Mao (Social Policies) Flashcards
State-owned enterprises
Industry was put under government control. Private firms and companies could no longer make profits and exist. Wages, prices and production targets were fixed by the state. SOEs were given state subsidies and workers had guaranteed wages. SOEs lost a lot of incentive to be efficient and highly productive, with any surplus given to the state. Workers did get a “Iron Rice Bowl” which included provision of accommodation and medical/health benefits.
The Great Famine: How?
Land reforms were tied to Mao’s industrial plans. Mao wanted to revolutionize food production to increase China’s industrial workforce. Collectivization was achieved through land redistribution, mutual aid teams and cooperatives, household registration systems and communes. By the mid 1950s, Mao achieved 4 of them. Yet, increased production of grain was not reaching the urban workforce. There was a severe labor shortage. 1956-1958, collectives made into communes. These were controlled by the PRC which dictated farming methods, the sale and distribution of produce. Any resistance was crushed, with failure blamed on peasants. Mao’s doubt let to Lysenkoism in 1958.
Religious Policies: What?
Religion is viewed by communism as a capitalist invention meant to suppress the exploited. Mao saw it as a poison and preferred party loyalty. Christian churches were forced to close with their property taken. Ministers were attacked and foreign priests and nuns exiled. Religion was condemned in propaganda posters, slogans and loudspeakers. Traditional faiths (buddhism and confucianism) were banned from being practiced openly. Religious clothing and ancestor worship was banned. Songs, dances and traditional festivals were placed with political meetings and performances against landlords, confucians and priests.
Religious Policies
Some churches were allowed to be open as long as they did not interfere with state security. To seem tolerant. Patriotic churches with clergy professed support for the CCP and accepted the government appointing clergy and dictating doctrine. The Pope rejected such churches. In the Cultural Revolution, one of the four olds was religious with clergy being persecuted. Confucism denounced. The CCP attacked religion due to a fear of religious separation in Xinjiang and Tibet. The CCP used invasion and repression to control these provinces. They tried to dilute the ethnic and religious populations by settling there with many Han Chinese. The migration policy of 1979 had only met with partial success.
Policies about Women and Family: Why?
Imperial China was patriarchal, confucius ideas held that a woman must obey her husband. It was rare for women to hold power. Footbinding was commonplace especially for women in forced marriages. Women were sold into marriage on the basis of how many children she can produce. Concubinage was also common.
Policies about Women and Family: What?
In 1919, Mao wrote articles condemning arranged marriage as indirect rape. During the 1930s and 1940s, Mao appeared to believe in women’s rights. The CCP outlawed footbinding. In the 1950s, Mao claimed women hold up half the sky. But, the PRC was still male-dominated. Few Party posts went to women and female comrades were still expected to do domestic roles.
Policies about Women and Family: Actions
In 1950, Marriage Reform Law was introduced. These reforms led to social disruption. Women started marrying and divorcing at higher rates. The Government also added a special clause about the PLA so that soldiers could override their wife’s request for divorce.
In the land redistribution campaigns of the 1950s, women were allowed to own land. But, this was short-lived due to collectivisation where no one could own land. Women were considered to be equal to men in the workforce, leading to increasing female workers from 8 to 32 per cent between 1949 to 1976. Where work was fitting, women flourished. But hard labor made some women feel no better than before. Women made up 13 percent of the membership in the CCP under Mao. Percentages of women deputies in the NPC rose from 14 to 23 per cent. It is not clear that the CCP were making efforts to allow more women in politics.
Policies about Women and Family: Challenges
It was hard to challenge ingrained ideas about women and their roles. Female infanticide continued. People thought boys brought honor and economic benefits and girls were a drain on resources. In Xinjiang, their Muslim culture claimed women must be obedient to male family members.
Marriage Reform Law
1950, the PRC introduced the Marriage Reform Law where:
Concubinage was abolished
Arranged marriages came to an end
Paying of dowries was forbidden
Women and men who were forced to marry were permitted to divorce.
All marriages had to be registered by the state.
Policies about Women and Family: Collectivisation
Collectivisation attacked the traditional Chinese family, Mao considered necessary for the good of the state. Children called Mao their father and placed personal love below their loyalty to the party. In many communes, married couples were segregated and only allowed to see each other in conjugal visits. Women saw their roles as wives and mothers become redundant.
Mao’s Cultural Policies
1930s, Mao wanted China’s culture to reflect a proletarian society. Censorship and propaganda was used to achieve this. Creative artists were meant to serve the people. Thousands of books were burned, considered politically incorrect. The war on foreign cinema and western music. Jiang Qing during the Cultural Revolution, became a cultural purifier of the nation. Only literature, art and media that promoted Chinese themes were allowed. Including opera-ballets which told the story of the proletariat. Children were urged to knock off the heads of flowers to show their contempt for bourgeois concepts of beauty. Creative artists that resisted were sent to labor camps for re-education. Only Deng Xiaoping suggested that the purpose of creative artists was to entertain. Intellectuals and creative artists were unwilling or too afraid to resist.
Language, Literacy and Education
1949, the majority of peasants were illiterate. Mao made education of the masses a priority. By the mid 1950s, a national system of primary education had been established. By 1976, the levels of literacy rose from 20 percent from 1949 to 70. Mao’s success could be partly attributed to the reform of the Mandarin language in 1955. Before, there were many different pronunciations of Mandarin throughout China. Communication was hard as the language was difficult to write, each word having its own character. The PRC introduced a form of Mandarin which was easy to recognise and use. Pinyin was created, a system characterized by mandarin sounds to symbols. Spoken Mandarin could now be written in a standardized form. However, during the cultural revolution, 130 million young people stopped attending school/university and about 12 million of them were sent to the countryside to work. Even when educational establishments were reopened, creativity and critical thinking were greatly undermined as the priority was to produce students who conformed to the party ideals.
Health
There was a lack of universal healthcare which posed a problem in 1949. The government tried to direct medical care to the remotest areas of China. Based on experiences in Jiangxi and Yan’an, Mao introduced patriotic health movements. Including government funded schemes to provide people with basic advice on health and hygiene. Local populations led huge communal efforts to eradicate insects and drain swamps to stop the spread of disease such as dysentery and malaria. More doctors and nurses were also trained throughout the 1950s so more people could receive professional healthcare.
Policies about Women and Family: Famine
During famine years, women had to choose between which child to starve so the others could eat. Women also had to divorce their husbands and marry others to possibly find more resources, leading to high divorce rates. Many children were motherless and abandoned. Girls were the first targets and later boys. The children were quite vulnerable and exploited by the CCP. Prostitution increased as women offered themselves for food. In some parts of China, officials set up brothels for party members. In the Cultural Revolution, the nuclear family was targeted as one of the four olds. Under the Red Guards, everyday family life was denounced and destroyed. Although China’s population almost doubled under Mao, other leaders later tried to restrict the birth rate.
Education during the Cultural Revolution
During the cultural revolution, 130 million young people stopped attending school/university and about 12 million of them were sent to the countryside to work. Even when educational establishments were reopened, creativity and critical thinking were greatly undermined as the priority was to produce students who conformed to the party ideals.
