Equality in China

   Minorities and Gender Equality in China

   Lesson Plan 1

   Lesson Plan 2

   Reflections by an American on Equality in China

The first issue is the treatment of people based upon gender. When China was ruled by emperors and dynasties, women were not treated the same as men. Examples of this abound even if we ignore the more disturbing issues of slavery and foot binding. Historically, there were very few women who actually exercised power in China. Most women's roles were those which were typical of most pre-industrial societies: wives, homeworkers, and mothers. Under communist rule female Chinese citizens gained more rights and have more control over their lives.  Their roles have changed even more as China has modernized since 1978.  Legally women have as many rights as men do in both the U.S. and China. However, in practice issues remain in both countries.

A similar story has been played out in regard to ethnic minorities in China. Over the past few hundred years minorities were actively suppressed or at best ignored. Eventually, the dominant group, the Han culture began to dominate. The Communist Party in China actively sought to enlist the support of the minorities by promising them equal rights and treatment. The Nationalists had the unfortunate position of appearing to back the status quo. Since the Communist Revolution the Party has attempted to live up to those promises, at least on paper. There are more minorities represented in the elected Chinese congresses proportionally than the comparable legislative bodies in the United States. Since the Communist Party still controls China, real power may be as elusive as it is elsewhere for those without the numbers to impact important elections.

Class distinctions were extreme under the emperors over the centuries. The court was literally forbidden to over ninety-nine percent of the population. A major goal of the communist revolution was to sweep away all class distinctions. In reality, even Mao saw that a new type of class had been created. The Communist Party now populated the upper levels. He attempted to alter this with the Cultural Revolution; today often called "the ten year disaster." In the new China evolving since 1978 some aspects of class structure have changed while others have not. Party members still have the vast majority of power, but other citizens also have gained in their influence to one degree or another. Increasingly, these class distinctions are determined by wealth, an education, or a favorable location. Again, some of this is similar to the class structure that has emerged in the "West."

Overall, a number of parallels exist between the amount of equal treatment afforded Chinese and American citizens. The more obvious contrasts are found when looking at Chinese history rather than at the present. While a surprising number of similarities can be found between "Modern" China and the United States, it is also true that there are still some sharp differences. The real answers to our questions are not easy. Exploring issues like equality should lead students to understand that complexity is the norm when dealing with most controversial issues.

Sources one can use for the lessons include:

• U.S. Constitution
• Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, by Jung Chang, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991.
• Constitution of the People's Republic of China - See section on Internet Connections 

General Goal:

Students will develop an understanding of China's ethnic minorities both in the past and the present. Students will also compare and contrast minorities in the United States with those in China.
 

Specific Objectives:

Students will demonstrate knowledge of the identity of some of the 56 ethnic minority groups in China.

Students will be able to list some of the ways in which China's ethnic nationalities have been protected by law.

Students will be able to list some of the ways in which America's ethnic minorities have been protected by law.

Students will begin to develop an understanding of the issues involving ethnic minorities.
 

Resources:

Teachers who choose to use these lessons can use the pictures, journals, video clips, lesson plans, etc. which are provided on the internet.  They need to have access to a library or other sources of general information for their students' use. These lessons and related pictures and materials are at the Indiana State University web site. Other materials can be accessed through the Internet by visiting  http://sun.sino.uni-heidelberg.de/igcs  [Internet Guide for China Studies]. Scroll down through the Table of Contents and click on "Law".  Also see http://www.qis.net/chinalaw/othrchn1.htm  .  Click on "The Best China Links on the Internet".
 

Activities:

1. Students, in small groups or pairs, brainstorm what human rights a country should guarantee to its citizens. Students should also explore what efforts should a government make to promote equal access and treatment? Post their results on the board or on large sheets of paper and have the class decide which should appear on a final list. The teacher will then briefly describe what rights people in the U.S. actually have.

 
2. After studying the rights which America's and China's minorities have under constitution and law, students will make a chart which compares and contrasts American rights with Chinese Citizens' rights. This search can be completed by an individual effort, a team of students, or pair can look for different parts of the material. The U.S. materials should be available in almost any library. The Chinese constitution is available on the world wide web (look up the embassy of the People's Republic of China). Also make the narrative in this lesson plan available.

 
3. Students can assume the role of a person who has one Han Chinese parent and one minority parent. They will write a letter to their parents explaining why they have chosen to be classified as either Han or as a member of an ethnic minority. An optional addition could be a role-play situation with one student playing the part of the child and another being the parent who disagrees with the decision.

 
4. As an alternative to or as the final activity for the lesson, students can write a persuasive essay, which attempts to show how U.S. or Chinese ethnic minorities experience equality or inequality in their respective environments.

 
5. An objective or essay test can also be used to evaluate the student's achievement of the stated goals.

   Minority Family in Kunming City, China

   Girl Tour Guide
 

Narrative:

Who is a member of an ethnic minority? What are the differences and similarities between the majority and the minority and are they treated differently under the law? Is it important to be aware of one's heritage or should minority people try to blend with the majority peoples?  Every major nation in the world deals with these questions to one degree or another. China, like the United States, has a number of ethnic minorities or "nationalities" living within its borders. The population of the USA is diverse in that its population is largely made up of people who came from other countries.  China's seems more uniform on the surface, but there are many culture groups with differences. There are at least fifty-five minority nationalities in China. There may, in fact, be more but some groups are so small that it is difficult to know whether to count them as a nationality. Another example of diversity lies in language. While the written language of China is fairly standard, the spoken dialects are so different that people from one region may need subtitles for movies made in another region.  For example, people from Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong read the same language, but they do not use the same pronunciation. That is, they can read what one says but not understand the spoken word. Some Chinese citizens don't speak Chinese at all. On the other hand, in the USA someone from the south can usually understand the English dialect of his northern neighbors.

How many people in the United States are "minorities?" Before we can answer that question we must first deal with what makes someone a minority. Today, it is probably a matter of personal choice for many people. That was obviously not true in the past when racial discrimination was written into the laws. Currently, some people who think of themselves as "Black" have almost as many European ancestors as African. Many "White" people undoubtedly have African or Native American ancestors. Who is Hispanic and what does that mean?  Are Mexicans, Cubans, and anyone else who speaks Spanish, culturally identical? All of this can, of course, become very political. With all of those difficulties in mind the total number of people who should be counted as minorities in the USA is probably unknown but may be near thirty percent.

As mentioned before there are dozens of ethnic minorities in China. However, they make up only seven to nine percent of the population. Statistics for these groups are unreliable. Widely divergent numbers are found in a variety of books and from different authorities. All of this is complicated because there is disagreement over which minorities should be included in which categories. Still, in a country as large as China a few percentage points can add up. There are over 100 million people who are ethnic minorities in China. Some of these groups on the surface appear almost indistinguishable from the majority Han Chinese. Other groups are more closely related to the Turks or the peoples of Southeast Asia. Some of them have at some point in history ruled China. The Mongols (Yuan Dynasty) or Manchus (Qing Dynasty) are examples. Others were conquered and subjugated centuries ago, such as the Dai, Bai, Miao, Wa, or Yuxi peoples. Some resist the central government, like the people of Tibet or the Uighurs who have rebelled several times. There are also issues related to religion such as Muslims. The Huis, for example, are Chinese who converted to Islam during the seventh century and form a religious minority within China. They continue to practice their religion today.

America has had and probably will continue to have problems caused by conflicts among different groups and disagreements about its minorities. So has China. Both countries have attempted to resolve some of the issues by passing laws and writing protections into their constitutions. The story of these struggles in the United States should be familiar to most American students. It will help them understand their own country better if they learn some of what another country, in this case China, has done in dealing with its own minorities.

The treatment of ethnic minorities in China's past, as in most countries in the world, has historically been poor.  Conquering a group followed by policies of extermination or assimilation were applied to many of the subjected peoples. There was little question of fairness or equality but only of the ability to enforce one group's will over another. With the Revolution of 1911, the rationale for one group dominating another was swept away.  In theory, China was to have a rule of law, not biased emperors. Difficulties arose for the new government and soon there was a split between the Nationalists and the Communists. Communism, of course, is supposed to bring more equality for the masses and Mao used the idea of giving better treatment to the ethnic minorities to gain an advantage over his opponents. The Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek, did not have a planned policy of mistreating the ethnic minorities but appeared to be less supportive of them than the Communists. The nationalists were also blamed for the corruption, which had been so prevalent in the government. By 1949, the Communists were victorious and started to put their program into place, including actions that benefited the nationalities (minorities).

Ethnic minorities are given special status within autonomous provinces and, in some cases smaller autonomous areas. In those areas extra efforts are made to see that an adequate education is given to the diverse nationalities. This may include training in the ethnic language or additional time in secondary school to prepare for college. There are also minority institutes which stress the culture of the minority groups. Preferential treatment is given in terms of admission to the institutes as well as graduation requirements. Literacy has increased in minority areas from twenty percent in 1949 to seventy percent in 1996.

In addition, the usual rules relating to number of children two parents can have are not applied to the minorities. Equal treatment before the law is guaranteed in the constitution. There are now popular elections which are open to candidates who are non party members at the local level in many areas. In parts of China where the nationalities have a majority, they are electing their own people to government office.  Furthermore, a certain number of positions in the government are guaranteed for minorities. This has resulted in a higher percentage of the various congresses being made up of minorities than in the USA.  How much power they have relative to that of the Communist Party is sometimes another question.

Finally we are faced with the crucial question; namely, are the ethnic minorities treated as equals to the majority Han Chinese in China? Sometimes equity laws may not be enforced locally. Sometimes in practice it is difficult to achieve equal opportunity. If a member of an ethnic minority moves to an urban area they often face discrimination based upon an inability to speak the correct dialect. In order to get a job, it is usually better to blend in culturally than to remain culturally separate, but this is difficult for some of the minority groups. One result of this equation is that over time more and more members of the ethnic nationalities become "Han Chinese." People move to areas where there are no legal benefits to being a minority and where there is less reinforcement of the minority cultural characteristics. Many do blend in. Also, if one comes from a "mixed marriage" it is their right to choose their ethnic classification. Being a member of a nationality outside of the autonomous areas gains one little economic or social advantage. Lastly, since the Communist Party holds the actual power rather than the elected congresses, how many party members are minorities? How does this compare to the numbers in the USA?

Why are these issues important? The ethnic nationalities of China are often concentrated in the outlying areas. Those areas contain a significant portion of China's land and many of its untapped natural resources. While it is true that the minorities make up a small part of China's total population, the support of millions of people is still an asset to the government. As over one billion Chinese attempt to take a more prominent place on the world stage certain things will have to be priorities. One priority is to maintain control of the resources and the areas from which the resources come. Another is to be fair to both their ethnic and economic minorities.

Goal: The student will have an understanding of gender equality in China.
 

Specific Objectives:

The student will define equality.

The student will trace the changes in women's equality in China since the turn of the century.
 

Procedures:

1. Through discussions and research the student will develop a workable definition of equality.

 
2. In studying modern China one needs to point out how the role of many woman has changed. You can do this by showing a video entitled "White Swans." Have the students observe the video. Then, have them write how the grandmother, mother, and daughter's life differ? Follow up the video by discussions of equality of women in China. (Do the Chinese women today have the same equality as women in the USA?)   Have the students do research using the Internet.

 
3. Students may wish to study foot binding, which was outlawed after the Communist Revolution. A typical adult women whose feet were bound wore shoes that measured less than four inches from heel to toe. Today with a communist government, women are equal to men under the law however, in actual life the family is a hierarchical structure with the man as the head.  Visit http://www.china-embassy.org and scroll down the index of Main Topics.  Click on "Political System" and then click on "Constitution".)

 
4. A student might like to research what happens to women after a divorce. As in the USA women often dropped in social-economic status. For example, since the family lives in an apartment usually furnished by the man's work unit, he usually keeps the apartment, and the woman may have to find living quarters somewhere else. Another problem facing some divorced women is that they sometimes find it too costly to support their child after divorce and have to find an alternative means for raising the child. Perhaps another family member or someone may wish to adopt the child. Chairman Mao is one of the greatest liberators of women in the history of humanity? How, what was the life like before the liberation and after the liberation for women? One of the most quoted lines in one of Mao's poems states, "Women hold up half the sky."

 
5. Using the constitutions of the USA and China the students will see how the laws are similar and different. Then they need to see if the laws are really applied. They may want to interview women of all ages to see if they feel they are equal to men. If there are any Chinese women in the area it would be great to have one come in and talk about women in China. (Also, you might want the students to use the Internet to find articles relating to women and equality.) Depending on the student's findings you might want them to explain how a country could obtain gender equality.

 
6. The student will compare equality of women in the USA and China.  How is it different?  How is it similar?  Are women equal to men?  Does equality mean the "same"?

   Woman in Traditional Dress

   Women and Children

   Taking a Rest

   Man and Older Boy

   Male Communist Leaders
 

Assessment:

1. Evaluate students on the paper they write about equality of women. Include observations on how equality for women has changed in China since the turn of the century.

 
2. Evaluate students on the comparison of the constitutions. (Did they include all the similarities and differences?)

 
3. Evaluate discussion of equality of women based on their critical reflection.

In addition to gender issues, China must deal with different races (in China they are called nationalities) and with economic inequality between urban verses rural life. These issues exist in most countries. The main point that I wish to make is that China, both its people and government are trying to improve on equality in all areas. One observation I made while visiting China was the many ways that China and the United States are similar. The United States is still a male dominated country, the United States still has problems with racial equality, and there remains an equality issue between our rural and urban areas. Like China, citizens of the United States realize there are problems and we are striving to reduce inequalities in the United States.

   Click on this arrow to return to the listing of topics for this section.
   Click on this arrow to return to the Table of Contents for the China Studies Curriculum.

---