Chinese Women in the PRC

I. Early reforms: 1949-1956

A. the Cold War and the Korean War

just a five-year plan?

the Yanan way?

B. land reform

burning the title deeds

burning the landlord?

the landlord's wife?

C. from village to commune

from headman to cadre

accountability and change

D. marriage reform

programs

forced v. arranged marriages

divorce and child custody

birth control?

problems

local cadre and implementation

female cadre and the Women's Bureau

theater and propaganda

art and expression as political acts

II. Years of Turmoil, 1956-1977

A. The thousand flowers campaign, 1956

sabotage or genuine mistake?

collectivization, individualism and dissent

female writers and the individual voice

B. The Great Leap Forward, 1958-1961

Red v. Expert and the Sino-Soviet split

from communes to collectives

rural industries

agricultural goals and promotion

lack of distribution infrastructure

full and equal use of all labor?

child care and the family kitchen

C. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

Mao and young China

ideology, ambition or senility?

Jiang Qing?

reliving the Long March and the Revolution

education and the Red Guards

Red, Grey or Black

female Red Guards

self-appointed Red Guards

the reign of terror

attacks on Confucius

attacks on officials

attacks on officials' wives

sadism and rape

scapegoating and family conflicts

to the countryside to learn from the peasants

damage control

Chinese students and work

opening the world of the Chinese peasant

III. Post-Mao China, 1977-now

A. Deng Xiaoping and the Four Modernizations

agriculture

industry

science

defense

B. The One-Child Policy

birth control, abortion and health

boy preference and who gets the blame

boy preference, infanticide and divorce

permission slips and redefinition by gender

C. The Tiananmen Incident, summer 1989

natural outcome of capitalism?

overseas students and Taiwan?

freedom of speech? democracy?

student choices and grievances

female student leaders

D. Women and the new capitalism

large enterprises and CCP connections

smaller enterprises

prostitution and mercenary marriages

displacement and the homeless

E. The question of choice

culturally embedded roles and institutions

class and choice

media, imagery and propaganda

isolation, lack of education and marriage

the new nunneries: marriage resistance 1990s style?

education and dignity

spiritual fulfillment?

will they stay?