Social developments 1952-62 Flashcards

1
Q

After the ‘extinction’ of the landlord class in 1956, who became the new ‘class enemies’ in the eyes of Mao
and why?

A

Those within the CCP who argued for a more gradual pace of change, such as Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping
and Chen Yun. Mao thought that they were ‘capitalist roaders’ as they did not fully support the concept of
mass mobilisation.

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2
Q

What was Mao’s saying about women?

A

‘Women hold up half the sky’.

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3
Q

Why did the PRC want to mobilise women?

A

The CCP wanted to maximise the nation’s productive potential, and so needed women in fields, factories and
offices.

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4
Q

What was a ‘family women’ and what were CCP policies towards them?

A

A PRC term for a housewife. The CCP put them under pressure to work outside the home, yet they were still
expected to take responsibility over the household.

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5
Q

What was the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF) (2)?

A

1) An organisation established by the PRC in 1949, to promote its policies towards women.
2) They were given a mandate to conduct ‘woman work’, including improving women’s health, education,
productive participation and the implementation of the Marriage Law.

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6
Q

When was the ACWF established?

A

1949.

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7
Q

How large was the ACWF by the mid 1950s?

A

The ACWF had 40,000 staff working in 83 cities, whilst also having a rural presence through cadres, who
were sent to live and work amongst peasants.

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8
Q

What held back the work of the ACWF?

A

The lack of funding and status. A saying in the 1950s: ‘The labour union has power, the Youth Federation has
money, but the Women’s Federation has neither’.

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9
Q

What was the illiteracy rate amongst adults in China in 1949?

A

85% of Chinese adults were illiterate.

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10
Q

How did the PRC boost women’s literacy rates?

A

Three mass campaigns in 1952, 1956, and 1958 encouraged women to attend evening classes in villages.

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11
Q

What was the effect of the three mass literacy campaigns on women’s literacy rates?

A

An extra 16 million women were able to read in 1958, compared to 1949.

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12
Q

What is a dowry?

A

Money and other goods given by the bride’s family to the husband’s family to seal the marriage contract (also
known as the bride price).

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13
Q

What is infanticide?

A

The killing of young babies, usually by parents. This was widespread in China prior to 1949, especially
towards female babies.

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14
Q

How were women unequal prior to the PRC (7)?

A

1) Women owed obedience to their fathers, their husbands or their eldest son (if widowed).
2) Arranged marriages, involving dowries, were common.
3) The rich and powerful kept concubines.
4) Few women received education before 1900.
5) Peasant women were expected to work and care for their home/children.
6) No voting rights.
7) Foot binding was only disappearing gradually.

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15
Q

When did the PRC introduce the Marriage Law?

A

1950.

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16
Q

What were the 6 key reforms of the Marriage Law (1950)?

A

1) Arranged marriages and dowries were outlawed.
2) The keeping of concubines was banned.
3) The unmarried, divorced or widowed women were given the same rights to property as men.
4) Divorce was made available to both genders on equal terms.
5) Infanticide was banned.
6) The minimum marriage age was raised to 20 for men and 18 for women.

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17
Q

Why was the Marriage Law of 1950 not so successful (2), especially rurally, and how was it resisted (2)?

A

1) It challenged cultural norms of many generations, and peasants objected greatly to the reforms.
2) Cadres were reluctant to challenge peasants in 1953, as they were trying to win cooperation for land
reform and collectivisation.
3) Families continued to use matchmakers and exchange gifts during marriage ceremonies.
4) Divorce remained difficult to obtain, and those who achieved it were ostracised.

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18
Q

What were the positive effects of the Marriage Law (1950) (3)?

A

1) Average age of marriage rose.
2) Female infanticide fell.
3) Resistance to divorce was gradually broken down in villages by Marriage Problems Teams, established by
the ACWF.

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19
Q

Who were Mao’s PLA dance troupe?

A

A select group of women Mao kept around, expected to fulfil his sexual needs. In other words, they were
‘imperial concubines’.

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20
Q

What was childbirth like in 1949 (2)?

A

1) High infant mortality rates.
2) Many women died in childbirth due to poor midwife practices.

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21
Q

How did the ACWF improve midwife standards?

A

They provided training in safer birthing practices and basic sterilisation procedures. Because of this, the
number of trained midwives increased in the years 1949 - 1959.

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22
Q

How and why did the CCP restrict birth control prior to 1953?

A

Mao believed ‘the more people we have, the stronger we are’, so the import of contraceptives was banned
and the access to abortion and sterilisation was restricted.

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23
Q

How did the CCP policy towards birth control shift after 1953 and why?

A

During the period of economic planning, planners had to consider the need for manpower balanced with the
ability to feed the nation. In 1954, the state pharmaceutical company began producing contraceptives, and in
1955, the CCP adopted population control as an official policy.

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24
Q

Why did birth control encounter resistance in rural areas?

A

Peasants traditionally valued large families and did not want to accept or discuss contraception.

25
Q

Who was Soong Qingling (2)?

A

1) The ‘mother of modern China’, and a member of the Soong family.
2) She was chosen as the Vice-Chairperson of the Central People’s Government in 1949, and represented
Shanghai in the National People’s Congress, elected in 1954.

26
Q

Who was Li Dequan?

A

The Minister of Health in the PRC since 1949, she joined the CCP in 1958.

27
Q

Who was Shi Liang?

A

A member of the China Democratic League, she was Minister of Justice 1949-1959.

28
Q

When was the Electoral Law introduced?

A

1953.

29
Q

What was the 1953 Electoral Law?

A

It granted women equal voting rights.

30
Q

What was the CCP target for women in representative bodies?

A

At least one quarter of those elected to representative bodies to be women.

31
Q

What political gains did women see in the PRC structure 1949-53?

A

1) In 1949, 69 women were elected to the Central People’s Political Consultative Conference - 10.4% of the
total.
2) 12% of the deputies in the National People’s Congress elections of 1953 were women.

32
Q

What was the role of the ACWF for women’s politics?

A

To encourage women in rural areas to take on leadership roles in their villages, and at county and provincial
level.

33
Q

How successful was the ACWF in increasing women’s participation in politics?

A

Both men and women resisted female political participation for a time. However, over time, the ACWF
succeeded in increasing female political participation at a local level, through neighbourhood committees in
cities/towns and peasant associations and cooperatives in rural areas.

34
Q

How significant was female political participation by 1994 (2)?

A

1) 1994: 32.6% of county level officials were women, but only 10.7% of officials were women at a national
level.
2) Only 3 out of 40 ministers in central government were women, the same as in 1949.

35
Q

How did the CCP aim to bring about health reform?

A

Through mass campaigns.

36
Q

What was the Patriotic Health campaign?

A

Mobilising the people through street and neighbourhood committees, the Patriotic Health campaign aimed to
improve sanitation and hygiene. This reduced endemic diseases like cholera, typhoid, and scarlet fever.

37
Q

How did the PRC reduce diseases in cities?

A

Major vaccination efforts to reduce diseases, such as plague, typhoid and typhus.

38
Q

How did the PRC improve the quality of drinking water (2)?

A

1) By digging deep wells.
2) By improving the quality of human waste treatment.

39
Q

How did the PRC reduce diseases in rural areas?

A

Efforts were made to prevent peasants from using human waste as fertiliser, and to instead store it in pits
away from habitation or mix it with chemicals.

40
Q

How did the CCP aim to eradicate rats in Beijing, and how successful was it?

A

1) Every citizen had to prove that they had killed one rat per week by handing in a rat tail at a police station.
Those who succeeded got a red flag, and those who did not got a black flag.
2) This caused a developing of a black market for rats tails, with some breeding rats to supply the demand.

41
Q

Which animals did the CCP target (2)?

A

1) Pests, such as flies, mosquitoes, fleas, bedbugs and rats.
2) Dogs were denounced as a health threat and a symbol of bourgeois decadence.

42
Q

How successful were the health campaigns?

A

They brought about some improvement, but they were often a waste of resources and partially dependant on
coercion.

43
Q

What degree of healthcare did urban workers have access to?

A

Those employed in large industrial enterprises had access to urban hospitals, reserved for them.

44
Q

Explain the 3-tier healthcare system used in rural areas.

A

1) At village level, healthcare was provided by paramedics working out of health centres.
2) Each township had a health centre providing out-patient care, and limited beds for in-patient care for less
serious cases.
3) At county level, there were hospitals staffed by fully-trained doctors, for the most serious cases.

45
Q

How successful were the changes in healthcare in rural areas?

A

It took time for rural areas to see any improvement, as healthcare took up only 1.3% of total State investment
in 1952, and such facilities were expensive. Furthermore, collectivisation had a negative effect on health in
rural areas.

46
Q

What were work points?

A

Earnt by working on agricultural and industrial projects, they bought food and other resources within
People’s Communes.

47
Q

What were the 6 key impacts of collectivisation on rural society?

A

1) People’s Communes undermined the family structure as childcare, care of the elderly and the provision of
meals became a communal responsibility.
2) With men taking on projects such as steel production and irrigation, women had to step up to field work in
People’s Communes.
3) Collectivisation and work points forced women to abandon home-based handicrafts, and instead focus on
field work.
4) Collectivisation increased social tensions in rural communities, with those contributing less being
marginalised, such as pregnant women.
5) Farmers were forced to sell their grain surplus to the state at fixed prices in 1953. The state decided what a
surplus was, and used an arbitrary calculation for how much grain each family would need. This number was
set very low, causing peasant hardship.
6) Collectivisation increased the pressure on peasants to go live in the cities, to escape the hardship in the
countryside. without residence permits, they were forced to take on dirty, dangerous and low-paid jobs.

48
Q

What was the difference in women’s participation in agricultural work in 1957 and 1958?

A

1957: 60% of rural women participated in agricultural production.
1958: 90% of rural women participated in agricultural production.

49
Q

How did peasants resist collectivisation (3) and how did the CCP respond (1)?

A

1) Peasants hoarded grain.
2) Peasants slaughtered animals.
3) Peasants attacked cadres sent to requisition their ‘surplus’ grain.
4) The CCP used beatings, imprisonment, torture, mock executions and the lowering of grain allocation to
those who resisted.

50
Q

What were the causes of the Great Chinese Famine 1959-1962 (3)?

A

1) The GLF prioritised feeding the urban areas, and had to pay their loans to the USSR, so there was no
relaxation of the requisition of grain from peasants.
2) A lot of grain harvested rotted away in damp and overheated granaries, and animals died of neglect,
disease and hunger.
3) Weather conditions in 1959 forced farmers to eat the seed set aside for the next years crop. Famine
conditions took hold of China in the rural areas, lasting from 1959 - 1962.

51
Q

How many died due to the Great Chinese Famine?

A

After Mao’s death, the PRC accepted the figure of 20 million, however the number is likely to be around 45
million, maybe even more.

52
Q

What were the 6 effects of the Great Chinese Famine on rural society?

A

1) Hygiene and care standards were low and abuse was rife.
2) Families sold or abandoned their children.
3) Growing incidences of theft from granaries and trains transporting food to cities.
4) Secret societies began to reappear for the first time since 1949.
5) Prostitution became rife.
6) Reports of cannibalism.

53
Q

What was the household registration system?

A

Extended to the countryside in 1955, these controls tied people to their land.

54
Q

How did many peasants defy the household registration system?

A

Peasants migrated to cities in search of food and work.

55
Q

How many peasants moved to cities in 1958?

A

15 million.

56
Q

How did the CCP tackle the problem of peasant immigration to cities?

A

‘Custody and deportation stations’ were set up in cities to detain and return those without the necessary
permits back to their villages.

57
Q

How many people were returned to villages from cities in 1961?

A

20 million.

58
Q

In May 1962, how many people were crossing the Hong Kong border to leave China per day?

A

5,000 people per day.