communes (China)

In China, a commune was a large collective farming and community organization established during the Mao era (1950s-1970s). It combined land, labor, and resources from multiple households into a single unit, aiming to increase agricultural productivity and promote social equality. Communes often provided collective facilities like schools, healthcare, and manufacturing, fostering communal living. While they aimed for economic self-sufficiency, the system largely declined after reforms in the late 1970s, replaced by household-based farming. Today, communes as a formal administrative unit no longer exist, but the term is sometimes used historically or metaphorically to describe collective efforts.