Furthermore, as source E was written in 1981 it has the benefit of hindsight, because information would have been gathered and collected to form a reliable account. However, since the revolution was in 1911 and the source was written 70 years later, in 1981, important information could have been lost and altered, which also causes the source to be unreliable.
“...China had been very mixed up by 1919.” This is a sentence selected from source E which shows a certain amount of reliability for the source itself. Lives for women in cities were better than those of the women who lived in the countryside. On the other hand, the way the author has written this account is deceiving. 80% of women were poor peasants and the lifestyle still remained extremely hard, even after the revolution in 1911, which is another aspect of unreliability.
The author also says that most people were ending the practices of foot binding and infanticide, which I know is true because these two things were outlawed in 1912. Therefore this implies that the source is reliable.
Source F was unreliable in the way that it was highlighting the positive aspects of communism; to persuade people to join their party. This is merely because it was written by a communist, Hu Yepin.
Source F was written in 1930 about life in the communist province of Jiangxi. Hu Yepin only talks about one area of China, therefore, it is not particularly reliable as it does not show and explain the overall lives of women.
The fact that source F was written for a story is also another aspect in which we can question its reliability. It is written to appeal to the audience; therefore, it is exaggerated, putting the source down in terms of reliability.
Since source F was written in 1930, which is very close to the event, causes the source to have a flaw and also creates the source to be unreliable as there is not enough time for changes to have taken place.
“They used to live shut up in poor homes going through the endless rounds of cooking, washing, caring for children, feeding the pigs – shut up like prisoners without hope for the future.” This is an aspect of the source which is true. However, the source also says, “Women’s lives have changed even more.” This is not true as they were still being forced into arranged marriages until 1952, a long time after the event of the revolution – “They can have relationship with men as the choose.” These pieces of evidence show that source F was unreliable.
Going back and answering the essay question, “Is source F more reliable than source E as evidence about the lives of women in China after the first revolution?” I would say that I disagree with it. Source E and F are both unreliable in the sense that source F is written too close to the event and source E is written far away from the event. This is both a good and bad thing as source E has the benefit of hindsight, but at the same time information could have been lost and altered. In addition, source F is unreliable as it is written too close to the event so enough information could have not been collected; however, it would also be coming from a person who experienced the revolution.
I say that I think source E is more reliable as there is more evidence and facts, whilst source F is vague. Source F is also polemically written and manipulates the women.
I think that source E was also more reliable as the author, Jonathon Spence, was neutral in his interpretations and was writing for the purpose of education.
