Social Policy

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Religion and Minorities:

Religion in the PRC -

Mao himself declared his strong personal hatred towards religion by declaring it was 'poison'.

It was therefore expected that the PRC under Mao would not tolerate religion.

As soon as it came into power, the CCP began its attack on religion.

Official Justification: Since the workers were now in power there was no longer any reason for religion to exist.

The authorities would not tolerate the people continuing adherence to corrupt thought processes.

Religious worship now replaced by loyalty to the communist party and the state.

Attacks on Chinese customs and traditions -

The customs and rituals that had helped to shape the life of the peasants were forbidden by law.

Their traditional ways were replaced with political meetings and discussions organised by the party.

Peasants were expected to accept Maoism as their new faith.

Troupes of agit-prop performers toured the country putting on plays and shown which villages were required to attend and sit through. These were shown in halls and public spaces.

Players arrived in brightly painted trucks carrying slogans and images showing the 'wonders and befits' of the new Maoist world.

The sides of trucks could serve as a screen on which propaganda films were displayed after dark, or these could be removed to turn the truck into a stage.

The message in the propaganda -

'It hammered home the notion that the old days of cruel landlords and abused peasant farmers had been replaced with a communal way of life in which the peasants, guided by the wisdom of Mao Zedong and Communist party, had entered an era of happy collective endeavour and achievement.'

These shows were played at know-about pantomine level.

In these shows the landlords were always portrayed as 'baddies' and religious figures, such as scheming Confucian officials and exploiting priests also appeared to be hissed and jeered at.

State attacks on religion -

Christian churches were forcibly closed (property seized/ destroyed and ministers abused)

Foreign priests and nuns expelled from China.

Propaganda kept running condemnation of religion.

Confucianism/Buddhism/Christianity denounced as 'worthless superstitions'.

Peasants first to be targeted:

Sustained campaign launched to eliminated all traces of religion from their lives.

Chinese traditional faiths forbidden to be openly practiced.

Major foreign religions banned.

Priests/monks prohibited from wearing distinctive dress.

Those who disobeyed liable to arrest and imprisonment.

Ancestor worship also condemned and no longer acceptable.

Women and the family:

Arranged Marriages-

Financial arrangements between two families

Mao outlawed arranged marriages and payments of dowries in 1950 condemning it as indirect rape.

Unmarried, divorced and widowed women were given the same rights to own property as men.

Divorce-

Made available to men and women on equal terms

Official registration of marriage was introduced and divorce was allowed by mutual consent or on the complaint of either husband or wife.

Children-

Children were often sold or abandoned, especially during the famine.

Old enough children were used as workers, which was, in effect, slavery.

Child abuse and prostitution-

Many children were mocked and forced to work as skivvies.

Abandoned children were targets for exploitation and sexual abuse.

Communist party members were often involved in the spread of prostitution.

Women's rights-

The practices of concubinage, foot binding and arranged marriages gave women a second-class status.

From 1950 the killing of unwanted baby girls was abolished and foot binding was outlawed.

Girls were expected to go to school and women to work.

The 1953 election law gave women the right to vote and some joined the government and the PLA.

Despite this, the communist party operated a very male-dominated system.

Culture and propaganda-

Propaganda system was central to communist rule in China.

Controlled by the CCPs Central Propaganda Department, which commanded a network of local branches that were used for mass indoctrination. Used to spread ideology, encourage activism and hold onto the selfless model of workers and soldiers.

Spread through many different forms such as posters, media, films, theater.

Peasants were expected to learn Mao's quotations by heart

Mao taught that Chinese culture was feudal, not that China was a proletarian society, culture therefore too had to be proletarian.

Therefore, all traces of bourgeois culture had to be eradicated.

"The more brutal, the more revolutionary".

Jiang Qing was the creator-in-chief of the new Chinese culture. She imposed a rigid system of censorship, works of art had to meet the criteria whereby they had to be relevant to the people and further the cause of revolution. Anything else was banned.

Jiang Qing assault cause an 'artistic wasteland'. It also led to the near destruction of the old culture.

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