China 3 social

• Women


  Before 1949 were bound by 'three obediences' (father, husband, son); foot binding, female infanticide, lack of education (1% girls literate), abused by mother-in-laws
• New Marriage Law


  1. Legal equality & right to divorce; ended dowries, child marriage (1946-49 - 18.6% = age 16-17, 1958-65 = 2.4%), arranged marriages (1940s 30.6%, 1966-76 = 0.8%)

  2. Exceptions for PLA
• Enforcement of New Marriage Law was difficult and varied in different regions
• Economic policies


  • Supposed to make women equal: work, kindergartens, canteens, but there was abuse (rape), lower work points
• Women's Association


  76 million members: gave literacy & other lessons, political voice, but did reinforce traditional gender roles
• Cultural Revolution


  • Women politicised, gender neutral uniforms. Female party cadres = 8-12% 1958-66, 16-21% 1970-74
• Education before 1949


  • 30% males, 1% females over 7 could read a simple letter; traditional arts based education; rote learning
• Secondary education


  • Favoured old bourgeoisie and children of party elites. Cities had better schools
• Literacy

  • Min pan schools to teach rural and 42million attended 1951-52 Pinyin 1955, primary school education 1949-57 increased from 26million to 46million, 78% still illiterate
• Education during GLF

  Schools incorporated into communes. Disruption caused by 'half work, half study' policy
• Education during Cultural Revolution

  Disruption to education made worse by closure of schools and 'Up to the mountains, down to the villages' campaign
• Health before 1949

  • Rudimentary health system. Reliance on acupuncture & herbalism
• Patriotic Health Campaigns


  Focus on prevention. Smallpox, cholera, typhus, typhoid TB & parasitic diseases greatly reduced. Campaigns against triad drug gangs lowered number of drug addicts
• Health during GLF

  • Communes had medical clinics; 800 western-style hospitals built; doctors rose from 40,000 (1949) to 150,000 (1965). Life expectancy rose 20 years to 57 years 1949-57
• Health during Cultural Revolution


  • Loss of doctors in Anti campaigns & Cultural Revolution. Barefoot Doctors sent to village clinics. 6 months training. Better than no doctors at all
• Confucianism & Ancestor Worship


  Confucius' birthplace attacked during CR & Confucian ideas used to criticise opponents (Liu & Deng). Celebration of New Year discouraged. Kitchen Gods replaced with pictures of Mao. Qing Ming festival replaced with National Memorial Day
• Buddhism GLF and CR

  GLF - monks put into physical labour communes, lamas stripped of income and shelter, temple land made for work, 1959 Dalai Lama escape to India. CR - denounced as one of the '4 Olds', relics and monasteries destroyed, schools closed
• Islam


  Mosques and schools taken over for struggle meetings and animal barns. Armed rebellions were common, 1000+ killed in Gansu. Islamic Association of China set up to encourage co-operation with the government. Imams = threat to authority, so we're subject to 'thought reform' and laogai. Religious leaders targeted and given demeaning roles. Government was more conciliatory and therefore Islam endured better than other religious groups
• Mao said 'Women hold up half the sky'
• Women's Association supported health campaigns by educating women about pre & post-natal care and midwifery. Fertility rose & infant mortality declined
• Zhou Enlai was honoured during the Qing Ming festival in 1976
• Buddhism general 


  Monks labeled 'parasites'. Subject to thought reform during the Korean war, temples made into prisons and hospitals (except Yonghegong). Land redistributed under ALR.

  Tibet - attacked in reunification and anti rightist 1958
• Islam GLF and CR

  GLF - worship decreased as they devoted time to production, mass migration of Han to dilute population

  CR - mosques became stables, forced to raise and eat pigs, imams tortured and self denunciate, Islamic intellectual was tortured by having heavy copies of the multi-lingual dictionary he edited dropped on his head, Force children to leave islamic schools, zakat abolished and mosque land redistributed
• Sections of Catholicism

  • Sacred heart homes for children -abuse and selling children
  • Hospitals - using humans for testing
  • Schools - 'cultural aggression' and spy for USA
  • Canton - ban 'legion of Mary's and seen as International anti communist reactionary group
  • Shanghai - exhibition of catholic espionage
• Christianity - Protestants

  • Create patriotic church movement and congregations to support communism
  • '3 Selfs' = self fulfilling, propagating, supporting
  • 1949 = 3000 missionaries, 1952= >100
• Christianity - Catholics

  Labeled 'western inperialists' Jan 1951 - Religious Affairs Dept put under commission of culture and education (RAD) 1954 Rad forced to force out foreign missionaries and cut ties with the west Vatican sent to Nanjin in k.war, surveilled and struggle meetings

  1951 - 3222 missionaries, 1953 - 364

  1955 - 'counter revolutionary clique' where 1500 were imprisoned for being inperialists
• Failed education reform

  • Favoured old bourgeoisie and new privileged
  • Rural were less educated
  • Cadres were teachers but they also had low education level
  • Places not meet demands
  • Winter schools = ineffective and people forgot what they learnt one year to the next
• Education success

  • Uni enrolment X4
  • 1952- ministry of education set up and 1952-58 600 russian teachers
  • 1953 - 63% students study medicine, agriculture, engineering
  • 1959 - 38,000 trained in Russian unis, 20 new polytechnics+ 26 engineer institutes