social change 1949-76 Flashcards
1
Q
traditional attitudes to women before 1949
A
- many baby girls victims of infanticide as they were seen as an economic burden
- arranged marriages were common and wives sharing their husband with concubines was common
- three obediences: to be subservient to father when young, husband when married and sons when a mother
- no educational opportunities e.g. in 1930s rural China only 1% of girls over age of 7 had basic literacy (30% for boys)
2
Q
foot binding
A
- usually bound at age 6
- small feet considered to be sexually attractive and the smaller feet would gain a higher ‘bride-price’
- officially banned in 1911 but still continued
3
Q
New Marriage Law 1950
A
- Mao said ‘Women hold up half the sky’ and damned arranged marriages as ‘indirect rape’
- law banned concubinage and arranged marriages
- dowries were banned
- husbands and wives were to have equal status in the home
- advocated for later marriage and childbirth
- a wife could inherit her husband’s property
- divorce was easier
4
Q
success of the New Marriage Law 1950
A
- 1946-49 18.6% of brides 16-17yrs old, 1958-65 only 2.4%
- late 1940s, 30.6% of marriages arranged by parents -> 0.8% from 1966-76
5
Q
failures of the New Marriage Law 1950
A
- HOWEVER the law led to increased divorce rates due to husbands losing their financial investment (1.4mil filed 1953), and violent armed mobs tried to reclaim divorced wives
- cadres also did not uphold the law
6
Q
impact of economic policies on women
A
- many women forced into prostitution to trade sex for food → widespread suicides
- standards of care in kindergartens appalling e.g. diarrhoea and measles spread, high death rates. mothers felt anguished as their role was marginalised. end of GLF → kindergartens collapsed
- abuse and discrimination: expectant mothers forced to work and miscarried, rape and sexual abuse especially from cadres. e.g. in a commune near Guangzhou, 2 party secretaries raped 34 women
- poor quality of food in canteens, long commute, women received less food
- often limited to 8 work points while men could receive 10 (men’s labour more valued)
7
Q
political role for women
A
- Women’s Association: mobilised and politicised women, 40k staff in 83 cities
- ploughing lessons, classes to improve literacy, financial support to make shoes and uniforms for PLA officers (reinforced gender roles)
- cultural revolution: politicised to same extent as men, same Maoist uniform
- stayed involved: 1958-60 8-12% party = women, 1970-74 16-21%
8
Q
education for women
A
- families encouraged to send daughters to school. 100% of girls who started primary school finished it in 1959. by 1978 45% of students in primary were girls
- 1949 = PLA enlisted unmarried young educated women to be female companionship in military academies
- Feb 1951 = recruited a female work team to exploit natural resources in Xinjiang. rural women could escape poverty, women could escape from marginalised family background, etc.
- returned to traditional role after
9
Q
problems of changing traditional views
A
- traditional male attitudes were slow to change
- even in the CCP, women were not treated equally by their fellow Communists (said by Ding Ling) e.g. Soong Ching-ling, a high ranking and prominent member, complained that her views were not treated equally
10
Q
education in china before 1949
A
- inequality of educational opportunity, peasants had no access, only 1% of girls literate
- elitist system, peasants disliked by teachers
- no practical subjects
- traditional style common (Confucianism)
- 80% of population illiterate
11
Q
literacy (education)
A
- new form of written language to simplify traditional and complex characters
- but 78% of the population remained illiterate by 1952
- 1955: introduced Pinyin which improved communication. letters based on latin alphabet, still used now
- literacy rate was 64% by 1964
12
Q
primary (education)
A
- min-pan schools, claimed 42mil attended 1951-52
- 1949-57 primary school children rose from 26million to 64 million
- winter schools ineffective as peasants forgot between winters
13
Q
secondary (education)
A
- favoured old bourgeoisie and children of party elites
- cities had better schools
- min pan schools extended to secondary later on
14
Q
university (education)
A
- purges of 1950s = loss of educators
- university enrolments rose by over 300,000; 1953 63% of students on engineering, medicine or agriculture courses
- uni enrolments almost quadrupled (117k→441k)
- many students sent to Russia to study there
- elitism remained
- by 1960, 30k schools and 2.9mil students
- one in each commune
15
Q
education under the cultural revolution
A
- Red Guards abandoned school and went to attend the 8 rallies in Beijing led by Mao
- students denounced and attacked teachers, intimidated them in struggle meetings
- ‘lost generation’: many young people sent to countryside not back to school after CR (to learn hard labour) → disillusioned by regime, distrusted leader
16
Q
healthcare in 1949
A
- rudimentary health provision
- traditional medical techniques such as acupunture, herbalism
- practically non-existent in rural China
- 6-8% women died during childbirth due to complications from lack of calcium and vitamin D
- lack of sanitation
- only 2.6% of state budget = healthcare up to 1956
17
Q
CCP’s health policy
A
- prioritised prevention of disease rather than expensive cures
- cadres trained to show peasants how to prevent spread of disease through improved sanitation and public hygiene
- Patriotic Health Campaigns: Party workers to educate illiterate peasants
- successful as they used lectures to educate them
- diseases like smallpox, cholera, typhus, etc. practically eliminated. TB and parasitic diseases reduced
- under GLF → communes had medical clinics
- investment created 800 new Western-type hospitals
- doctors trained in modern techniques = 40k 1949, 150k 1965
- life expectancy = 36 years 1949, 57 years 1957
18
Q
barefoot doctors
A
- work of doctors disrupted by Antis campaign in 1950s and Cultural Revolution → denounced and purged
- Western hospitals centered in cities → inequality clear
- barefoot doctors: young people sent by villages to receive medical training and then returned to work in village clinics
- only 6 months training, little equipment and medicine in village clinics
- adequate to treat common problems of peasants and could spread modern medical knowledge
- by 1973, 1mil+ new doctors trained
19
Q
Women’s Federation
A
- improve midwifery and infant childcare
- new techniques based on scientific techniques → handwashing, pre-natal checkups, etc.
- midwifery stations
- fertility increased and infant mortality decreased
20
Q
buddhism
A
- began as less organised than Islam and Christianity → easy to attack
- monks sent back to homes, forcibly enlisted, deemed counter-revolutionary (all when communists came to power)
- ‘Resist America, Aid Korea’: Buddhist Association members to undergo thought reform, Buddhist landholdings redistributed under 1950 Land Reform Law
- government control under 1953 Chinese Buddhist Association
- Tibet most important Buddhist community
- targeted by propaganda (Anti Rightist Campaign)
- GLF: monks forced to labour, Lamas stripped of trad. sources of income
- 1959 Dalai Lama targeted by officials, had to be smuggled to India
- Buddhism denounced as one of ‘Four Olds’ in CR → entire generation of monks, nuns and followers wiped out
21
Q
confucianism (ancestor worship)
A
- was dominant in 1949
- in 1949, all ceremonies ended, shrines given to museums (at first)
- CR - became dangerous to worship, Confucius birth temple attacked, used as precedent to attack opponents
- traditional New Year festival ended, offerings deemed superstitious
- many other festivals made communist e.g. Ch’ing Ming (day of the dead) replaced by National Memorial Day to celebrate communists
- generational faith remained e.g. when Zhou Enlai died, people conducted traditional events. Cadres carried holy symbols
22
Q
islam
A
- in 1949, Muslim leaders had influence on women and education. islam was a minority religion, mainly in Xinjiang (W. China, bordered many Muslim countries like Pakistan)
- mosques repurposed and became halls for struggle meetings, schools became barns
- many Muslims fought back e.g. in Gansu, 1000 killed fighting
- Islamic Association of China: more cooperation between Muslims and Party
- Xinjiang named as an Autonomous Region in Oct 1955 but this did not mean independence → Quran replaced with Marxism on curriculum, Zakat removed and mosque lands redistributed, etc.
- CR: Muslims forced to eat pig, leaders tortured, men forced to shave, etc.
- Muslim culture remains to this day
23
Q
christianity
A
- believed Church represented Western ideology, but 4 mil Christians in 1949 (minority)
- Protestant Church forced into ‘Patriotic Church Movement’ and should be self-ruling, self-propagating, self-supporting
- reality: meant complete obedience to gov, pressured to cut ties w/ West
- 1949 3000 Protestant missionaries → 100 1953
- Vatican (Catholic) refused to accept ‘Patriotic Church’ but Party expelled Vatican
- smear campaigns against Catholic Church e.g. Catholic hospitals accused of using patients as human guinea pigs to test medicines, an exhibition in Shanghai showed ‘Catholic espionage activities’
- 1951 3222 churches, 1953 364 churches
- clergymen forced into labour, leaders sent to laogai
- public worship effectively ended
