To strike a balance between work and rest: Managing worker fatigue in 1950s and 1960s China

Conference paper delivered at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Columbus, Ohio (March 14, 2025).
This article explores how the CCP managed industrial fatigue in the 1950s and 1960s. While the party idealized tirelessness as a worker's virtue since the Yan'an period in the 1940s, prolonged workdays in China’s industrial workplaces led to widespread fatigue that threatened productivity after the CCP came to power. From the second half of the 1950s, China’s labour authorities implemented various measures to combat this issue, emphasizing party-approved wholesome activities like physical exercise. In 1960, the party launched a nationwide movement with the banner of striking a proper balance between work and rest to handle the aftermath of the Great Leap Famine. Thus, getting workers to rest, including eight hours of sleep and daily leisure activities, was a priority for China’s labor authorities.
Workers often had their own approaches to rest, shaped by personal experiences and perceptions of fatigue. While some embraced party-promoted physical exercises, many others continued to seek rest in their own ways and avoid exercising. In the early 1960s, many workers did not meekly follow the party’s orders that confined them to their beds at night. Instead, they preferred to spend their evening hours doing their own business: chatting aimlessly, reading books, and playing poker. These varied responses to state efforts to combat industrial fatigue reveal that workers’ lifestyles were not solely constructed by party policies. Instead, they were influenced by individual preferences, body clocks, and personal understandings of fatigue, highlighting the gap between the party's perception of workers and the diverse, heterogeneous realities of working-class life.