How far did life change for women; businessmen and landlords, and peasants between 1949 and the early 1960s?

From 1935 to 1949, there were fourteen years of unrest in China. After the war with Japan the KMT alliance with the Communist was broken in 1945, there was then a race to occupy the liberated areas, which the Japanese had left after being defeated. While the war between Japan and China was in progress, it had devastating effects on China and the Chinese people. The Civil war that followed caused further havoc. The war meant the destruction and the infrastructure of the country. Inflation grew to 2,870,000% by the end of 1948,and the price of sorghum rose 70% over night. On top of the war, the population was growing by 15 million a year. With many peasants fighting in the Japanese war, and then in the Civil war, it meant production was very low. Living standards for all people, especially in rural areas, was poor, and life expectancy was only 40 years. There was barely any education or institutions such as hospitals, except in the Japanese-controlled areas up until 1945. But life for people in cities like Nanjing was still poor. With outrageous inflation and food rationing, people were dying everywhere, and going to drastic measures to fulfil their hunger. The Japanese used the cities and demanded shameful respect from all Chinese. If there was a hint that co-operation and respect of the Japanese was not present they would kill the person in question. The Communist won the Civil war on 1st October 1949; and a new hope was on the horizon that was going to change hundreds of millions of people’s lives.

Women in China have a grave history of mistreatment and ridiculous customs and traditions. The Communists wanted to change this, and the idea of equality for all began at the party’s beginnings.

Once China was ‘liberated’ on 1st October 1949; life was about to change drastically for women who were not already a member of the Communist Party, or at least that’s what the Chinese were told.

In the years of the KMT, Warlords and the Chinese Emperors; women were seen as the inferior race to men, and had no political or romantic choice in their life. Murder of unwanted female babies was common, along with bigamy, prostitution, and the sale of women and foot binding. These atrocious ways were the norm in China, and the people knew no other way. The Communists wanted change, as they saw women as equal, and the ways of the past barbaric, and ridiculous. They believed women had as much intellect and should have the same chances as men. No one should harm women, and they should be paid extra when off their jobs with pregnancy. Striking reforms were made, and on 1st May 1950, the Marriage Law was introduced. This law changed the way people lived in China. It meant the complete abolition of the ancient marriage system. It meant free choice in partners for women, and the protection of women and children, i.e. infanticide of unwanted children. Bigamy, arranged marriages, child betrothal, concubinage and prostitution were strictly prohibited. Presenting of gifts and deciding on re-marriage of widows was abolished. Women had to be 18 and men 20. All jobs were available to men and women, and land was jointly owned between a couple. In 1951 The Women’s Association was set up to help women rid themselves of oppressive husbands. Though these laws were enthusiastically forced in Beijing, there weren’t people checking these laws were being abided by in the remote provinces. Women did not have the choice they were promised, as marriage was only permitted between two party members, and even then, they had to be scrupulously checked before the marriage could go ahead. The biggest hypocrisy was that Chairman Mao; the people’s role model himself had concubines and mistresses; though these were not documented, and covered up from the public.

Before the Communist revolution, there was a great distinction between the Rich women and the poor women. There were even hierarchies within the wealth hierarchy i.e. The “proper” wives had complete control over all of the husband’s concubines. Once the communists came to power every woman was equal.

Realistically, life didn’t change much for women under the Communist rule, though for those who were a member of the Communist Party, had more power and rights; ...

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Realistically, life didn’t change much for women under the Communist rule, though for those who were a member of the Communist Party, had more power and rights; and the poorer women were equal with the rich women.

The Communists view was that everyone was equal. Therefore people who made profit from other people (Capitalists) were seen as anti-revolutionaries and should be punished.

The KMT government allowed Landlords and Businessmen to extort and make profit. The impact of the Communists on them was severe. They could no longer work, and were stripped of their political rights.

The landlords had their land divided equally between the peasants who worked on it. They were then tried for their crimes i.e. rape of girls; and punished accordingly. From 1950-1953 2-4 million landlords were executed, many more imprisoned and beaten. In the liberated areas of China, this was already taking place as early as the start if the civil war.

On 30th June 1950, the Agrarian Reform Law was issued. Meetings were held all over the country to decide who were rich and had more land than needed. Once identified, Communists could easily divide the land. Between 1950 and 1952, 47 million hectares (40% of all cultivated land) were taken away from landlords and “rich” peasants and given to around 300 million landless peasants.

The businessmen of China were suddenly hit by the brunt of the Communist rule. As most businessmen worked in cities which were held by the KMT, right up until 1949, the Communists had to deal with many of them and quickly. This is why, regularly, they were unfairly treated. They were stripped of political rights and were forced out of the cities and performed menial jobs such as railway building. They were given no social standing and lived poor lives.

The five antis campaign was aimed at finding businessmen and industrialists (Capitalists) who were seen as corrupting the whole political system; through ‘bribery, tax evasion, stealing state assets’, along with other crimes against the government. It turned into an attack on bourgeoisie as a whole and millions were killed.

Landlords and businessmen lost all political rights, had no or a fraction of the money they had before 1949, and were classed as the lowest of the low. Negative life change was most prominent for the Landlords and businessmen. Though around 2% of cultivated land was still owned by landlords after the reform.

The majority of China’s population has always been peasant, and this is one of the reasons that the Communist Party was successful.

The impact of the Communists was far greater for the peasants than for any other group. The peasants in China were nearly as poor as you could get, they had no social standing and no respect for the hard labour they put in every day. Conditions for the peasants were appalling under the KMT. The government had no control; so no laws were obeyed and peasants were getting the worst deal of all as landlords could extort all they wanted. With no one to care for them the peasants’ standard of living reached an all time low- life expectancy 40 years. The arrival of the Communists brought drastic improvements in the social and political lives of most peasants. As the rich were deprived of their possessions, and the peasants made slightly wealthier, the people were supposedly equalised in wealth.

There was a distinction between the land-owning peasants and the landless peasants. Though they still worked as peasants, land-owning peasants had control over and restricted poor peasants.

Immediately after the 1st October, Mao began his struggle for peasant land ownership. Many peasants had already been given their land, as they were in the liberated areas before 1949. Any landlord or ‘rich’ peasant was to be scrutinised unscrupulously to decide upon his fate. His land was then to be divided among the peasants that worked it. This continued until 30th June 1950, when the Agrarian Reform Law was introduced. This accelerated the process of land distribution greatly. Peasants were encouraged to speak aloud about their landlords, and describe their crimes in ‘speak bitterness meetings’. The landlord would be present at these meetings, and many meetings ended in the execution of the landlord. Between 1950 and 1952, 300 million peasants were issued with 47 million hectares of land each having roughly the same sized plot. The peasants were now responsible for the land; and it was realised that they had no money to buy tools etc.. To counter this, around ten households would club together and share animals and tools, which were called Mutual Aid Teams. To rid the threat of national starvation, farmers had to sell 20% of their crops to the government at a low price. A tax was also put on the sale of their goods, and so it was hard to make money.

Food production was on the up, but not as quickly as Chairman Mao wished. So, in 1953, he introduced co-operatives. It meant that land was jointly owned so a large crop could be yielded efficiently. The money from the sale of the crops could buy better tools. Though they were the logical way to increase food production, some peasants were reluctant to share the land, which they now owned. But finally folded with encouragement from the Communist Party. From 1949 to 1957 with Mutual Aid Teams and co-operatives, food production increased from 112 billion kg to 205 billion kg per year.

In 1958 Mao began the Great Leap Forward; which was a revolution in steel production. Co-operatives were joined as communes, which had industrial targets to meet. There was no privately owned land, and all peasants in the commune ate in canteens and slept in dormitories. Between 600 and 1000 people were in one ‘brigade’; and 50 to 200 worked on the fields as a ‘team’. By 1958 most Chinese belonged to 40,000 communes in which they worked fields, built schools and hospitals, and produced steel and iron. Though steel production did double in a year, the Great Leap Forward was a failure. The Russian advisers pulled out, and China had no technical expertise. This meant iron was brittle, and useless. The peasants making it had wasted their time, and were not working on the fields, as they should have done. With a fixed pay rate, workers didn’t have to work hard to get paid, and so were lax. Methods of farming were used in terrain not right for that method, and failed. The reduction in food production was also halted by a two-year drought. This meant there was a nation-wide famine, in which 30 million Chinese died.

Peasant’s lives improved after the revolution, though later on wrong decisions meant a poorer life.

Mao managed to change the life of everyone in China. His goal was the “Total transformation of Chinese society”, which he achieved remarkably. With a country in disarray and fragmented into almost total disunity, his task seemed impossible.

In general, most people benefited in some way from the revolution. There were great social, economic and political strides for the Chinese people. There were certain times during the revolution, that were better for certain groups than others; and times when life was bad for some groups. Though living conditions were still very poor, and standards were not met, this was overlooked. No one could ever bring the country together. It is so vast, and was fragmented which made it impossible to control.

The capitalists had the rawest deal. The Communists had it in for them, and they were punished unscrupulously. They were booted right to the other end of the social standings, stripped of political rights and forced to work in labour camps. Without a doubt, their quality of life degenerated.

Women were promised new equal rights for jobs, marriage, and choices. For women in the Communist Party, this did happen to an extent, but not fully. Women outside the party were freed from the feudal traditions, but still did not have much choice or freedom. Though total equality was not reached, their lives did improve.

The improvement of Peasants’ lives was one of the main aims of the party. During the fifties, they did have a hard time and life did degenerate. With help from all the campaigns and programs, the peasants lives change unquestionably to a massive degree.