CHINA(1938) ¹

A Conditions of Rural Life

The Chinese village

It has been estimated that China has a million villages with an average of four hundred persons for every village.The villages di Ther very widely in their composition and manner of living as may be seen along the Amur2, the Yangtze, the Yellow, and the Pearl Rivers, or on the plateaus of the Northwest and the plains of North China. Some of the villages consist of families descended from the same ancestor, have an ancestral hall, and are ruled more or less by the elder of the clan. Others are of a mixed composition. A scholar or a retired official may serve as a liaison between the magistrate and the villagers, and often he has the final word in local affairs. The more progressive villages have a more democratic rule and are administered by elected officers. In many villages a tea-house serves as a center for public opinion. An occasional grocery store supplies salt, vegetable, oil, sugar, paper, gasoline, and other necessities to the villagers. With the exception of a few landlords, most of the villagers live by farming. Commonly speaking, each peasant family has five or six members, and lives on 3.5 acres in the rice region or six acres in the wheat region, scattered in four or five places. Even this little piece of land in most cases does not belong to the farmer entirely or at all.The family is lucky if it has an ox or a donkey to help in the work. It usually has a pig or a sheep, two or three hens, a few trees, and a corner garden. Studies of land utilization by the University of Nanking reported that 15 per cent of the farm net income came from supplementary industries and services.These include weaving, milling, oil pressing, and the native industries of silk, tea, sugar, paper, utensils of wood, bamboo, and straw. Around industrial cities the villagers look for odd jobs in the free seasons.They also engage in peddling fruits, grains, or vegetables.

Population

According to expert estimates 12 per cent of the total population live in towns of 10,000 or more. It is safe to say that 80 per cent of the 450,000,000 are in the villages. Out of the yearly increase of 4,000,000 people an increase of at least 3,000,000 may be expected in the villages. This surplus population formerly sought its outlet in northeastern emigration into Manchuria, southern emigration into foreign countries, and with the growth of industries into the cities. Since the world depression of 1929 from 200,000 to 250,000 Chinese laborers abroad have been compelled to return to their homeland.There has been an annual peasant emigration of 150,000 to 180,000 toward the provinces north and northeast of the Great Wall, but this has been greatly checked by the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. The slow development of Chinese national industries, handicapped by foreign competition and without any protection by means of tariff, has not been an adequate outlet for the surplus peasant population.

Land problem and land policy

The land problem is most serious.The unequal distribution of land, the small size of farms, the share rent, and the increase of the landless have combined to precipitate the agrarian revolution in recent years.The seriousness of the situation can be seen from the tabulation given below:

An investigation of 58,569,000 farms in twenty-five provinces covering 1,148,874,000 mow of land showed the following results (one mow is equal to 0.164 acre):

Realizing the seriousness of the situation, the National Government in 1930 enacted the Land Law, which provided that, if the landlord is absent from the locality where his land is situated, the tenant may proceed to own the land under certain legal conditions after he has operated it for ten years. Rent shall not be more than 37.5 per cent of the main produce from the land. The farmers individually or collectively shall have the free use of the cultivated public land but they are not allowed to own it.The rate of taxation on improved farm land shall be one per cent of its value;that on unimproved land shall be 1.5 to 10 per cent of its value.The tenant is free to make any improvement he wishes on the land and will be compensated by the landlord.The tenant cannot be evicted unless he is two years in arrears in the payment of rent or has not operated the land for an entire year without proper reason.

The land policy of Soviet China, now incorporated as a Special District, may be cited in contrast. Here a survey conducted in 1926 by the Peasants' Committee of the Kuomintang showed that 10 per cent of the rural population owned 70 per cent of the cultivable land in China;15 per cent was owned by middle-class peasants;and only from 10 to 15 per cent of the arable land was owned by 65 per cent of the rural population—peasants, tenant farmers, and farm laborers. According to Edgar Snow the Northwest Soviet Government promulgated a land law in 1935 which provided for the confiscation of land not cultivated by the owners themselves, and the distribution of such land, waste land, and land of absentee owners among poor peasants. The term landlord included any farmer, the major part of whose income was derived from land rented out to others.The aim of the law was to guarantee the basis of a decent livelihood for every peasant family by providing sufficient land and abolishing tax exploitation.

Usury and cooperatives

In 1933 an investigation conducted by the University of Nanking into the indebtedness of the farmers of 850 counties in twenty-two provinces showed that 50 per cent of the farmers are in debt and 48 per cent of them borrow grain for food. On more than 90 per cent of the loans the interest was higher than 20 per cent per annum;on nearly 24 per cent of the loans the annual interest was over 40 per cent. Of the loans 95 per cent are borrowed from feudalistic sources (pawnshops, native banks, village stores, landlords, rich farmers, and merchants) and only 5 per cent from banks and cooperatives.

In order to check usury and to help relieve the peasants, the cooperative movement was originated in connection with the student movement in 1918. From 1918 to 1927 the movement was primarily social and philanthropic in aim. Since 1927 political motives have been injected in its promotion. The Chinese banks since 1934 have invested more and more of their funds in the cooperatives. Beginning with one cooperative in 1918 the number grew to 37,318 in 1936 with 1,643,670 members and a share capital of CN$5,139,795. (Note:At the present rate of exchange the Chinese dollar is worth 25 cents.)

On account of the lack of popular control, the requirement of property guarantee, and a rate of interest ranging from 12 to 18 per cent per annum—more than the prevailing agricultural income—the cooperatives have not on the whole proved to be of advantage to the poor peasants. Dr. Chen, after studying the cooperative movement, reached the following conclusion:“In brief, the original sponsorship of the cooperative movement in China came from intellectuals and leaders sincerely desirous of bettering the lot of the country's millions. But in the course of development and expansion, it has fallen a victim to all the social ills inherent in China's economy.…For individual usury is substituted collective usury.”

Soviet China also placed great emphasis on the cooperatives which have been continued under the present administration in order, among other things given in detail by Edgar Snow, “to raise the economic-political level of the masses”and“to encourage the participation of the lowest strata of society.”

Diseases and health centers

The rural population has suffered much more from diseases than the urban. The most prevailing diseases in the villages are malaria, consumption, and eye, teeth, and skin troubles. Casualties due to childbirth and infantile mortality are also high in the country because of lack of medical care and health information. Contagious diseases, such as smallpox, often levy a high toll upon the village people.

In recent years much work has been done, by way of experimentation and demonstration, in trying to improve the health conditions of the farming population. An independent National Health Administration was established in 1935. Consolidation of the work of the health services had been systematically developed in the seven provinces of Kiangsi, Hunan, Kansu, Ninghsia, Chinghai, Shensi, and Chekiang. Each provincial center has an administrative office, a hygiene laboratory, and a hospital. The work is furthered by hsien health centers, health stations, and health sub-stations or clinics in the towns and villages. Altogether 74 hsien health centers and 144 stations and clinics have been established. Demonstration centers have been established in Kiangning, Ting Hsien, Lanchi, and Chowping, which on account of the war have been moved to Central China. These village centers have attempted under the direction of the medical staff, to use village health workers who are laymen recruited in the villages and given only a short period of training in simple procedures such as smallpox vaccination, reporting of communicable diseases, births, and deaths, the use of a few simple drugs, first aid, and treatment of common skin diseases and simple surgical wounds. Throughout the country there are 27 medical schools, 217 schools of nursing, and 38 midwifery schools which are far from being sufficient for the overwhelming demands. A good beginning has been made, however, and the work is moving in the right direction.

Famine and the control of nature

Famine is a frequent visitor to China, and it is the farmers who suffer most from it. Among the causes of famine may be mentioned deforestation, lack of irrigation, inadequacy of river control, primitive methods of farming, the decline of agricultural production as a result of the increase of large landholdings, and the diminution of the size of cultivation which combine to produce the flood and drought that have often reduced the people to starvation. Further, owing to lack of means of communication it is difficult to transport food from one region to another.

In recent years there has been a great movement for reforestation. Students, civil officers, and peasants are encouraged at the Tsingmin Festival to plant trees.The Relief Commission has devoted its attention to building dams in order to provide better irrigation for the Northwest. For the year 1936-1937,$5,000,000 (Chinese) was appropriated for irrigation work and about$9,000,000 (Chinese) was used for conservation work on Hwai River, Hupeh Dyke, and the Haiho and Yunting Rivers. In scientific agriculture much has been done in the selection of seeds, especially cotton; the Central Bureau of Cotton Cultivation has increased the distribution of improved seeds in Kiangsu, Honan, Shensi, and Hopei from 570,000 mow in 1934 to 3,000,000 mow in 1936. Attention has also been given to the improvement of animal husbandry in the Northwest and to the Chimen tea. Finally, motor roads have increased from 1,185 km. in 1921 to 66,111 km. in 1931 and 96,345 km. in 1935.

External aggression and united resistance

The century-old aggression from outside has reduced China to a semi-colonial state. The recent aggression by Japan is threatening national existence. Here again the peasants are the ones who suffer most. First, foreign goods have destroyed the village handicrafts. Second, since China did not win her tariffautonomy until 1929, the development of Chinese national industry was handicapped and the peasants were unable to find sufficient employment in the cities.Third, the Japanese occupation of Manchuria closed a most important outlet for peasant emigration and made their life in North China much harder. Fourth, the smuggling of Japanese goods into the Chinese market without paying tariff duties since August, 1935, has been a most serious blow at Chinese industries and has been one of the main causes of unemployment as well as of loss of revenue to the National Government, amounting to $100,000,000 (Chinese) a year. Fifth, in the occupied areas the peasants are forced to sell their best land at a nominal price almost amounting to confiscation.

Since“divide and conquer”has been the policy of Japanese aggression,the only way to liberty for the Chinese is to “unite and resist.” The peasants in China have cast their lot to fight for national liberation. It is they who have formed the mass base for the Chinese Invisible Army that is now making it difficult or rather impossible for the invaders to secure permanent occupation of the country. Indeed, Chinese unity has been increasingly achieved. All armies are now fighting under the unified command of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and the Chinese peasants will play a decisive role in this historic struggle for freedom.

B Educational Conditions

Illiteracy and education

By illiteracy is ordinarily meant the inability to read and write. In this sense China has about 120,000,000 people who can be classified as literate and the rest, numbering about 330,000,000, can be called illiterate.The percentage of this kind of illiteracy is much higher in the villages than in the cities. But literacy takes a broader definition as education widens its scope. Should life itself be considered as education, then there is social, economic, and political literacy as well as school literacy. In this sense the peasants of some parts of China may have a higher degree of literacy than some scholars or farmers of the West. Yet academic literacy being such an important means to further one's own education, mass illiteracy among the Chinese peasants must be solved in order to help them to achieve greater progress. At the same time, in discussing this phase of the problem, it must not be forgotten that a real education of the peasantry must include an understanding of all the vital problems in relation to village life, an appreciation of all the forces that are affecting the farmers, and positive efforts to help them or guide them to help themselves to solve these problems and achieve a decent standard of living.

Elementary education

There are various types of elementary schools. First, there is the six-year elementary school comprising the four-year lower primary and the two-year higher primary courses.This type of school is usually located in the capital of the hsien , and is rarely found in the villages. Second, there is the four-year lower primary schools, most of which type exist in small towns and cities with a small percentage in the villages.Third, there is the one-year course which is primarily intended to reach village children. Fourth, there is the old-fashioned private school which is still the prevailing type in the villages.

The National Government has made a special attempt to spread the one-year course and to reform the old-fashioned private schools, which are induced to conform more or less to the standard of the one-year course. The subjects to be taught in the one-year primary schools are national language, composition, penmanship, arithmetic, citizenship, and physical training, distributed over thirty-six periods with 1,080 minutes per week.

The increase in the enrollment of pupils in these schools has been remarkable during the last two decades, and reached a total of 16,588,000 in 1935-1936. To this should be added another 7,000,000 pupils who are enrolled in the old-fashioned private schools, which, as a rule, are not yet registered.

The elementary schools are usually of small size and even in the cities they average around three classes per school. Very few schools have as many as ten or twenty classes. In the villages and small towns there is as a rule only one class per school. It is very interesting to notice the differences in per-pupil cost in the city and village schools. In the cities the per-pupil cost reaches as high as$28.71 (Chinese) while in the province of Kansu, where the population is mainly rural, the per-pupil cost is$4.77 (Chinese). It has been said that the Chinese peasants are generous in giving the children of the landlords a rich education, their own children a poor education, and themselves no education.

The number of elementary schools increased from 86,318 in 1912 to 293,000 in 1935-1936;the enrollment in the same period increased from 2,795,475 to 16,588,000 pupils, and the expenditure from$19,334,480 (Chinese) to$106,594,685 (Chinese) .

Adult education

Since the Literary Renaissance emphasis has been placed upon adult education to which a fresh momentum was given by the Mass Education Movement. A new demand for adult education was created by the Revolution of 1925-1927. Since that time the Government has undertaken to promote the movement. Its growth has been from 6,708 schools with 206,201 students in 1928 to 38,000 schools with 1,300,000 students in 1934-1935;the expenditure in the same period advanced from $466,562 (Chinese) to $1,900,000 (Chinese). The total expenditure for all types of adult education was$3,632,466 (Chinese) in 1928 and$16,900,000 (Chinese) in 1934-1935.

Compulsory education

In 1930 a twenty-year plan for universalizing education in China was adopted by the Second Conference of Education called by the Ministry. In 1935 the Provisional Outline for Enforcing Compulsory Education was promulgated, and provided that between August, 1935, and July, 1940, all illiterate adults and children of school age must attend the one-year primary school;between August, 1940, and July, 1944, the two-year course;and from August, 1944 on, the four-year course. Every primary school district must have one one-year primary school. For every five to ten primary school districts there must be one four-year school.The school age for children was fixed as from eight to twelve. Adults between sixteen and thirty are to be given preference in the schools. Parents or guardians are liable to a fine of from$1 to$5 (Chinese) for failing to send their children to the appointed schools.

The most notable feature of the Law of 1936 was that adult education was to be made universal within six years. The Ministry of Education in 1937 alone distributed 5,500,000 copies of text books for adults. Large numbers of radios were also distributed to enrich the educational program. A special fund to promote compulsory education was provided by the Ministry and the provincial governments amounting to $15,847,000 (Chinese) in addition to the regular educational expenditures for 1936-1937. Through these efforts there was an increase of 33,000 one-year and four-year primary schools with an increased enrollment of 3,400,000 pupils in 1935-1936.The forecast for 1936-1937 was an additional increase of 46,000 one-year primary schools and 3,000 four-year primary schools with another increase of 6,000,000 pupils.The Minister was optimistic enough to say that in two years (by the end of 1937) China would have 23,000,000 pupils.

Training of village teachers

The movement to give special training to village teachers was originated in the Morning Village Experiment in 1927.The promoters of this movement advocated that village teachers should be trained in a village environment.The prospective teachers should spend some time in living among the peasants, learning from them, and sharing their sorrows as well as their joys. Since 1932 private experiments have been discontinued and all normal schools have become government institutions.

There are now several ways of training village teachers: First, the normal schools admitting students with junior middle school graduation and offering a course of three years;second, the special normal course, admitting senior middle school graduates to a one-year course;third, the short-course normal schools admitting higher primary school graduates and offering a four-year course;fourth, the short-course normal classes attached to normal or middle schools admitting junior middle school graduates to a one-year course.

In 1932 there were 50,150 students in 477 village normal schools, and 18,712 students in short-course village normal schools;the number of students in the 141 village normal courses attached to middle and vocational schools was not reported.

The subjects of instruction in the village normal schools include citizenship, physical training, military training for boys, military nursing and domestic science for girls, hygiene, Chinese, mathematics, geography, history, biology, chemistry, physics, logic, manual and fine arts, music, agricultural theory and practice, village economy and cooperatives, irrigation, introduction to education, educational psychology, primary school subjects, methods and administration, tests and statistics, village education, practice teaching, extra-curricular athletics, and private study.The program calls for 60 hours a week, 36 hours for classwork and practice teaching and 24 hours for athletics and private study.

Experiments in village education

During the last fifteen years a number of experiments have been carried on in China in the field of village education;of these the following are outstanding.

(1) The Association for Mass Education , founded in 1923 by Mr. James Yen, has four objectives—health, vocation, citizenship, and culture. All work in educating the village people is carried on through three agencies, namely, the school, the home, and the social group.The Association advocated a reduced vocabulary for the peasants, usually known as the 1,000-character readers, and has a Training Institute for Rural Reconstruction consisting of four research departments in education, rural economics, agriculture, and public health.

(2) The Shantung Institute of Rural Reconstruction , founded by Mr. Liang Shou-ming, undertook an experiment in two hsien selected by the civil administration. Each hsien was divided into a number of districts which were further divided into a number of villages.The basic principle underlying this experiment is“government and education in one.”Accordingly, the administrative power of the district is vested in the district school;that of the village in the village school.The personnel making up a village school is composed of four divisions. (a) trustees, the village gentry who take charge of public affairs;(b) the principal, an elder who is supposed to teach the village people by example and precepts;(c) the teachers and supervisors;and (d) the pupils, the whole population of the village, men, women, and children.The emphasis in the economic reconstruction of the village is put on various forms of cooperatives. Village defense is emphasized for self-protection and discipline. A Research Department and a Training Department were also established.

(3) Kiangsu College of Education , founded in 1928 by Dr. Chao Tsungding, trains village teachers and administrators who prosecute research and experiment in rural education. A social survey has been conducted and studies have been made in psychology, adult reading materials, and educational literature.The college maintains four units of experiments, two of which are devoted to rural life and problems, with the threefold purpose of bettering the economic conditions, raising the civic competency, and spreading the education of the people. Other experiments have been directed to (a) utilizing the village houses and village teaching personnel for educational activities; (b) economizing time in school courses;(c) combining classes for children and adults and (d) organizing the village people for village reform.

Because of the present war, all these experiments have been moved to Hunan where, as reported, there exists closer cooperation than before. More detailed information about these experiments may be found in an article by Mrs. Chindon Yui Tang, on“Adult Education and the Chinese Village.”

Peasant education in Soviet China

The story of Chinese peasant education is not complete without an account of the educational activities in Soviet China. According to Edgar Snow, the Communists, as they passed through provinces populated by more than 200,000,000, held great mass meetings, gave theatrical performances, taxed the rich heavily, freed many slaves, and preached liberty, equality, and democracy.The aims of the agrarian revolution and of the anti-Japanese policy were explained. Education was provided to disseminate literacy, to train for the army, and to spread political theory. Mass organizations were formed for self-study groups under Communists or literati as leaders with propaganda material for texts.

The People's Education Movement

This movement, sometimes called the New Mass Education Movement, refers to an organization of education of the people, by the people, for the people. It was started about eleven years ago when a group of professors and students undertook to develop a method of education which would be of real service to the peasants.The aims of the movement, as defined in 1935, are to promote (1) the united defense of Chinese democracy;(2) world peace through international cooperation;(3) the uplift of the people by their own efforts;and (4) free education for all.

Relay teachers . For the present discussion the last of these movements is important. Because of the simplicity of its technique the peasants of China have been enabled to educate and qualify themselves more and more to participate in the great struggle for freedom. A system of relay teachers has been worked out;after a class is dismissed each pupil himself becomes a teacher and every home a center of learning. It has been found that one-tenth of the Chinese farmers are born teachers, capable of handling large classes with the added advantage that they speak the farmer's language and understand his problems.

Little teachers . In addition to the relay teachers, a system of“little teachers” has been established. School children who at the end of the school day return to their homes and teach their relatives and neighbours. Grandparents and grandchildren play and teach and learn together. Hundreds of thousands of “little teachers” are helping to disseminate education in China, with the special advantage that they can help women to acquire some education in a social situation where women teachers are few in number and custom frowns on men teachers for girls and women.

For some years progressive village schools have been guided by the principle“All come, all served.”With the increasing attendance at school of peasants and their children, the little teachers have helped to save the situation and have added to the principle the slogan“Those who cannot come will receive attention on delivery without charge”;to those who cannot come to the school, the little teachers deliver education in their homes. In this way the isolation of the school is broken down, the whole village becomes the school, and the light of education radiates everywhere. The lonely teacher in a ruined temple joined suddenly by tens of little comrades cannot fail to see a new vision of his profession and to feel uplifted to the historic mission that he is to fulfill.

The new script .The People's Education Movement is also interested in promoting a new script for the Chinese spoken language.The scripts for the Northern, Shanghai, Canton, and a few other dialects have been worked out. They treat the Chinese spoken language as a polysyllabic language and in so doing have succeeded in eliminating the minute symbols for the different tones. With the new script peasants in different localities can, by devoting an hour a day to it, learn to read and write letters in their dialect in one month.

Use of public places for education . Since money is not available for special buildings people willingly offer the only rooms they have for educational purposes. Not only are temples, tea-houses, and vacant rooms utilized in this way, but a shady tree or a nature-made open-air auditorium for larger meetings are sufficiently adequate places for mass meetings, the singing of songs, telling stories, learning simple truths, and discussing national and international problems.

Conclusion

With relay teachers, little teachers, the new script, and society as the school, peasants are enabled to provide an education by and for themselves. Education itself has changed;it is no longer a luxury for the few;it is like the sunshine for all to enjoy, like the air for all to breathe, like water for all to drink. A new peasantry is emerging in China with the help of all the forces that are cooperating in the villages.The farmer in Pearl Buck's The Good Earth striving to get more and more land for his own family in order to become richer than his fellow farmers is no longer an example for others to follow. Progressive farmers in China today desire to have land enough for each to live a decent life. A picture of the new Chinese peasantry is reflected in the following poem.

The Dancing of the Hoe

Take up your hoe!

Hail, Revolution

Take up your hoe!

The hoe must defend.

Cut off the weeds,

Long live the hoe!

The crops will grow.

Fight to the end.

Drive off the foe,

When fighting alone,

Sons of the Ancient Country!

The hoe can't stand long.

Under the hoe

Machines and hoes unite!

There is Liberty.

A new world is in sight.

Bibliography

Ministry of Education. Chinese Educational Year Book , 1934 (in Chinese). Shanghai.

Monthly Gazette , Vol. VII, Nos. 33 and 34, 1935. Shanghai.

China Year Book (English edition) , 1936-1937, 1937-1938. Shanghai.

Han-seng, Chen.“Cooperatives as a Panacea for Chinese Ills.” Far Eastern Survey , Vol. VI, No. 7. New York, March 31, 1937.

---. The Present Agrarian Problems in China . Shanghai, 1933.

Edgar Snow. Red Star over China . New York, 1938. Kit/8S+qX/h7JXZ09ThOFRZ+vVnHc7TSbMrozMBz8exoTTe1QhlClFX4Ht4HGGF8