Family Life In The 1930s

In the 1930s, the family was the most important unit of the society. The family was an important economic unit since most the people lived in rural areas and worked on the land. Families in the same clan had similar common names. Some villages had people from the same family. Most of the people in the villages had four to five surnames. In the 1930s and 1950s land was the main form of wealth in China and it was divided equally among the sons of the landowner. Quick example that Xiangzi, Rickshaw Boy, was a country boy who worked as a rickshaw puller for living in Beijing. Due to his dream was to own a rickshaw, he worked very hard during his duty in order to have a better life which also indicated the differences between the poor and the rich
However, each peasant family was given a small plot to farm and health care improved. In the 1950s, food production increased and health care improved. This improved the quality of life and increased security for the family as the basic social and economic unit. During this period, it was common for three generations of a family to love in one home. Most of the people lived in rural areas. In the cities families were smaller and were often composed of parents and one child living under one roof. Majority of the people in urban areas worked in mines and casual jobs. Coal mining employed many men and most of them left their families and lived in the mines for many years. The communist party encouraged education. However, only a few people underwent formal schooling. After school the educated moved to urban areas or worked in the rural areas as
Essentially the main aim of the One Hundred Flowers Program was to increase education and to increase the number of people enrolled in education. The slogan was “Let one hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend”. This meant that the main aim of the communist party was to improve education standards in the country. Additionally the Communist Party used the party to get ideas on dealing with potential uprising. However from 1956 the Communist Party under Chairman Mao Zedong did not always listen to criticisms from the Hundred Flowers Program.
The Hundred Flowers Movement popularity increased and by 1957 it held many popular public discussions of controversial issues and criticisms of some of the government’s policy. Initially the Communist Party created the Hundred Flowers program to provide their knowledge and technical expertise to Chinese Government. However the program criticized corruption in the government and by 1957 the Communist Party under the leadership of Mao Zedong purged and locked down member of the Hundred Flowers