Social/Cultural Changes 49-76 Flashcards
(25 cards)
The changing status of women before 1949
Start
• Birth of daughter wasn’t a celebration
• Arranged marriages common, once married a wife may have to share husband with a concubine (mistress in house)
• Women subject to three obediences, subservient to father when young, husband when married and sons when a mother
• No educational opportunities
The changing status of women before 1949 Foot binding
Physically crippled by practice of foot binding
Girls often had feet bound at 6 years old, her toes turned under her feet and held there by tightly wounded bandages
Designed to stunt growth as small feet was considered sexually appealing and suitors would pay a higher bride price for a more attractive wife
The changing status of women before 1949 The 1950 Marriage Law
Mao attacked the rottenness of the marriage system so he introduced the new marriage law:
•Concubinage/arranged marriage banned
•Husband/wife have equal status in homes
•Money in return for marriage is prohibited
•Wife inherited husband’s property
•Divorce is much easier
Led to increased divorce rates
The changing status of women before 1949
Impact of collectivisation on women
Meant to be equal work but they were forced to do tasks that were physically ill-suited to women such as, ploughing fields
Mothers left children at communal kindergartens where conditions were poor - disease/death common
•During famine communes provided little food for women so they turned to sex work
•Sexual abuse common
Extent of change for women:
Women’s Association
Mobilisation of the masses was applied to women
Association was dedicated to encouraging political activism among women
76million members
Campaigned against sex work and domestic violence - encouraged women to confront/denounce men
Extent of change for women:
Changes in marriage/education
Marriage
Evidence to suggest new marriage law/propaganda were effective
By 1960s child/arranges marriage was rare
Education
State encouraged families to send daughters to school
By 1978, 45% of primary school children were girls
Extent of change for women:
Military service
New military academics to train a modern army - the PLA has provided an opportunity for women
Young women encouraged to join
They could escape rural poverty and possibly be promoted to officer rank (unheard of before 1949)
Extent of change for women:
Evidence of improvement in status of women
• Women escaped unhappy marriages, sought relationships for love or relationships with party cadres as it had economic security/social opportunities
• During CR women could travel across China and were given important leadership roles in Red Guards (e.g. Jiang Qing)
• Maoist propaganda challenged traditional gender views - ballets glorified women as heroes fighting in Civil War
Extent of change for women:
The problems of changing traditional views
Traditional male attitudes slow to change husbands still saw domestic work/childcare as women’s work
Many party cadres shared traditional views so didn’t enforce legislation (e.g. New Marriage Law)
Traditional practices like foot binding/arranged marriages continued in remote areas like Xianjiang
Educational reform:
Before 1950
Only 45% of males and 2% of females received any schooling
Males attended average of 4 years
80% of population illiterate
Most education was based on Confucian concepts
Systems elitist so best schools were in cities wealthiest neighbourhoods
Educational reform:
Growth of literacy
National primary school introduced
1949-1957 the number of primary school students went from 26million to 64 million
Literacy rate at 46% in 1964
Universities focus on doctors/scientists (there was a shortage)
New form of language PINYIN created to simplify the complex characters (still used today)
Educational reform:
Failures
Education system remained elitist - key schools where students had to pass exam were for the brightest pupils (best teachers)
Education still underfunded 6.4% of budget spent on education in 1952
Standard of teaching in rural schools very poor
During GLF students didn’t attend school because of backyard furnaces
Educational reform:
Collapse of education after 1966
During Cultural Revolution schools and universities were closed
Up to 130million young people received no formal education
Many joined Red Guards and travelled across country to attend rallies
Teachers were victims of revolutionary violence (seen as authority so killed)
After Red Guards many went to countryside to work alongside peasants so didn’t return to education
Health care:
The barefoot doctors
Paramedics sent to rural areas to provide basic care to the peasants
These ‘doctors’ were trained intensively for 6 months - cheap to train as it focused on improving hygiene/stopping spread of disease/contraception
Often the only source of medical care in villages
Helped educate peasants on modern ideas
In 1973, over a million new doctors trained
Health care reform:
Successes
• Villages mobilised in collective efforts to drain swamps that bred malaria
• Smallpox, cholera and typhus practically eliminated
• Life expectancy rose - infant mortality fell
• Anti drug campaigns greatly reduced the sale/use of opium
• CCP launched Patriotic Health Movements (party members educate peasants)
Health care reform:
Failures
• Still uneven health provision with rural and urban - Western style hospitals only in cities
• During GLF impact of famine negated health benefits in communes
• Doctors attacked in the antis campaigns in 1950s and sent to Laogais
• Doctors denounced during Cult Rev - some doctors cancelled operations and undertake manual labour to show they weren’t superior
Cultural change:
Attacks on traditional culture in towns and countryside
Features of traditional culture gone - land reforms (1950) and destruction of village brought end to traditional festivals
Reunification campaigns got rid of ancient cultures
Confucianism/ancestor worship gone
Agit-prop groups toured country convincing people to abandon old traditions (4 Olds)
Ability to control culture enhanced during GLF because of the communes
Cultural change:
Jiang Qing
1966 Mao appointed Jiang to CCRG - aim to destroy traditional culture and replace with revolutionary communism
Censorship of music, theatre and art
Previously an actress so felt qualified to rewrite performances
Plays rewritten to have characters supporting revolution
Used Cult Rev to purge anyone that knew about her bourgeois past as an actress and to intimidate her enemies (increase her political authority)
Cultural change:
Imposition of revolutionary art and culture
Performance of foreign works banned, directors/writers fired some attacked by RG
All new plays/ operas glorified communism
‘Make it revolutionary or ban it’ - slogan
The film of Taking Tiger Mountsin had been seen 7.3 billion times (7 times each person)
Only 8 plays/operas allowed - described as a cultural desert
Became boring - nothing else to watch apart from Maoist propaganda films
Many peasants weren’t involved as it was thought it would reduce agricultural production
Religious change:
Attacks on Buddhism/Confucianism/Ancestor worship
Party viewed religious belief as a form of feudal superstition representing old views
Marxist theory, religious doctrine was an ‘opiate’ a drug used by bourgeois elite to pacify workers from revolting
Christianity seen as a western view used by capitalists to brainwash Chinese
Attacks began as soon as CCP came to power
Religious change:
Buddhism
Most Buddhists in Tibet
When PLA launched reunification campaigns (1950s) Buddhist monasteries were attacked and monks sent to Laogais
Temples were taken over and converted for other uses (e.g. used as communes in GLF)
Religious change:
Confucianism
A philosophical outlook on life - promoted family values, respect for others and importance of ancestor worship
Shaped thinking/behaviour of millions of chinese people for 2,500 years
Annual ceremonies commemorating Confucius were banned, Red Guards destroyed memorials
Gang of Four used anti-Confucius propaganda to attack opponents
Religious changes:
The New Year festival and ancestor worship
Communists wanted to reduce strength of family ties - loyalty to the party mattered more
Dissuaded people from returning to graves of ancestors during Qingming festival
Qingming festival replaced with National Memorial Day - honouring fallen communist heroes
Religious changes:
Christianity
Protestant/Catholic churches targeted as they represented western views
Portraits of Mao hung in churches, schools/hospitals that were run by churches were overtaken by government
The party argued that catholic hospitals used humans as guinea pigs
1951 there was 3,222 catholic missionaries in 1953 only 364 remained
Christianity continued to meet in secret
