Social Change in China 1962-66

Question 1

How did the GLF affect the lives of women (3)?

Answer 1

1) The GLF encouraged women to engage in productive labour outside of the home. However, after its
failure, propaganda emphasised the domestic role of women.
2) Fewer babies were born.
3) Infant mortality rose, most likely due to the famine.

Question 2

In what areas was birth control emphasised in?

Answer 2

Rural areas.

Question 2

How did the state planners restrict population growth (2)?

Answer 2

1) in 1964, the State Council established the first Birth Planning Commission.
2) Population planning became an element of the Third Five Year Plan, launched in 1966.

Question 3

How did the Health Ministry encourage birth control (2)?

Answer 3

1) The Health Ministry issued guidance on contraception, encouraging restrictions on family sizes through
the slogan ‘Later, Longer, Fewer’.
2) They promoted this through propaganda, rather than making it compulsory.

Question 4

What did Zhou Enlai say regarding family planning?

Answer 4

‘It is good to have lots of manpower but only if it is coordinated with economic development’.

Question 5

How successful was the birth control campaign of the early 1960s (2)?

Answer 5

The campaign seemed successful, as seen in Hebei province:
1) 350,000 propagandists were employed in the campaign.
2) By 1965, local officials claimed 70% of families were using contraception.

Question 6

What did Mao mean by cultural imperialism?

Answer 6

That Westerners were using their control over education and culture in China to influence the minds of the
youth to become Westernised.

Question 7

Why did Mao reject traditional forms of education, and how did he want China to learn?

Answer 7

Mao rejected traditional education because of its elitism, its old fashioned curriculum, its teaching methods,
and its reliance on book learning. Mao believed in education through experience.

Question 8

Why did Mao see education as vital for building a socialist society (2)?

Answer 8

1) In order to achieve economic development, large number of skilled specialists were required.
2) Political indoctrination could only be achieved through improving mass literacy.

Question 9

What were key schools?

Answer 9

Each district had key schools, where the best teachers were sent, and children had to sit a tough entrance
exam. There was a heavy emphasis on testing, exams, and physical education. Although selection was meant
to be based on merit, in practice, the children of high ranking officials occupied these schools.

Question 10

How successful was the development of primary education in China in the 1950s (2)?

Answer 10

1) In 1956, less than half of children aged 7 - 16 were in primary education.
2) In 1952, state investment in education and culture amounted to only 6.4% of the total budget.

Question 11

What was the impact of the GLF on children (4)?

Answer 11

1) Teaching was suspended in many rural schools, as children were sent to the fields to work.
2) High rates of truancy in schools.
3) Many accidents involving children at work, due to tiredness and a lack of familiarity with the machinery.
4) Fewer children were born, and during the famine, there was an increase in the sale or abandonment of
children by peasant families, who were unable to feed them.

Question 12

How did higher education in China differ in 1962-66, compared to in the 1950s?

Answer 12

1) In the 1950s, higher education was expanded, with universities remodelled to to concentrate on technical
and scientific subjects. Students were also sent to study at universities in the USSR.
2) As China was recovering from the GLF, employment opportunities diminished for the youth, whilst after
the Sino-Soviet Split, students could no longer study in the USSR. This led to the CCP introducing a scheme
to encourage the urban youth to spend time in the countryside to ‘learn from the peasants’.

Question 13

What was the Communist Youth League (CYL) (2)?

Answer 13

Set up in the 1920s, it was a youth group for those aged 14 - 28 to become involved in the Party’s work, and
prepare for full CCP membership.

Question 14

What was the Young Pioneers youth group?

Answer 14

A communist youth group for children aged 6 - 14.

Question 15

What was the role of the CYL (2)?

Answer 15

1) To indoctrinate young people into the CCP.
2) To monitor and control youths in schools and universities. E.g. during the Thought Reform campaign,
CYL members were placed on every dining table and in every dormitory. They were tasked with spreading
propaganda, and to keep notes on the behaviours of other students.

Question 16

How did Mao view culture, and why did he believe that it was important?

Answer 16

Mao saw culture as a reflection of the society from which it had developed from, and understood its
importance as a means to influence people. Mao believed that in order to achieve a socialist society, a new
revolutionary culture emphasising class struggle, struggle against imperialism, and the peasants, had to be
created in order to mould the Chinese consciousness.

Question 17

How did the Thought Reform campaign crackdown on cultural influences (5)?

Answer 17

1) Book publishers and editors had to register with the government, and submit regular reports on their work.
2) Many public libraries were stripped of traditional and Western novels, and books were burned. E.g. a
bonfire of 300,000 books burned for 3 days in Shantou, May 1953.
3) Nightclubs were closed and jazz music was banned in Shanghai.
4) The viewing of Hollywood films ended, and were replaced by Russian films.
5) The Ministry of Culture established bureaucratic control over culture by creating a Drama Reform
Committee, overseeing changes to theatre and opera, and also a Film Steering Committee, overseeing
changes to the film industry.

Question 18

What were the Shanghai Radicals’ views on opera, and how did they transform it?

Answer 18

They believed that opera, and culture in general, should portray class heroes from the ranks of workers,
peasants and soldiers. Jiang Qing developed her own revolutionary plays and operas doing such.

Question 19

What was the significance of film under the CCP 1949-65 (6)?

Answer 19

1) The CCP recognised the importance of film as a propaganda tool, especially when the majority of society
were illiterate.
2) Private studios were taken over by the state-run Shanghai Film Studio.
3) Chinese film-makers were sent to the USSR to study Soviet film-making techniques.
4) In the period, 603 feature films, and 8342 documentaries were produced, as well as many animated films
for children.
5) The CCP paid for mobile projectors to bring film to peasants, with films able to be watched free of charge.
6) There was a brief outpour of films that were critical to the CCP during the Hundred Flowers campaign.

Question 20

Why did Mao oppose religion?

Answer 20

For Mao, it was associated with superstition, and a relic of China’s feudal past, apart from Christianity, which
represented Western cultural imperialism.

Question 21

What is Daoism?

Answer 21

A Chinese philosophy based on the Dao (‘the way’). It is extremely diverse, with different sects worshipping
different deities. Daoists believe that the Dao will become clear through meditation.

Question 22

Why did the CCP see religion as an obstacle to a unified, socialist China?

Answer 22

Religions were tied to ethnic minorities in China, such as Islam amongst the Uighurs, and Buddhism in Tibet.
This created a national identity, separate to that of the Han Chinese, therefore opposing a unified China.

Question 23

How did the CCP regulate religion (3)?

Answer 23

To be allowed to continue, religions had to be officially sanctioned and subject to regulations laid down by
the Ministry for Religious Affairs. Preaching was only allowed in private houses or designated religious
buildings.

Question 24

Why did Mao view Daoism as a threat?

Answer 24

With its belief in cosmic forces and magic, and Daoism’s link to secret societies that, in the past, had rebelled
against state authority made Daoism a threat to the CCP.

Question 25

How and when did Mao target Daoism, and what were the consequences (6)?

Answer 25

Launched in 1951, and lasting until 1953, the ‘Withdrawal from the Sects’ mass campaign primarily targeted
Daoism.
1) Many were arrested and executed if they refuse to recant their beliefs.
2) Priests were sent to ‘reorientation centres’ for retraining.
3) Temples, and shrines to ancestors, were destroyed.
4) This drove the sects underground, but did not completely eradicate them. There were 3 uprisings in
Zhejiang province in the early 1950s by Daoists.
5) Daoism was 1/5 religions recognised by the CCP, and therefore tolerated, but only after Daoists submitted
themselves to regulation through the Chinese Daoist Association in 1956.
6) Many secret sects began to reappear during the chaos of the GLF.

Question 26

How many Buddhists lived in China in 1949?

Answer 26

13,000,000 (13 million).

Question 27

How were Buddhists persecuted in China in the early 1950s (5)?

Answer 27

1) Monasteries were destroyed or converted into military barracks, prisons, or schools.
2) Monks were beaten.
3) Land was confiscated.
4) Sacred images of the Buddha were melted down.
5) The practice of donating to monks was banned, forcing monks to work.

Question 28

What was the significance of the 1953 Chinese Buddhist Association (2)?

Answer 28

1) It granted Buddhism state recognition.
2) It gave the state power to control it.

Question 29

What is the Panchen Lama?

Answer 29

The second highest ranking Lama in Tibetan Buddhism, after the Dalai Lama.

Question 30

When did the Dalai Lama flee to India?

Answer 30

After the 1959 Tibetan Revolt.

Question 31

Why (2) and how was the Panchen Lama suppressed by the CCP?

Answer 31

1) In 1961, he toured Tibet to see the effects of famine and the suppression of the 1959 revolt. He presented a
report in 1962 to the Chinese leadership, criticising them.
The Panchen Lama was imprisoned in 1962 for ‘trying to organise a rebellion’, and was held until 1977.

Question 32

What was the Chinese Islamic Association, and when was it founded?

Answer 32

Est. in 1953, it was established to regulate and control Muslims, whilst granting Islam state recognition.

Question 33

How did the CCP ensure Muslims were integrated into mainstream Chinese society (2)?

Answer 33

1) Ensuring Muslim children attended state schools, instead of being educated in Mosques.
2) The CCP encouraged the Han Chinese to move to the north-western Muslim provinces.

Question 34

Why was there tension between the Uighurs and the Han Chinese living in Xinjiang in the 1950s?

Answer 34

The Uighur have their own language, with many families preferring their children to be educated in this
language. However, social and economic advancement in Communist China was dependent on speaking
Mandarin, so Uighurs found themselves facing discrimination in employment. This created tension between
the Han Chinese and the Uighurs.

Question 35

Why were the CCP suspicious of Christians (2)?

Answer 35

1) Because of its associations with foreign imperialism.
2) Because of the influence of foreign missionaries in education.

Question 36

How did the CCP persecute Christians in the early 1950s (5)?

Answer 36

1) Missionaries were expelled from China.
2) Homes were searched for religious symbols, and churches stripped of their alters.
3) The training of priests was banned, alongside sacred objects.
4) Christian congregation members were forced to undergo ‘study sessions’ to reform themselves, with many
being beaten and sent to labour camps.

Question 37

How effective was the CCP’s persecution of Christianity in the 1950s (5)?

Answer 37

1) The number of Roman Catholics in China fell from 3 million in 1949, to 1.7 million in 1954.
2) The number of Protestants in China fell from 1 million in 1949, to 600,000 in 1954.
3) A National Christian Council was set up in 1950, which forced Christian churches to sever all foreign
links, and controlled and regulated all surviving churches.
4) The Roman Catholic Church was forced to rename itself the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church and end its
links with Rome.
5) A Protestant Patriotic Church was set up in 1951.

Question 38

What is Confucianism, and why did Mao oppose it?

Answer 38

A key part of traditional Chinese culture, which provided a moral framework for life. Mao regarded this as a
feudal ideology, and a relic of China’s past.