Social and Cultural changes 1949-76 Flashcards
traditional attitudes towards women
Chinese women subject to the “three obediences”:
- father when young
- husband when married: arranged marriages with rich men wanting wives as pretty adornments and poor ones wanting another labourer
- son in old age
- female babies subject to infantcide
- women in 1930’s 1% over the age of 7 had basic literacy skills compared to 30% of men.
what was foot binding?
foot binding: physically crippled feet by binding the so bone structure would become deformed
- small feet and swaying gait considered sexually appealing
- feet hurt so much “I had to crawl on my hands and knees” recalls one woman
- banned in 1911: still continued in northern villages
- men would pay ‘bride-price’ for more attractive women
traditional attitudes towards marriage + role of mother in law
- woman married out of family in early teens, practice of giving away a dowry (jewelery, bedding, pots, pans) = becomes husband’s property
- wives expected to be subservient and do all domestic work and often be beaten by husband
- traditional Confucian marriage unlikely to support emotional support so
- mother in laws often petty and spiteful as to wife as they wanted to remain close to son who would look after them in old age
Mao’s attitude towards women
- “women hold up half of the sky”
- women subject to 4 authorities whilst men only subjected to 3: not only “political, clan and religious” but also “the authority of the husband”
- damned arranged marriages as “indirect rape”
- Mao subject to an arranged marriage aged 14 to a wealthier woman 7 years older, he resisted it “did not consider her my wife”
1950 New Marriage Law
- legal equality, hold property, seek divorce
- dowries were forbidden, 18 to marry and free- will marriages were required
- advocated later marriage and childbirth: more time to participate in Marxist Leninist political activity
- late 40s 30.6% marriages were organised by parents, by 1966-76 this was 0.8%
problems with New Marriage Law
- enforcement was problematic
- attitudes of cadres
- attitudes to gender equality in Muslim areas
how was enforcement of New Marriage Law problematic?
- men who had paid a bride price felt that lost a financial investment when wives divorced them (1.4M divorces in 1953)
- widespread violence towards women: husbands attacked wives during court proceedings, armed mobs to reclaim divorced wives
impact of collectivisation of communes on women’s lives
- success of GLF depended on the “vast reserve of labour power” of women
- claimed allowing women to work was “liberation through labour” and propaganda lauded “iron women” who matched men in productivity
- centralisation of childcare: kindergartens
- communal canteen
- work points system
- abuse, discrimination, despair
centralisation of childcare: kindergartens
- separated children from mothers for weeks at a time, distressed mothers
- low level of care: economically productive activity given priority
- measles, chicken pox, in Beijing 90 percent of children got sick, nappies remained unchanged all day
- end of GLF: they collapse, exhausted women forced to care for children, work, and forage for food to survive
work points system in relation to women
- women received less work points than men regardless of productivity as the realities of physical strength meant than men received around 10 whilst women limited to 8
- rooted in notions of male superiority + reinforced gender roles as lower earning = sacrifice paid labour for domestic work
abuse, discrimination and despair of women
- cadres abuse position: family unit collapses during GLF and “rape spread like a contagion” - Dikotter
- expecting mothers forced to work miscarried
- in Hunan local factory bosses forced women to work naked
despair: - famine = women trade sex for food as prostitutes
did Mao transform China for women?
- Dikotter notes “collectivisation designed in part to liberate women from the shackles of patriarchy” but only “made matters worse”
- women demanded to work full time whilst still being primary caretaker = extremely difficult
- compelled women into the workforce but failed to create real social change despite propaganda advertising equality
The Women’s Association
- 76M membership: encourages political activism, mobilises masses
- ploughing lessons, literacy lessons, financial support to weave uniforms (still traditional gender roles?)
- encouraged women to denounce domestic abuse and sexual violence.
- reflects mao’s belief in mass mobilisation
how the Cultural Revolution impacted women
- men and women wore same uniform and many led red guards in violent denunciations (Song Binbin)
- 1958: 8 percent cadres women to 21 percent in 1974
how did education and employment change for women?
- 38 percent girls in rural China complete primary school education vs 100 percent after 1959 (shows 1 survey)
- military service: 1949 young women to serve as PLA wives for men in Xinjiang
- 1951: advertisement in New Hunan Daily for female work team to go to Xinjiang and exploit natural resources of oil, gas
- incentives: paid study in USSR, teaching of advanced technology etc
- chance to escape poverty, opportunity for educated women to become platoon leaders and for women from “bourgeois” families to prove commitment
what was the problem with changing traditional views towards women?
- land ownership key to equality but collectivisation of land ended this possibility
- rural women were “doubly marginalised”, policies may have had little impact on their lives
- despite propaganda, women still were subordinate to men
- Mao have them a sense of personal identity, emancipation unconceivable previously
Education Before Reform
-90% of people had no education, mainly reserved for the rich
-45.2% of men and only 2.2% of women had schooling
-2/3 educated in traditional confucian style
-Maths and Science neglected with 59% of full time degrees focused on law, politics and liberal arts but only 10% natural sciences and 3% agriculture
-Rote learnign from books
Education Reforms 1949-58
-Children in primary schooling increased 146% (1949-57) but 78% remained illiterate and only 52% attended primary school
-Winter schools provided short courses, Party claimed 42m attended 1951-52 but peasants often forgot what they had learnt by the next winter and teaching left up to barely educated cadres
-Uni enrolement increased 277% with 20 polytechnics and 26 engineering schools created. By 1953, 63% of students were in engineering, medicine or agriculture
-Pinyin introduced as standardised latin style alphabet in 1955
-Education remained elitist with unis and middle schools preferring those from old bourgoise families or those with ties to Party
Education during Great Leap Forward
-Vocational courses and ‘half school, half work’ promoted
-1960, 30,000 schools (1 per commune) with 2.9m kids
-Back Yard Furnaces diverted attention from education
-Urban areas got better schools while rural areas forced into agriculture by 2 track system
Education after 1966
-During CR, education focussed on ideology and class struggle, admissions based on class background
-Schools abandones as Red Guards went to Beijing to attend 8 rallies
-In Beijing Uni, posters on walls told kids to ‘eliminate all demons and monsters’
-Up to the mountains and down to the villages meant many kids never returned to school as they were sent to learn the value of labour and got stuck in life of rural poverty
- 130 million children without education
Health
-Missionaries brought western medicine in the 20s-30s but most relied on traditional techniques
-Health spending never rose above 2.6% of budget until 1956. Instead of high spending, Patriotic Health Campaigns got people to improve sanitation which slowed spread of disease like typhus and cholera
-In GLF, every commune had a clinic and 800 hospitals built
-Trained doctors increased 40k-150k (1949-65) and 25k new doctors trained a year. With introduction of barefoot doctors to tackle rural health inequality, 1m doctors had been trained by 1973
-Healthcare best it had ever been + life expectancy increased 36-57 (1949-57)
Jiang Qing
-Became ‘Cultural Tsarina’ in CR, oversaw removal of capitalis, revisionist and fuedalist influence in art
-In Central Case Examination group in 1966, she investigated crimes of high ranking officials including Deng and Liu
-“Make it revolutionary or ban it”
-8 official performances were allowed, one joke remarked ‘CR was 800m people watching 8 shows’
-Broadcasting became so ‘boring’ that radio sets became 1/4 the price
- turned the brains of people watching into “Mashed potato”
- “whomever Chairman Mao asked me to bite, I bit”
Religion in 1949
-3m catholic missionaries + 1m protestant
-Article 5 of the common programme promised religious freedom
-Religious leaders seen as rivals for power for CP
Confucianism
-Strongly linked with old feudal system
-Public ceremonies honouring Confucius ended in 1949
-Temples and shrines were turned into museums
-Confucius’ birthplace was attacked
- marked as ‘old culture’
