1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910454079503321

Autore

Johnson Kay Ann

Titolo

Women, the family, and peasant revolution in China [[electronic resource] /] / Kay Ann Johnson

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, 1983

ISBN

1-282-06998-5

9786612069987

0-226-40194-4

Edizione

[Pbk. ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (ix, 282 p. )

Disciplina

305.4/0951

Soggetti

Confucianism - China - History

Families - China - History

Socialism - China - History

Women peasants - China - History

Electronic books.

China Rural conditions

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Women and the Traditional Chinese Family -- 2. The Twentieth-Century Family Crisis -- 3. Women and the Party: The Early Years, 1921-27 -- 4. The Kiangsi Soviet Period, 1929-34 -- 5. The Yenan Experience and the Final Civil War, 1936-49 -- 6. Legacies of the Revolutionary Era -- 7. The Politics of Family Reform -- 8. Land Reform and Women's Rights -- 9. The 1950 Marriage Law: Popular Resistance and Organizational Neglect -- 10. The 1953 Marriage Law Campaign -- 11. Collectivization and the Mobilization of Female Labor -- 12. The Cultural Revolution -- 13. The Anti-Confucian Campaign -- 14. Current Rural Practice -- 15. Conclusion: Family Reform-the Uncompleted Task -- Appendix: The 1950 Marriage Law -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Kay Ann Johnson provides much-needed information about women and gender equality under Communist leadership. She contends that, although the Chinese Communist Party has always ostensibly favored



women's rights and family reform, it has rarely pushed for such reforms. In reality, its policies often have reinforced the traditional role of women to further the Party's predominant economic and military aims. Johnson's primary focus is on reforms of marriage and family because traditional marriage, family, and kinship practices have had the greatest influence in defining and shaping women's place in Chinese society. Conversant with current theory in political science, anthropology, and Marxist and feminist analysis, Johnson writes with clarity and discernment free of dogma. Her discussions of family reform ultimately provide insights into the Chinese government's concern with decreasing the national birth rate, which has become a top priority. Johnson's predictions of a coming crisis in population control are borne out by the recent increase in female infanticide and the government abortion campaign.