Mao the ladies' manAnd other social reforms

Society pre-Mao• Born out of

Confuscianism, Chinese women were historically extremely subservient

• Obedience to proper authority be it family or society at large was a 'fundamental duty'

• Women owe their obedience to their fathers

• Wives owe their obedience to their husbands

• Widows owe their obedience to their eldest son

• Arranged marriages and dowry payments were common practice

• Richer men and landlords were also able to keep concubines as well as wives

• Women were not allowed to receive education

Lives of peasant women

• Particularly harsh

• Child bearing and housework were a must

• Also expected to work in the fields and carry on handicraft/textile work at home

• Allegiance (sexual and otherwise) to the landlord was generally understood

Foot binding

• Origins since 15th century

• 100% of upper class women

• Many peasants too exc

• Using those who did heavy field work

• Considered erotic, with Qing dynasty annals documenting 40+ different ways to play with a womans bound feet during sex

• The 'lotus gait' was the primary talk of men in terms of attraction and sexuality

Process

• Soaking and messaging the foot until it softens and begins to decompose

• Breaking and curling the toes under (clipping toenails to prevent ingrowth)

• binding tightly and forming the arch to break

• Unbinding, washing and messaging regularly, rebinding ever tighter each time

• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8966942

During the GMD• Some social reforms for women

such as education and concubines/arranged marriage began to take root in the cities

• Foot binding also began to disappear

• Slow to no reforms in the coutryside until communism took root, binding, no education, arranged marriages...etc still persisted, even grew

• No political rights

Early Communist reforms

• In Jiangxi province mainly

• Ill eagle to purchase wives, arranged marriages outlawed

• Divorces, with necessary proof of hardship, were made easier

• 1/4of those elected to representative bodies had to be women

• Good ideologically, but increased the burden of some women and disenfranchised some men

• As many young men were taken away to fight, burden for women increased drastically

Wow, Mao! Post '49 reforms

• Passed the marriage law of 1950:

• Outlawed arranged marriage and dowry payment

• Concubinage banned

• Property/ownership rights equal to all

• Divorce to men and women on equal terms

• Education and political input made equal

Education reforms

Pre-Mao Education

• Historically valued as a means to enter imperial civil service

• Very expensive, low pass, traditional book based teaching rate and high demands

• Additionally many western style private schools existed in the eastern seaboard. Mostly British or Christian missionary

• Overall promoted elitism and development of an educated professional class, no access to countryside or poor

Mao's early writings

• Rejected traditional methods to focus on existential learning as the base

• Regarded western influence upon education as a form of cultural imperialism

• For a socialist society to blossom, training skilled specialists along with math and language literacy was the key

Mao's view on education from: Selected Writings of Mao Tse-Tung

Source 1: in our country today there are so many illiterates and yet the building of Socialism cannot

wait until literacy is eliminated; in our country today it is not only the many school age children who have

no schools to go to but also the large numbers of youth above that age, to say nothing of adults

Source 2: to be q good teacher, one must first be a good pupil. There are many things which cannot be learned from books alone; one must first learn from those engaged in production, from the workers, from the peasants, and in schools from those one teaches.

During Mao• Emphasis placed on primary Ed

• Slow progress (by 1957 less than half of kids between 7-16 had received Ed)

• generally due to such a deficient and low starting point plus the amount of spending the party was willing and able to allow

• Did not break too far from traditional methodology and a large emphasis on rigorous testing

• Better 'key schools' in each district housed best teachers and students, but for the most part Enders up being for the kids of high-ranking party officials

More during

• Emphasis on physical education also (remember early Mao writings)

• Universities also restructured to enhance technical and scientific subjects

• Large numbers also sent to study at USSR universities

• Improvements were made over time despite the meagre 6.4% of the total budget

• by the mid-1970s, enrolment qnd general literacy were up to appx 96%

Improvements in public health

Pre-Mao• Same as all factors...

• Heavy western influence in the east. British hospitals and techniques and missionary donations of medicine were promoted by the GMD

• Many new doctors re trained in the US ad GBR by the GMD

• Did not reach the countryside. High disease rate, many endemic. High infant mortality rate

• Medicine had a strong root in tradition of herbs and meditation techniques...etc

• Very uneven

• See The Painted Veil - movie based on W. Somerset Maugham's novel

Under Mao

• Due to $ and western influence fears, lack of infrastructure and trained professionals, Mao placed emphasis on prevention rather than cure

• Huge propaganda/education campaign.

• Used street and neighborhood committee to mobilize...Patriotic Health Campaign

• Improved drinking water amt and quality

• Improved sanitation and fertilization methods

• Improved overall awareness fo causes of disease and general cleanliness

• Proved very effective in long term

• Three tier system employed:

• in villages, needs were addressed by a paramedic, set up to work in a village center.

• Each township had to have a larger center with adequate number of beds for in patient care and staff to offer out patient care

• More serious cases deferred to county hospitals which implied actual trained doctors. Expensive facilities and operation made these difficult to run and most issues were attempted to be handled at the local level

Examples (sources)

S. Wood, A Street in China, 1958we'll get some powdered lime to sprinkle around the

drains and damp, shaded places along the house walls and fences. We've already contracted with a plumber to clean the drains twice a month a we will share the cost. Besides cleaning up all the places

where rats can nest, we should use traps to bait and catch them. The we'll send them to the police

station. We get credited with every rat we turn into the police.

What does this show about government programs and aid for health related issues?

Example 2Schistosomaisis, a disease that causes internal

liver bleeding, liver damage, and a bloating of the abdomen, was common in parts of the Chinese

countryside. It was found to be caused by a microscopic worm carried by snails.

J. Horn, Away with all pests, 1969

“To mobilize the peasantry against the snails, it was first necessary to explain to them the nature of the illness that had plagued them for so long, and for this purpose, lectures, films, posters and radio talks were used. When the peasants came

to understand the nature of their enemy, they themselves worked out their own ways of

defending against it.”