According to communist leader Mao Zedong’s philosophy, “Women hold up half the sky”. This belief was a key component to the rise of communism in China, but this political ideology actually emerged in Russia decades before China’s revolution. Communism was built in the early 20th century from a desire to abandon capitalist ideals and promote complete equality between social classes. For China, the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 CE, which fought to diminish all foreign influence, began an era of poor conditions and starvation that swept the livelihood of lower-class citizens. With Chinese citizens desperate for change, power-hungry leaders such as Mao Zedong were able to quickly gain support with their radical ideas. “Deep popular support [was] …show more content…
With the goal of equality, Mao Zedong led a communist movement which aimed to reform education and social norms, with a strong focus on the lower-class, as it was believed that “without the poor peasants there [could] be no revolution”. In theory, this political reform would have revolutionized China and provided every citizen with the resources needed to sustain a modest lifestyle, although corruption and greed inevitably inhibited its complete success. The Communist Revolution in China during the mid-20th century supported the development of women’s rights that would have been rejected by former government systems. This was established through laws and reforms that promoted equality regarding family structure, education, and labor. Despite these strides of progress, patriarchal ideals of the past were still present, and women were still mostly excluded from political leadership and expected to take domestic …show more content…
As Mao Zedong seized power in China, education became a strong focus of reformation. Zedong focused on education concerning communist values, in an attempt to “mold successive generations of young supporters”. These education reforms went hand-in-hand with new laws guaranteeing equal educational opportunities for women, which wished to prepare women with the knowledge needed to join the workforce. Formal Chinese educational opportunities were first introduced by Christian missionaries in developed areas. Deng Yuzhi, an educated Chinese feminist, supporter of Christianity, and collaborator with the Chinese Communist Party, is widely credited for promoting the education of women during this era. Yuzhi was known for setting up numerous night schools for women to be educated in both political and social issues concerning their freedom. After the 1919 May Fourth Movement, one of the first attempts at political reform, elites began promoting “the rights of women to equality regarding educational access and opportunities, and called for a change in feudal education ideology”. In the decades that followed, illiteracy rates for women declined drastically, and the number of females seeking secondary education had multiplied. Eventually, in 1986, the Law of Compulsory Education was enacted to require all students, male or female, to participate in a 9-year education program. During the Communist
“The arming of the people for resistance against Japan had placed the peasants in a position to challenge the landlords and money lenders in the countryside”. This shows that the peasants have gotten rights and the ability to resist. Socially the peasants are becoming equal to those of the Chinese communist party by being able to challenge the Japanese and the landlords. “The new democratic marriage system, which is based on the free choice a partner in monogamy , on equal rights on both sexes, and the protection on the lawful interests of women children is put into effect”. (Doc 7) This shows that the Chinese people are now getting more rights. Because arranged marriage and supremacy are not put away with, the equality and rights of the Chinese are becoming closer to those who have free marriage rights. Here the Chinese communist party greatly changed the societal right so wonen. In document 8 peasant land ownership is introduced and the rights of landlords are now taken away. Here peasants are gaining rights to land which is a big accomplishment during this time. The Chinese communist party advocated for equal land rights and through this peasants were able to experience great social reform. In document 9 a peasant and her landlord reflect on the new set standards for peasants societal reformation. This broke hierarchical
apt at pushing the campaign for women’s suffrage, many do not even stop to consider supposedly oppressive and impoverished communist regimes as the furnaces in which female rights were first forged. The majority of world history consists of the disputes and bloodshed created by men, perpetrated by men, and for men, all while blatantly disregarding women as trivial and powerless. Pre-Communist Revolution women’s rights comprised of sexist stereotypes that strictly limited the amount of achievements that women could accomplish. Traditional Chinese society was formed through strict social structures that defined daily life in the three obediences: women had
Not until the twentieth century did things start to turn around for women in china. This is when a woman’s movement began to spread and demanded an end to foot binding. Perhaps the biggest factor in women’s equality was communism. Communists believe that women were equal to men and the government started to pass laws in favor of women. One law was The Chinese constitution of the early 1950s which said that “Chinese women enjoyed equal rights with men in political, economic, social, cultural, and family life. The state protected women’s rights and interest, practiced equal pay for work and provided equal opportunity for women’s training and promotion (W., Jacob 2). Another law was The Inheritance Law, which allowed women to inherit family property. The Marriage Law eliminated arranged marriages and said that “both women and men [are] free to choose their marriage partners, and widows [are]
In the 20th century, the world saw the rise of many new political regimes that would redefine how the people of the world were governed. New political structures such as communism and Fascism took control in countries such as the USSR and Germany. Ultimately, all of these governments failed by the dawn of the 21st century, but the legacies they left behind have not been forgotten. China is one of these countries, and installed a communist government led by Mao in the mid 20th century. As part of their new regime, China instituted a process of re-education, where citizens would be educated in the ways of communist principles. The book Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress details two young Chinese men, the narrator and his friend Luo,
While Mao’s interpretation of Marxism included using peasants as the basis for revolution, Stalin felt that workers were meant to lead an urban-based class war. This led to Stalin’s view that the revolution in China was not genuinely Marxist and his refusal to support the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). However, Stalin also feared Mao as a rival, did not want the Cold War to spread to Asia, and favored the Guomindang over the CCP. These personality clashes and Stalin’s instinct for self-preservation convinced Mao that Stalin wished for a divided and weak China that would be unable to
The begins of Mao’s Cultural Revolution begins with the Hundred Flowers Campaign which took place during 1956-1957, the government embarks on this campaign with the hope that the tension between government and scholars can end, but this approach does not work and backfires. The next event which takes place in the Anti-Rights Campaign (1957-1958), this campaign disciplines those who spoke out during the Hundred flowers Campaign, a significant amount of people lots many jobs due to this and are sent away by government. This leads into the Great Leap Forward (1958-1959), this just happens to be one of Mao’s more intense programs of economic reform, in this program Mao’s main attempt was to modernize China’s economy, the consequence of this resulted in Mao’s having a temporary loss of power. He believed that all he needed to develop was agriculture and industry and believed that both
Mao ZeDong is one of the greatest leaders in the history of New China. The influence of Mao’s theory is profound and lasting. He is a great thinker, poet, and a highly intelligent military strategist. Under his leadership and the actions he performed during The Long March, Chinese Civil War then defeating the Kuomintang Party to built the New China are the main epic episodes. Mao ZeDong's extravagant actions made two of the many changes to China. They are the shift from a capitalist system to a socialist system and the achievement of China's independence against Japanese imperialism (Somo, 2013a). The influence of Mao’s theory has been widespread to the world up until this day. Especially, in the countries of the third world have
On October 1st 1949, Mao Zedong proclaims the foundation of the People Republic of China on Great of Heavenly Peace (Tiananmen) in Beijing (Source from: Lecture notes). In January 1958, Mao started a variety of economic, agricultural and cultural reforms. One of the many reforms started by Mao Zedong launched "The Great Leap forward". This began in 1958 to help change China. Mao proposed the land reform and suggested to develop city. The reform makes women, industry workers and peasant became winners. However, Peasant also got land and change to owner. As far as women’s literacy is concerned. There are not women in class when Mao did not launch reforms. After that, women can go to school have a class. The plan was to originally keep China communist, and increase production of agriculture. Mao Zedong put much emphasis on economic growth, which was very important to China.
China has been a communist country since the communist revolution took place in 1949, since then China has been ruled by the dictator Mao Tse-Tung. However the Chinese dictator died in September 1976, he was hailed abroad as one of the worlds’ great leaders. Certainly one of the more impressive aspects of the Chinese communist government, has been the willingness of the people to protest against it (3, pg. 4).
Although the Cultural Revolution had a huge impact on all of the citizens of China, it seemed to affect the youth the most. The youth of China began to get involved after a speech by Lin Biao by 1965. It urged the students in schools and colleges to return to the basic principles of the CR. The Chinese youths quickly formed a group called the Red Guards early in the CR, which encouraged all the Chinese students to disapprove of whoever didn’t support Mao and his beliefs or anyone associated with Mao’s rival, Liu Shaoqi (Trueman). Schools and colleges were closed, and the students neglected their studies. While the Red Guards were very passionate about what they did, their enthusiasm nearly pushed China into social disorder. The economy was affected very badly, and almost driven to a near collapse (Busetto, Galduroz, and Satou). Food shortage was one of the main problems the economy caused. Also In some areas, the activities of the Red Guards got out of hand. They
Mao's period of communal reform and the establishment of the Communist party from 1949-1976 was needed in order for Deng's individual oriented, capitalist society to
Women’s rights and equality were cornerstones of Chinese modernization, especially of Mao’s vision of an egalitarian socialist state (illustrated by his slogan that “women could hold up half the sky”). Increased female participation in labor seen as essential to the state and party agenda. While there were without a doubt many issues women still faced within this period, many policies of the Chinese Communist Party contributed to women’s equality. However, after Mao’s death and Deng Xiaoping’s rise to power and his vision of the nation as “Socialist with Chinese Characteristics,” and the implementation of China’s Open Door Policy, women have again become subordinated in many spheres of society. Yet instead of relying on male political theorists
The Chinese Communist Party's official discourse on women's liberation originated from Karl Marx’s theories of communist revolution and the history of private ownership, European Socialist views on women's liberation, the Soviet model of women's liberation, the May Fourth feminist movement, and Chinese nationalism of the early twentieth century from when the party was first founded in 1921. Wang Zheng discusses how the May Fourth Movement accelerated the idea of advancing women’s rights in China. The feminist movement of this period brought women's liberation into China's political discourse, forcing all current and future political movements to contain policies and ideas for increasing women’s rights in order to be seen as progressive. Thus, the Chinese Communist Party deemed women’s emancipation as one of their ideological goals and pledges. The Party began to institutionalize their ideas of women's
Furthermore, the Marxist revolutionary government of Communist China dealt with Confucianism negatively. “In the early 20th century, both before and after the fall of the Qing dynasty, Confucianism was harshly criticized by the New Culture Movement. (Adler 6)” The assumption of this movement was that “virtually everything about China’s traditional culture was holding it back from becoming a modern nation-state.” In fact, Confucianism was high on the list of culprits in this “blanket rejection” of traditional China. “The New Culture Movement criticized Confucianism for its age and gender-based hierarchies, which had become quite rigid during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Communist thinkers also joined this anti-Confucian trend, so by the time of the Communist victory in 1949 Confucianism in mainland China seemed virtually dead. (Adler 7)” “After the Communists took power their anti-Confucian rhetoric only increased. In addition to their professed opposition to social hierarchies, they viewed Confucianism as a feudal ideology. (Adler 8)”
To better understand the nature of Sino-Soviet relations in the twentieth century, one must analyze the emergence of communism in the respective nations of Russia and China. Communism was first developed by German philosopher Karl Marx in the 1800s, and is defined as a socioeconomic policy structured around the common ownership of property in the absence of any social distinctions such as class, wealth, or race. Marx saw this arrangement as the zenith of human society, the paragon of interaction where the resources of economic production are fully socialized and everything, from basic nutrition to education, is freely allocated based on necessity. These egalitarian doctrines and policies of social, economic, and political freedom greatly appeased to the working-class populations in politically oppressed regions of the world, especially in the situations of the repressed poor and peasant classes of early twentieth-century Russian and Chinese societies.