I’d also like to add on that what they meant by “landlords” in China was basically akin to feudal land owners, not today’s more common concept of a landlord being somebody renting out property. As a result, their renters were treated essentially as “subordinates” and practically at the whim of the landlord who could kill them, beat them, enslave their children, and sexually abuse female relatives.
Turkey had a similar situation for a good part of the 20th century before the practice diminished, in the form of an “aga” who was essentially the owner of the village. The village would have it’s own elected government official in charge like any other municipality but the aga owned the farmland, the streets, the houses, even the villagers(who relied entirely on the aga for their money and homes and in many cases even had their travel restricted. There are stories of villagers who weren’t even allowed to marry without the aga’s permission).
These days in capitalist societies, that sort of control is mostly split and limited between property renting landlords and business executives who control parts of your life(in regards to relying on being employed with the company to receive access to health insurance). So the landlords who were killed were killed because they were generally terrible people who abused and humiliated people because they “owned” them(albeit not like a serf in bondage).
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Good point.
I’d also like to add on that what they meant by “landlords” in China was basically akin to feudal land owners, not today’s more common concept of a landlord being somebody renting out property. As a result, their renters were treated essentially as “subordinates” and practically at the whim of the landlord who could kill them, beat them, enslave their children, and sexually abuse female relatives.
Turkey had a similar situation for a good part of the 20th century before the practice diminished, in the form of an “aga” who was essentially the owner of the village. The village would have it’s own elected government official in charge like any other municipality but the aga owned the farmland, the streets, the houses, even the villagers(who relied entirely on the aga for their money and homes and in many cases even had their travel restricted. There are stories of villagers who weren’t even allowed to marry without the aga’s permission).
These days in capitalist societies, that sort of control is mostly split and limited between property renting landlords and business executives who control parts of your life(in regards to relying on being employed with the company to receive access to health insurance). So the landlords who were killed were killed because they were generally terrible people who abused and humiliated people because they “owned” them(albeit not like a serf in bondage).