Model worker (Chinese: 劳动模范; pinyin: láodòng mófàn, abbreviated as 劳模 or láomó) refers to an exemplary worker who exhibits some or all of the traits appropriate to the ideal of the socialism. Exemplary worker come from various sectors of the Chinese economy, including the industry, agricultural, service and the cultural sectors to show the inclusiveness of the People's Republic of China. Echoing the gender equality advocate of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), both men and women comprise the pool of model workers. Since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, thousands of male and female model workers have been selected from a wide range of sectors. A few model workers also came from ethnic minority groups to show the ethnic unity policy of the CCP. Higher authorities take charge of the decision on selecting model worker based on their work performance, and political consciousness, patriotism, "worship of science," activities in environmental protection, and the pursuit of excellence. National model workers are selected in China by central and provincial-level departments. Some cities and large companies also have processes for selecting and praising local model workers.
Displaying the ideals of the socialism, model workers bear the highest expectations from the new state to guide and correct their fellow workers in everyday production and behavior. The Model Workers are supposed to inspire people by their own work performance and political consciousness by setting good examples. People learn from the Model Workers and can become the new citizens the state requires. On the other hand, the Model Worker is also a coercive project. It attempts at aggressively correct people who are outliers of the new socialist scheme. Outliers become “bad elements” in contrast to the “good” Model Workers and the outliers are also forced to reform themselves.[1]
The state consistently uses model worker as one of the central propaganda strategies to realize socialist goals. As a political term, it originates from the Yan’an period of the Chinese Communist Party in the 1930s. The party leaders introduced the Soviet Stakhanovite model and hoped to increase agricultural and industrial productivity when it was cut off from military resources in the Shaan-Gan-Ning border region. After the Communist Revolution in 1949, the Model Worker policy continues as a fundamental component of the political and cultural system in the new state. It plays a key role in many of the political campaigns such as the Great Leap Forward by setting up exemplary workers who define the ideal production. As a propaganda tool, the Model Worker has wide visual representations in cinema and posters to broadcast the ideals of the socialist state to China's vast population. Underlying the propaganda, the appeals of nationalism, the development of socialism and economic prosperity based on a new system propel the application of Model Worker in the People's Republic.[2] The Maoist ideology composed of these three elements seeks to transform people's thought and behaviors on the road of creating new citizens for the new socialist China. The Model Workers represents the concrete examples of how the state wishes to intervene in the daily lives and production of ordinary people.[3]
Model workers are often afforded privileges not available to other citizens or Communist Party members. "The possibility to become a model worker offered peasants and workers one of the few opportunities for upward mobility other than joining the army," writes scholar Yu Miin-lin.[4] Model workers have an easier time joining the Communist Party, and also to become a higher-level cadre, manager, or other leader.