“Men and women are equal; everyone is worth his (or her) salt”: Mao Zedong’s New Marriage Law
What is Mao Zedong’s New Marriage Law?
Mao Zedong’s New Marriage law was a civil marriage law which provided civil registry for legal marriages.
At one level the after-Mao growth in the corpus of family law has a fairly clear meaning. The 1950 Marriage Law and the system of family law which it tried to put into place were important elements in the generation of political support for the new government in power. However, inthe after-Mao time in history the fast (putting something into law) of family law has been in large part caused/brought about/reminded by the leadership's concern to secure/make sure of (firm and steady nature/lasting nature/strength),
This meant that males were often seen as more superior whereas females were often seen as inferior. Often in marriages of China, the bride does not have a say in the arrangement of the marriage. Instead, it is usually the parents, more dominantly the father, choosing for his daughter. This has caused complaints to arise because of gender
This source was used by our team as a brief introduction/ understanding of Mao’s new marriage law.
7)“New Marriage Law (1950).” Chineseposter.net, 31 Dec. 2008, chineseposters.net/themes/marriage-law.php.https://chineseposters.net/themes/marriage-law.php
This website is a primary source, in this website, there are original posters that were hung/ stuck up on walls we Mao Zedong stated the new marriage law, and explanations with some of the posters explaining what the poster meant/ represent or why the posters were designed like what they are. We used this source to find primary images of posters that were put up that stated the law that was established so we would get familiar with what people saw when the law was stated.
8) Oral proof/ evidence from great grandfather and great grandmother 6 Mar. 2018
This conversation was a primary source, in the conversation, he stated that when he got married, Mao’s new marriage law was updated to where the parents choose a few females that they thought were suitable for him, which then my great-grandfather got to choose from. We used this source of information for getting a thought from a person that was forced to be married and what happened afterwards. Which then could be used as evidence in the conflict or
The Sun of the Revolution by Liang Heng, is intriguing and vivid, and gives us a complex and compelling perspective on Chines culture during a confusing time period. We get the opportunity to learn the story of a young man with a promising future, but an unpleasant childhood. Liang Heng was exposed to every aspect of the Cultural Revolution in China, and shares his experiences with us, since the book is written from Liang perspective, we do not have a biased opinion from an elite member in the Chinese society nor the poor we get an honest opinion from the People’s Republic of China. Liang only had the fortunate opportunity of expressing these events due his relationship with his wife, An American woman whom helps him write the book. When Liang Heng and Judy Shapiro fell in love in China during 1979, they weren’t just a rarity they were both pioneers at a time when the idea of marriages between foreigners and Chinese were still unacceptable in society.
Jonathan Spence tells his readers of how Mao Zedong was a remarkable man to say the very least. He grew up a poor farm boy from a small rural town in Shaoshan, China. Mao was originally fated to be a farmer just as his father was. It was by chance that his young wife passed away and he was permitted to continue his education which he valued so greatly. Mao matured in a China that was undergoing a threat from foreign businesses and an unruly class of young people who wanted modernization. Throughout his school years and beyond Mao watched as the nation he lived in continued to change with the immense number of youth who began to westernize. Yet in classes he learned classical Chinese literature, poems, and history. Mao also attained a thorough knowledge of the modern and Western world. This great struggle between modern and classical Chinese is what can be attributed to most of the unrest in China during this time period. His education, determination and infectious personalit...
These “hand-picked” classics were the guidelines of society. Women did not have the same privileges as men. When the Classics are interpreted as “hand-picked” selections exemplifying Confucian beliefs, the poem “The Han So Wide” depicts that promiscuous “girls roaming free” need to be civilized by a Confucian lifestyle (The Han So Wide). Meanwhile, it was common for men to have multiple wives, such as Magnate Ma in Rescriptor-in-Waiting Bao’s Clever Trick: The Record of the Chalk Circle (Xingdao). Magnate Ma had two wives, the First Wife, and former prostitute Zhang Haitang, yet he was never shamed (Xingdao). Zhang Haitang, however, was judged heavily by everyone in the town for her social background, causing her to lose her first court case against the first wife for the murder of Magnate Ma (Xingdao). It was unacceptable for women to be seen with more than one man, but men could have as many wives and concubines as he
Their femininity was stifled by the Chinese Communist Party which enforced strict thought reform valuing the party above the individual. Mao’s Cultural Revolution most greatly affected the youth because they were sensible to adherence to the policies of the CCP. In the youth, Mao found scapegoats who he could brainwash and this is apparent most in Ma’s experience. Ma’s was successful in proving this case for the success of the party lay with the youth. Ma transformed herself to please the party and sometimes hid her individualism for the embracement of party
This shows that government is relied on king and spiritual belief, stops the plot and rebel against the country. In addition, the source provides significant statement which is different than other countries. “The woman has her husband’s house; the man has his wife’s chamber; and there must be no defilement on either side.” This part of code introduces new regulation, women and men had equal rights in marriage, at least they both should not cheat. The idea, strongly suggests and makes us think that different than other states, in Tang women had almost equal rights as
Zhu Ying was a member of the military’s theatre troupe, and about to be a member of the party, until she refused to sleep with party members. After that, they transferred and then imprisoned her. While her role in the military could have made Zhu Ying an androgynous figure, an emblem of communist gender equality, the party’s expectation that she have sex with party members makes her a sexual object, which is its own form of feminization. Zhu Ying is allowed to retain her femininity only if she consents to being a sexual object; when she does not, she is sent to be a laborer, and later imprisoned. Moreover, by being separated from her boyfriend, her chance at domestic happiness is taken away. After imprisonment, she has no opportunity to fill the traditional female role of marriage and children (which she may or may not have desired). Thus, the party halts the “natural” order of marriage and
However, this “ladder of success” was not as simple as it seemed. First of all, the class of both families will be a huge barrier. We are not even talking about freedom to love here, there is no such thing in late imperial China. Although we can’t say that love doesn’t exist even in such systems, such as Shen Fu and Chen Yun, but most marriages are not about love. Rather, it was about exchange of values. For example, when two families want to become business partners, the parents of the family will have their son and daughter married, so the two families will have closer bonding which made the business much easier. In this sense, we can see that the couple is simply a tool. In the same sense, the families which has not much “values” can only have marriages with the same class of families. Meaning for a women to climb up the ladder of success is not quite possible as the class of her family is a huge deciding factor for marriage in the
In her book, The House of Lim, author Margery Wolf observes the Lims, a large Chinese family living in a small village in Taiwan in the early 1960s (Wolf iv). She utilizes her book to portray the Lim family through multiple generations. She provides audiences with a firsthand account of the family life and structure within this specific region and offers information on various customs that the Lims and other families participate in. She particularly mentions and explains the marriage customs that are the norm within the society. Through Wolf’s ethnography it can be argued that parents should not dec5pide whom their children marry. This argument is obvious through the decline in marriage to simpua, or little girls taken in and raised as future daughter-in-laws, and the influence parents have over their children (Freedman xi).
Growing up in China, Lindo Jong was steeped in the traditions of that culture. It was a common tradition for wealthy families to assign their son a wife that best suits his future. Arranged marriages are predetermined prior to the child’s birth and they are chosen by their desirable features. Lindo Jong knew about her destiny from a young age. One day, when a terrible flood ruined her home, she was sent to live with her future husband. On the day of her marriage, she promises herself that “ underneath the scarf I still knew who I was. I made a promise to myself: I would always remember my parents’ wishes, but I would never forget myself” (53). A marriage is an impactful event and even then, she does not allow herself to compromise with the
The early part of the novel shows women’s place in Chinese culture. Women had no say or position in society. They were viewed as objects, and were used as concubines and treated with disparagement in society. The status of women’s social rank in the 20th century in China is a definite positive change. As the development of Communism continued, women were allowed to be involved in not only protests, but attended universities and more opportunities outside “house” work. Communism established gender equality and legimated free marriage, instead of concunbinage. Mao’s slogan, “Women hold half of the sky”, became extremely popular. Women did almost any job a man performed. Women were victims by being compared to objects and treated as sex slaves. This was compared to the human acts right, because it was an issue of inhumane treatment.
Industrialization however destroyed what was then considered traditional marriage, as there was less property to own when living in the city. However instead of completely abandoning the idea of patriarch marriage, a new adaption of it was formed creating the idea of separate spheres. Thus creating the breadwinner/ housewife marriage w...
China has been undergoing number of social and economic changes throughout its communist history. There is no doubt that these socio-economic changes have influenced the society both positively and negatively. The most two significant changes of all would be the Cultural Revolution which took place during 1960s and the economic transition to the market economy, which has been in effect since 1980s. In this research paper I will focus on the impacts of the ongoing socio-economic changes on what is called a “traditional” family in China. To be more specific, I will try to analyze how the divorce has become one of the “new values” of a “modern” Chinese family.
Dressed in the drab military uniform that symbolized the revolutionary government of Communist China, Mao Zedong's body still looked powerful, like an giant rock in a gushing river. An enormous red flag draped his coffin, like a red sail unfurled on a Chinese junk, illustrating the dualism of traditional China and the present Communist China that typified Mao. 1 A river of people flowed past while he lay in state during the second week of September 1976. Workers, peasants, soldiers and students, united in grief; brought together by Mao, the helmsman of modern China. 2 He had assembled a revolutionary government using traditional Chinese ideals of filial piety, harmony, and order. Mao's cult of personality, party purges, and political policies reflect Mao's esteem of these traditional Chinese ideals and history.
Today marriage is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as the relationship between a husband and a wife or a similar relationship between people of the same sex. For the purposes of this paper, it will focus on marriage between a man and a woman and how marriage is differently defined between the American and Chinese cultures. This paper will discuss the cultural differences found between the American and Chinese culture with emphasis on age and mate-selection. The cultural differences between American and Chinese culture related to marriage practices shows that Americans value individualism and Chinese historically value collectivism.
There is no denying that the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party under Chairman Mao Zedong changed the course of the history of China and shaped the China the world sees today. The amount of lives, cultural traditions, and differing intellectual thoughts that were lost and destroyed as he strove to meet his goals for the country can never be recovered or replaced. However, it had been asserted that one of the more positive effects of Chairman Mao on the people of China was his somewhat radical opinion of woman. Prior to the Communist Revolution, women’s role in Chinese society was almost completely limited to life within the home and focused on supporting their family and being submissive to their fathers and husbands. Chairman Mao realized that women were one of the oppressed groups in China that could be utilized to increase his control over the country. While women’s rights still have a long way to go, it can definitely be said some of Mao’s polices advanced Chinese women in ways that would have been unimaginable before his rise to leadership. The more relevant questions are regarding Chairman Mao’s intent behind these polices and if they were destined to fail from the start due to the cultural and political climate in 20th century China.