4 - Reforming in China Flashcards

In this chapter you will learn about: -the process of land reform and how this affected Chinese peasants -how the Chinese revolution changed the role and status of women -the progress made in establishing a system of universal education in China -the progress made in improving public health

1
Q

Who was the Common Programme drawn up by? When?

A
  • The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee

- September 1949

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2
Q

What did Article 5 of the Common Programme guarantee?

A

the Rights of

  • freedom of though
  • speech
  • publication
  • assembly
  • association
  • correspondence
  • the person
  • domicile
  • movement
  • religious beliefs
  • freedom to hold processions and demonstrations

to everybody but ‘political reactionaries’

I don’t think you need to remember all that. The answer should be ‘basic rights to all people of China apart from those labelled as ‘political reactionaries’

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3
Q

How did the Common Programme promise economic change?

A

Through land reform

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4
Q

Name the 2 key clauses in the Common Programme that addressed social change?

A
  • equal rights for women, ending their lives of ‘bondage’

- emphasis on the need for universal, free education

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5
Q

Before 1949 which 2 methods regarding land had Mao used to gain the support of the peasants?

A
  • rent reductions

- land confiscation

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6
Q

Now that the CPC were in power, how did Mao go about his land reforms?

A
  • confiscation

- redistribution

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7
Q

Who did Mao confiscate land off? Who did he give it to?

A
  • rich landlords

- poorer peasants and landless labourers

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8
Q

Who did Mao specifically not confiscate land off? Why?

A
  • better-off peasants

- because he recognised that the food produced by the wealthier peasants was essential to the nation as a whole

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9
Q

What were local peasants encouraged by the CPC cadres to do?

A

Identify and humiliate or attack their landlords

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10
Q

What did the CPC do to the relationship of the peasants and landlords? Why?

A
  • stoked up class-conflict

- in order to cement the relationship between CHina’s peasants and the communist revolution

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11
Q

What was the effect of the land reforms?

A
  • broke the power of the landlord class

- surviving relatives cowed into submission

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12
Q

“Collective agriculture was seen as the best way to bring more modern methods of farming to the Chinese countryside.” True or False?

A

True

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13
Q

What was hoped would be achieved by collectivising agriculture?

A

Increase food production

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14
Q

Why did Mao not force the peasants into larger collective farms at first?

A

He believed it would encounter resistance that would threaten to undermine peasant support for the revolution

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15
Q

What were mutual aid teams?

A

Groupings of about 10 families that pooled labour and equipment

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16
Q

Who did women owe obedience to?

A
  • ‘proper’ authority
  • wife to husband
  • daughter to father
  • widow to eldest son
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17
Q

Name 3 practices involving women that were common in the early 20th Century (in China)?

A
  • foot binding
  • arranged marriages
  • concubines (mistresses kept by powerful men)
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18
Q

Why were the lives of female peasants particularly hard?

A

Expected to

  • work in fields
  • raise children
  • carry on handicraft work at home
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19
Q

Mao’s concubines.

A

Officially referred to as the PLA dance troupe they were treated as ‘imperial concubines’ expected to provide for the Chairman’s sexual needs

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20
Q

What percentage of uni students were female in 1922?

A

2.5%

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21
Q

What was the rate of social change in the countryside?

A

Non-existent or very slow

22
Q

What happened in the Jiangxi province in the 1930s?

A
  • arranged marriages were outlawed
  • it became illegal to purchase wives
  • women given the right to vote
  • Mao stipulated that 1/4 of those elected to representative bodies had to be women
23
Q

What did the Communists address after they took power in 1949?

A

Women’s rights

24
Q

When was the New Marriage Law?

A

1950

25
Q

What did the New Marriage Law do?

A
  • outlawed arranged marriages and the payment of dowries to a husband/family
  • concubinage banned
  • unmarried, divorced or widowed women give same rights to own property as men
  • divorce made available to men and women on equal terms
26
Q

What helped change attitudes in rural areas?

A
  • new educational opportunities
  • reforms
  • social and legal framework
27
Q

What was education in China traditionally viewed as?

A

A means to gain entry to the imperial civil service

28
Q

What was entries to schools and universities restricted by?

A

High costs

29
Q

What percent of people passed their imperial exams in any one year?

A

5%

30
Q

What did the low percentage of people passing the exams ensure?

A

It produced an elite class of administrators

31
Q

How many Western schools and universities were there in China by 1949?

A
  • 31 run by British or American foundations

- 32 run by Christian missionary organisations

32
Q

What were the educational opportunities like for peasants?

A

Virtually non-eistent

33
Q

What percentage of Chinese adults were literate in the early 20th century?

A

30%

34
Q

What percentage of Chinese children attended primary school before 1949?

A

20%

35
Q

Where did Mao believe learning should come from?

A

Experience

36
Q

What did Mao oppose in Chinese schools and universities? Why?

A
  • western influence

- he regarded it as a form of cultural imperialism

37
Q

What was the only way Mao could successfully politically indoctrinate everybody?

A

Mass literacy

38
Q

1956 full time education fact.

A

Less than half of children between 7 and 16 were in full-time education.
<0.5 children age 7-16 in full-time ed.
1956

39
Q

1976 primary education fact.

A

96% of primary-age children enrolled in schools

1976

40
Q

Why was there such a slow change in education?

A
  • it started from a very low base
  • communist gov. did not spend much on education
  • -1952 investment by the State in education and culutre combined amounted to 6.4% of the total budget
  • -1952 investment by the UK gov. in education amounted to 9% of the total budget and I bet they had more money at hand too
41
Q

What were key schools?

A
  • best teachers sent here
  • tough entrance examination
  • heavy emphasis on testing, examinations and physical education
  • however, mostly attended by children of high-ranking officials
42
Q

What happened to higher education?

A
  • remodelled
  • concentrated more on technical and scientific subjects
  • reflected the countries need for specialists
43
Q

Where were large numbers of students sent to study?

A

USSR Uni until the late 1950

44
Q

What was the provision of healthcare like before the communist regime took over?

A
  • uneven
  • 19th C western style med brought by missionaries
  • they built hospitals and medical schools in the largest cities
  • GMD regime in 1920s/30s showed improvements in medical care
  • GMD regime discouraged traditional medicine
  • medical needs of rural areas not addressed
  • high infant mortality rates
45
Q

What did the communist regime place emphasis on (with regards to health care)?

A

Preventative rather than curative because of the lack of trained doctors

like the Romans

46
Q

What did health reform take the form of?

A

Mass campaigns using street and neighbourhood committees

47
Q

Name one of the Communist health campaigns.

A

Patriotic Health Campaign

48
Q

What was ‘night-soil’

A

Shit. Plain shit.

49
Q

What was a major cause of disease in rural areas?

A

night-soil

50
Q

What was schistosomiasis?

A

A disease that cased internal bleeding and was common in the Chinese countryside

51
Q

What sort of health care system was adopted at a rural level?

A
  • a three-tier system
  • -village level - catered for by paramedics
  • -township - had a health centre providing out-patient care + a limited number of beds for in-patient care
  • -serious cases - referred to county hospital staffed by fully trained doctors
52
Q

What percentage of the state budget was spent on health care?

A

1.3% in 1952