MCCPs Relationships with Different Demographics
Education and the Youth
- 1949 1/10 Chinese could read
- 20% went to primary school
- 1% went to secondary school
- CCP wanted to increase literacy rates and make education more accessible
- Schools set up for all children w/ exception of those in ‘black categories’
- ‘Little teacher’ scheme established
- Chinese characters simplified
- Secondary schools expanded
- Initially used soviet textbooks
- Stopped after Sino-Soviet Split
- Initially used soviet textbooks
- Forgen languages only studied using Maoist translations of lit.
- Emphasis on ‘practical work experience’
- Monopolised places at top unis as a result
- Literacy rates increased
- 70% by 1976
- By 1957 most rural children had a primary education
- 1976 most children ages 7-16 were in school
- Factors limiting education
- Not compulsory or free
- Quality of education varied across villages
- Emphasis on practical education limited intellectuals from obtaining proper education
- Children of party cadres favored
- Became places for indoctrination
- During Cultural Rev. schools and unis closed down
Communist Youth Associations
- Youth League of people aged 14-28
- Youth pioneers 6-14
- Children wore red scarf to represent blood spilled by communist martyrs
- Students among largest group criticizing Mao during HFC
- Little Red Guards formed
Arts and Media
- Mao associated rich traditional culture with feudal and imperial society
- Believe it needed to be swept away and replaced with communist culture
- Writers and poets expected to educate the masses
- In the 50s trad. Chinese art allowed to continue alongside modern ‘communist’ art, in reality just propaganda
- Old-style poetry allowed however younger poets pushed to write about industrial and agricultural success.
- Plays and films were propaganda
- News media centralised
- State controlled which newspapers and journals could be printed
- Yao Wenyuan, a noted critic associated with Mao’s wife
- “Struggle over culture was part of the wider struggle between classes”
- Rigid censorship forbale all works un.ss it was relevant with communist China’s ideals
- The sale of all forgein literature became punishable
- Libraries and museums closed
- Nothing new printed expect the ‘Little Red Book’
- All western media banned and replaced with chinese media
- By early 70s China was an artistic wasteland
Treatment of Religious and Ethnic minorities
Within a week 1,000 Huis had been killed and 4,400 homes destroyed
Bourgeois not only social minority to be persecuted
Other non Han religious and ethnic minorities
Tibetans (Lama Bhuddist)
Uighurs (Muslim)
Hui Muslims
Monglos (Bhuddist, Islamist ect.)
Mao prep. To leave them alone
In 1940s Mao promised to leave them alone
Changed his mind once in power
Tibet forced into PRC in 1950s
Buddhist culture suppressed
1950 govt. asked other ethnic minorities to identify themselves
Promised a degree of autonomy
400 groups identified themselves
Divided into 50 groups and then placed under military supervision, forced to accept comm. Rule
1959 oppression of minorities increased
Outlaw of Lama faith sparked protest in Tibet
Brutally crushed
Even speaking of Dalai Lama let to criminal punishment
Comm. imposed extreme policies
Tibetans made to farm highground, not allowed to let their yaks roam
Severly cut supplies of yak cheese, meat, wool and milk used for clothes food hair and tents
Lead to a famine in which ¼ of all tibetans died
Four olds camp. Lead to attacks on religious buildings, statuary and books
1974 CCP forced closure of mosques and burned religious books
As a result 7,200 Hui people seized local PLA barracks
Lead to military attack of 10,000 PLA soldiers in July 1975
The Status of Women
- Women played traditionally subservient role in Chinese society
- Confucianism required wives to obey husbands
- CCP announced new marriage laws in 1950
- Practice of keeping mistresses (concubines) forbidden
- Arranged marriage banned
- Women forced into marriage could divorce husbands
- All marriages officially recorded + registered
- Many women responded by marrying/ divorcing repeatedly
- CCP added clause allowing soldiers in PLA to override divorce requests
- Maintain stability in armed forces
- Foot binding outlawed, girls expected to go to school, women to work
- 1953 Election Law gave women right to vote
- Impact of Collectivisation
- Laws passed in 1950s gave women right to own + sell land/ property
- Granted land in their own name during distribution following landlord seizures
- Gains undermined by collectivisation + GLF
- Private property abolished, people forced to live in communes
- However, common eating in mess halls relieved cooking burden for women
- Traditional prejudice against women
- Despite gains made, women also experienced increased disadvantages
- Now equal, were expected to same work as men
- Women in workforce increased from 8% – 32% by 1976
- Heavy physical labour meant many women no better off than before
- Women still viewed as inferior by many men
- Baby girls seen as shameful, boys celebrated
- Now equal, were expected to same work as men
Unchanging peasant attitudes
- Peasants complained new marriage laws interfered with traditional lifestyles
- Female subordination common all through China
- Especially prevalent in Muslim areas (Xinjiang)
- Men controlled families
- Women obedient to all males in extended family
- By 2000, women still treated as property
- Especially prevalent in Muslim areas (Xinjiang)
- Female subordination common all through China
- Despite feminist policies, CCP itself largely male – dominated
- Only 13% CCP members were female
- 23% members of National People’s Congress female by 1975
Women and the family
- CCP’s radical reforms had effect of destroying traditional family structure
- Rapid pace of changes caused many women to feel disoriented
- Traditional roles as mothers/ family raisers now devalued
- Cultural Revolution further undermined family units
- Support no longer from extended family, but state
- Traditional families declared one of ‘Four Olds’
- Children taught CCP + Mao were true parents
- Loyalty to state more important than family ties
- Children encouraged to inform on relatives ‘clinging to past’