Meanings
- uncountableUsed attributively to designate various institutions in the People's Republic of China which combine education with manual labour with a view to helping people understand life as a peasant.First known use 20th c.
The difference was that the May 7th Instruction excluded commerce from "the big school" that only included industry, agriculture, army, and education.
1996, Zongli Tang, Bing Zuo, Maoism and Chinese Culture, page 3991 more example
This was the first leg of his labours. The second began with […] the names of such Shanghainese officials who, in consequence of criminal pro-Russian leanings, had been officially purged, humiliated or sent to a May 7th school to rediscover the virtues of peasant labour.
1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 239
Origin
Named after Mao Zedong's directive of 7th May 1966 calling upon all people to study industry, agriculture and military affairs.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
May 7th. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/May%207th
“May 7th.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/May%207th. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “May 7th,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/May%207th.
Source: May 7th on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.