Peasants, Women and Revolution--CCP Marriage Reform in the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Area

PEASANTS, WOMEN AND REVOLUTION--CCP MARRIAGE REFORM IN THE SHAAN-GAN-NING BORDER AREA by Hua Chang-ming Throughout ·their long march to power, Chinese Communists have used marriage reform as a tool to create a new social order while liberating women's working forces and winning over young men and women by the call that the bondage of traditional marriage and patriarchal authority should be destroyed. The marriage regulations issued by the Jiangxi Soviet in 1931 and the Marriage Law of 1934 are considered to be the most radical in Chinese history. Both stress the principle of freedom of marriage against the traditional arranged marriage, against marriage contracted on the basis of any exchange of goods, and also provide for divorce either by mutual consent or on the request of a single party. Registration of marriage and of 4ivorce by local government was introduced, marking a departure from the past when marriage was considered to be strictly a family affair.[1] After having been driven away from Jiangxi, the Chinese Communists settled in Northwest China around Yan'an (Shaanxi), known afterwards as the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Area. Marriage reform was pursued in this area by introducing the 1934 Marriage Law of the Jiangxi Soviet, which was later replaced by other marriage regulations promulgated in 1939, 1944, and 1946 as a consequence of the United Front line taken against the Japanese invasion. The Shaan-Gan-Ning regulations maintained the principle of freedom of marriage, while providing a restrictive list of conditions for divorce. Similar regulations were issued by other Border Area governments during the same period. During the period 1935 to 1946, the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Area was one of the poorest regions in China. The land was very unproductive, as only dry crops such as wheat and millet could be grown in the light loess soil of the plains, and there was essentially no industry. Although most peasants owned their own land and landlords were very few in number,[2] incomes were miserable. Fully 97 to 99 percent of the people were illiterate.[3] The population was sparse with only fourteen inhabitants per square kilometer.[4] A disparity existed between the numbers of men and women, there being approximately 135 men for 100 women. [5.] The shortage of women, however, did not prevent their status from being very inferior. Childbirth, infanticide, poor nutrition, and inadequate health care for women and baby girls took a toll of many female lives. The poverty, high illiteracy, and unbalanced sex ratio all contributed to the marriage customs particular to this region: purchase of brides, marriage of children, and abduction of women for marriage. In such a setting, the reform of marriage proposed by the Communist authorities was both necessary and difficult. Marriage involving the purchase of brides The marriage reforms envisaged by the Chinese Communists encountered as a first obstacle the practice of "bride purchase." In this type of marriage arrangement, which was widespread in the Border Areas, the presents made by the groom's family at the time of the betrothal were not counter-balanced by an equivalent dowry coming from the bride's family, but were viewed as a compensation for the cost incurred by the bride's family in raising a girl. It was therefore not incorrect to describe marriage in this region of China as the trading of a bride for goods in kind or for cash. This was not necessarily the case in all other areas of China where the exchange of goods between the respective families was more evenly balanced. The Communist authorities in the Border Areas were aware of the prevailing situation and realized that the practice of "bride purchase" conflicted with the principle of freedom of marriage and contributed to the low social status of married women. Thus the law strictly' forbade marriages in which the bride was "purchased." Jiefang Ribao ·often published letters to the editor which, in condemnation of this custom and in support of these regulations, stressed the nefarious consequences of such marriages: adultery, spouse murder, and kidnapping. Yet, the very persistence of such letters throughout the years of my study demonstrates that little progress was made towards uprooting a...