop varieties as a high-quality and easily grown alternative to the less profitable local tobacco as well as an economic solution to the financial decline after the ban on opium cultivation in the mid–30s. By mainly drawing on gazetteers, archives, scholars’ surveys, and memories, this paper investigates the series of measures the Long Yun government took to alter local tobacco cropping habits and their impact on the reorganization of rural communities. These measures include forming specialized tobacco cultivation management agencies, controlling seed distribution, andassigning experts to manage the cultivation process. Bringing increasing yields and economic benefits on the one hand, these tobacco farming reform measures strengthened the government’s control over the economic output of tobacco production and contributed to the de-skilling of tobacco farmers amid rapid mechanization and collective production. The state monopoly of Yunnan’s tobacco industry persisted during the PRC period and was further centralized under the national autarkic policies of the Maoist period. Local tobacco farmers were once again expropriated their farming skills amid rural deindustrialization. By tracing this process this paper joins the discussion of the social ramifications of the green revolution by centering on the redistribution of skills and technology.