Theme 4 Family Education Healthcare Flashcards
Changes in
family life
Ideology and cultural reform, urbanisation, land reform, communes, CR, collectivisation, Changes for women and attitudes to women
Impact of land reform and
collectivisation
Land reform gave peasants more land. This meant rising living standards families had more to eat and could make more money selling food. Collectivisation encouraged peasant families to pool their possessions and land together. Children no longer inherited property from parents and this encouraged young people to move to cities.
The Cultural Revolution and
family worship
Traditional Chinese families practised ancestor
worship. This involved the family paying
respect to dead ancestors at family shrines.
It was very important for family identity.
The Cultural Revolution included attacks
on Chinese traditions, breaking up shrines
and tablets sacred to family ancestors.
This made it hard for families to continue
ancestor worship because, when sacred
items were broken, this also broke the
connection to ancestors’ spirits.
Changes for women
The Marriage Law (1950) gave women far
more rights, including divorce rights. Families
changed as women used their right to
divorce. In some rural areas, the divorce rate
was especially high: young married couples
divorced to get out of arranged marriages.
In rural areas, men complained of the ‘three
fears’: not finding a wife, being unable to
provide for a wife and being divorced.
The impact of communes
Communes were organised so that family
commitments did not interfere with work.
• There were communal canteens so women
did not have to spend time away from work
making family meals.
• The communes had childcare facilities. This
meant mothers did not have to spend time
away from work looking after children.
• In some communes, men and women lived
separately, even if they were married. The
idea was that individuals worked for the
benefit of everyone, not just their family.
• These radical changes to family life failed to
meet their aims. Instead of being freed to
work, mothers ended up having to work
as well as support family life.
• Because communes were so large, canteens
were often miles away from family homes.
Time saved not cooking was therefore spent
travelling instead.
• Communes did not spend much money on
childcare: there were few things for children
to do and not much to eat. Illnesses spread
quickly. This all meant additional childcare
at home.
Status of women before 1949
San gang - the ‘Three Guiding Principles’
from Confucian philosophy (ancient
Chinese way of thinking) - taught that
women had to obey their husbands.
Wife selling - husbands could sell their
wives if they had an affair or ran away.
Foot binding - men considered it beautiful
for women to have tiny feet. Girls suffered
agonising foot binding as a result.
Before 1949, weddings were often
arranged by a female
‘matchmaker’. The
couple involved did not make the decision
themselves. Having more than one wife, or
having a wife and several concubines, was
common in some areas.
Reasons for change under Mao
Mao’s beliefs drove change.
• He was influenced early on by Chinese feminism.
• Socialism meant ending all oppression in society, including of women by men.
• China’s industrialisation and modernisation depended on women, as well as men, being
educated and working.
• Mao believed traditional forms of marriage
oppressed women. Mao had been forced into an arranged
marriage and hated it. His mother, who Mao
loved deeply, had her feet bound as a girl.
The Marriage Law, 1950
The Marriage Law abolished feudal (traditional) marriage laws.
• Forced marriages were made illegal and the right of ‘matchmakers’ to arrange marriages ended.
Children being married, men living with concubines or having multiple wives, and dowries all became illegal.
• Women could now own and inherit property in the same way men did. Before, the husband owned everything and his wife had
no right to what the family earned.
• Women had equal rights to men in all areas.
• Divorce was legalised and wife-selling was made illegal.
• Abuse and bad treatment of women by men within the family was illegal
Figures to show women used law
In some areas, as many as a quarter of
young couples got divorced. Of these
divorces, 76 per cent were driven by
the woman.
Continuing inequalities
Although more women went to work, they tended to get lower paid jobs than men. • Even though both men and women were working, women were still expected to de the majority of housework. • During the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards would punish women who wore feminine clothes or had long hair. Women were expected to dress in a certain style. • Men dominated the CCP. Fewer than 13 per cent of CCP officials were women between 1949 and 1965.
Reasons for changes in education
Chinese education was only for the elite. In 1949, only 20 per cent of people could read and write, because only the children of richer people went to school.
« Before 1949, Chinese education was
old-fashioned: it was based on the
ancient teachings of Confucius; girls
were rarely educated.
Mao wanted people to read to help the CCP spread their message.
Reasons for change in education2
Mao and the CCP wanted to end elitism education. Instead. evervone should have a basic education, to help build economic growth. Mao opposed intellectuals because their traditional blocked the revolutionary
socialism of the peasants and workers. The success of the ‘Little Red Book aspropaganda was based on Chinese soldiers
peasants
and workers beina literate
The growth in literacy
• Education reforms in the 1950s created a national network of primary schools. Now millions more children could go to school.
• In 1958, Pinyin was introduced, which made
written Mandarin easier to learn.
• Literacy drives improved adult literacy with short-term schools and winter schools for workers and peasants. Literacy rates improved from 20 per cent in
1949 to 50 per cent in 1960. By 1976, they were at 70 per cent.
Significance of Pinyin
Pinyin means ‘spelled sounds’. There was no
single way of writing China’s many languages
and dialects. The official language of the PRC.
Mandarin, was written in a very complicated
way - learning it was very difficult. Pinyin was
much simpler to learn and was introduced
as the standard way to write across China,
enabling faster growth in literacy.
The collapse of education after 1966
The Cultural Revolution affected education.
4) During 1966, thousands of middle schools and
all universities closed, affecting 130 million
students.
9) Thousands of teachers and lecturers were killed
or sent for re-education.
“ The ‘Up to the mountains and down to the
villages’ campaign (1968) ended the education
of around 100 million young people.
8) From 1969, education was boosted by more
rural primary schools and more equal access
to learning.
