Topic 4 - Social and Cultural Changes from 1949-76 - Religion

Question 1

CCP outlook on religion - How was religion viewed an what did Marxist theory say about religion?

Answer 1

• CCP viewed religion as a form of feudal superstition – representing the old and outdated views that Communists wanted to sweep away
• In Marxist theory religion was described as an ‘opiate’ – a drug used by the bourgeois elite to pacify the workers and peasants to prevent them from revolting

Question 2

CCP outlook on religion - What did Christianity and Buddhism represent?

Answer 2

• Furthermore, Christianity was represented as a Western imposition and used by the capitalist West to ‘brainwash’ the Chinese into subservience
• The influence on mullahs in Xinjiang and Buddhist priests in Tibet was seen as a political challenge to the CCP
• Attacks on all form of religious practice began as soon as the CCP assumed office

Question 3

Attacks on Buddhism - What was the situation in Tibet and what happened with the reunification campaign?

Answer 3

• Many Buddhists were in Tibet where the form of Buddhism called Lamaism underpinned Tibetans’ sense of independence and national identity - the CCP could not allow this
• When the PLA invaded Tibet during the reunification campaigns, Buddhist monasteries were attacked and monks were sent to the Laogai to be ‘reformed’

Question 4

Attacks on Buddhism - What was the threat of India and what happened during the GLF?

Answer 4

• The reason was not only to do with religion, Tibet borders India which is an ally of the West and a country with which China has had a number of border disputes in the past
• Temples were taken over and during the GLF land was confiscated and given to the communes while monks were forced to take up hard physical labour
• Many starved or were forced to abandon their principles and join the PLA

Question 5

Attacks on Buddhism - What happened by the end of the CR and were the CCP successful in changing the beliefs of the people?

Answer 5

• By the end of the CR, very few shrines and temples remained
• However, the regime was not entirely successful in changing the long-held beliefs of the people

Question 6

Attacks on Confucianism - How was Confucianism seen by the Chinese people and Mao?

Answer 6

• Confucianism received widespread acceptance among the Chinese people and shaped their thinking for 2500 years
• Confucianism was condemned by Mao long before 1949 and came under constant attack from Mao and his gov

Question 7

Attacks on Confucianism - What happened during the CR?

Answer 7

• Annual ceremonies which commemorated Confucius were banned
• During the CR, Red Guards destroyed many shrines to Confucius in his home town of Qufu
• The anti-Confusions campaign made Confucianism a symbol for any idea which seemed backwards or reactionary
• Opponents that the regime wanted to publicly denounce were compared to Confucius

Question 8

Attacks on Confucianism - What did the Gang of Four do at the end of the CR?

Answer 8

• At the end of the CR, the Gang of Four used anti-Confucius propaganda to attack their opponents
• Comparing a political opponent to Confucius was to suggest they were backwards in their way of thinking and not committed to Communism
• In 1973, they launched a campaign that compared Confucius with Lin Biao, the disgraced former head of the PLA
• Since Lin was long dead, the campaign was evidently targeting figures such as Zhou Enlai

Question 9

Attacks on Confucianism - What was the people’s reaction to the Gang of Four’s propaganda and to general attacks on Confucianism?

Answer 9

• After the turmoil of the CR, the people were sick of political campaigns and this failed
• Despite the enthusiastic attacks on Confucius and his thought from the Red Guards and Mao, Confucianism never really disappeared from Chinese life and is still followed by many Chinese people today

Question 10

Attacks on ancestor worship - What was banned by the CCP?

Answer 10

Attendance to traditional festivals EG new year and ancestor worship banned by CCP and condemned for representing the ‘Old China’ that was to be replaced through Communist revolution

Question 11

Attacks on ancestor worship - What did the CCP want to reduce the power of in favour of what?

Answer 11

• Communists wanted to reduce the strength of family ties – these were also an important part of Confucius thought and was considered backwards and superstitious
• Loyalty to the party was what mattered

Question 12

Attacks on ancestor worship - What traditions were dissuaded and what were they replaced by?

Answer 12

• CCP attempted to dissuade traditions such as returning to the graves of ancestors and considered giving children red envelopes of money during Chinese New Year as bourgeois
• These traditions were replaced by a new Communist festival, National Memorial Day
• Instead of paying respect to their elders, the people were urged to honour the fallen Communist heroes who had died during the Civil War

Question 13

Attacks on ancestor worship - Was the CCP able to reduce ancestor worship?

Answer 13

• The CCP was again not truly successful in entirely reducing ancestor worship
• The spontaneous outpouring of public respect in Tiananmen Square when Zhou Enlai died was very much akin to ancestor worship

Question 14

Attacks on Christianity - What was targeted by the CCP and why?

Answer 14

Protestant and Catholic churches targeted by the CCP as they believed that Christianity was representative of Western imperialist ideals

Question 15

Attacks on Christianity - What did the CCP create and what were they according to propaganda and in reality?

Answer 15

• The communists created ‘patriotic church movements’ to organise religion for the benefit of the Chinese people, at least according to propaganda
• In reality, they were a way of imposing control over the Churches, and were completely controlled by the CCP

Question 16

Attacks on Christianity - What did the patriotic church movements do and what was uptake like amongst the people?

Answer 16

• They hung portraits of Mao, took over Church schools and hospitals, and forced missionaries out of the country or into imprisonment
• However, congregations at the patriotic churches were still low, and many clergy still organised secret Christian services
• Anti-Christian oppression sparked a major confrontation with the Roman Catholic Church

Question 17

Attacks on Christianity - What did CCP propaganda say about the Catholic church, schools, and children’s homes and what was the Vatican’s reaction to this?

Answer 17

• CCP propaganda damned the Catholic Church – it was claimed that Catholic hospitals were using patients as ‘human guinea pigs’ to test out new medicine
• Catholic schools were attacked for supposedly helping the US during the Korean War
• Catholic children’s homes were accused of starving and torturing children
• The Vatican protested the suppression of the Catholic Church and refused to accept the ‘Patriotic Churches’ as genuinely Catholic

Question 18

Attacks on Christianity - How many Catholic missionaries in China in 1951 and 1953 and was Christianity completely destroyed?

Answer 18

• In Jan 1951 there were 3222 Catholic missionaries in China
• By 1953 there were just 364
• This did not mean that Christianity was destroyed however, as clergy continued to hold secret services

Question 19

Attacks on Islam - Where was the main Islam region and which group did the CCP resent?

Answer 19

• Muslims in North-Western provinces EG Xinjiang also represented a rival belief system to Communism and also targeted
• Communists resented the power of the mullahs who had great influence in their societies

Question 20

Attacks on Islam - How was Xinjiang province targeted as part of the reunification campaigns?

Answer 20

• Predominantly Muslim Xinjiang province was an immediate target for the CCP – invaded as part of the reunification campaigns
• Mosque schools closed down and gov schools teaching Marxist instead of the Qur’an were set up
• Traditional Muslim teaching of theology, ritual, poetry and ethics was ended
• Land taken from mosques and redistributed
• Those who resisted were imprisoned in the Laogai

Question 21

Attacks on Islam - What did gov encourage and how was this facilitated by the PLA?

Answer 21

• Gov encouraged the in-migration of Han Chinese into the to dilute the ethnic homogeneity of Muslim communities, especially in Xinjiang
• PLA helped to build roads into Xinjiang to speed up this ethnic dilution

Question 22

Attacks on Islam - What did CCP fear?

Answer 22

CCP feared that other Islamic countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan might encourage demands for independence from the PRC

Question 23

Attacks on Islam - What happened during the CR?

Answer 23

• During the CR, mosques were shut down and turned into barracks and stables
• Religious leaders were tortured or given humiliating jobs like cleaning sewers
• The Muslim provinces were particularly targeted as they bordered the Islamic Republics of the USSR and Beijing was worried that the Soviets, keen to get hold of their rich reserves of oil and gas, would encourage separatist movements to demand union with them instead

Question 24

Attacks on Islam - How did the people respond to CCP control and what did this lead to?

Answer 24

Islamic communities resisted Communist control, in some cases through military force, and the gov was forced to be more respectful of Islamic culture