Abstract
In this chapter, I first sketch a brief history of Dougou village since 1949, focusing on the livelihoods of villagers in Mao’s period and the post-Mao period. I then introduce the different ‘generations’ of houses in Dougou since 1949, because of their relevance to villagers’ everyday family life, especially the living arrangements of the elderly villagers and parental obligations to provide houses/rooms for their sons’ families. Finally, the third section elaborates on the local implementation of policies and practices related to elderly care in Dougou. The background information provided in this chapter facilitates deeper understanding of the ethnographic and interview data presented later in the book.
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Notes
- 1.
Chiang kai-shek (1887–1975) was then the leader of the Republic of China.
- 2.
Information from Michah Muscolina, Yellow River Flood, 1938–47.
Retrieved from http://www.disasterhistory.org/yellow-river-flood-1938-47
- 3.
In the early part of the CCP’s regime, it launched the nationwide land reform movement (1949–1952), which redistributed land to peasants. The party divided the rural population into the following classes according to how much land they owned in Old China: landlords, rich peasants, middle peasants, poor peasants and agricultural labourers. Land was confiscated from rich landlords and peasants, who accounted for about 10 per cent of the population but who owned about 80 per cent of the land. Peasant associations were established to redistribute land among the rural population on an equal basis, the members of which were recruited from poor peasants and agricultural labourers, the classes most enthusiastic about revolutionary changes. Livestock, farm tools and surplus houses were also confiscated and redistributed (Chen, 2005, pp. 348–351).
For a full account of the land reform movement, see Hinton, W. (1966). Fanshen: A documentary of revolution in a Chinese village. University of California Press, and Crook, I., & Crook, D. (1979). Ten Mile Inn: mass movement in a Chinese village. Pantheon Books.
- 4.
Chengfen is one’s class status, such as landlord, rich peasant, middle peasant or poor peasant.
- 5.
The Republic of China period followed the Qing Dynasty (the last imperial dynasty of China), from 1912 until the end of the Civil War, when the National Party retreated to Taiwan and the Communist Party founded the People’s Republic of China.
- 6.
1 mu = 666.7 square metres
1 mu = 0.16 acres.
- 7.
Launched in 1958, the Great Leap Forward was an ambitious campaign to transform China’s economy within a short period. Mao intended to substantially enhance agricultural and industrial output by mobilising the masses, and channelling their enthusiasm and revolutionary fervour. Unrealistic production plans and targets were established by the central government. Traditional forms of agriculture were derailed in favour of novel and untested schemes to increase production, and false reports of inflated outputs were delivered by local officials in order to please the central government. By the end of 1959, the Great Leap Forward had proved a total failure, producing a widespread and grievous famine, in which between 20 and 30 million peasants died. Henan was among one of the six hardest-hit provinces (Wen, 2005, pp. 235–238).
- 8.
For more information on work points, see Myrdal, J., and Kessle, G. (1975). Report from a Chinese village. London: Pan Books.
- 9.
According to Myrdal and Kessle (1975, p. 35), the following are prices of some basic items in a Shanxi village in 1962. Villagers recalled that the prices in Dougou during the collective period were very similar to those listed below.
Cotton wadding: 1.005 yuan/in; knitting wool: 8.05 yuan/jin; handkerchief: 0.435 yuan/each; rubber shoes: 4.59 yuan/pair; salt: 0.16 yuan/jin; cooking oil: 0.72 yuan/jin; biscuits: 0.70 yuan/jin; electric light bulb, 15-watt: 0.63 yuan/each; enamel basin: 2.10 yuan/each; alarm clock: 16.3 yuan/each; bicycle: 178 yuan/each; thermos, 2.5 liter: 2.62 yuan/each.
- 10.
In ‘serial division’, according to Zhang (2004, p. 86), ‘the first married son sets up a separate household soon after his marriage, leaving his parents and unmarried younger brother(s) living in the old household. This same process repeats itself when the second son marries, until the last son, who often stays with his parents in the old residence’. This form of household division was common in Dougou in the collective period.
- 11.
1 jin = 0.5 kilogram.
- 12.
The Cultural Revolution, also known as the Great Cultural Revolution, was a violent and destructive political campaign aimed at reshaping China into a truly revolutionary and egalitarian society. It lasted from 1966 to 1976. The movement intended to clean up feudal remnants, the so-called Four Olds—old customs, old habits, old culture and old ideas. The Red Guards (mainly revolutionary youth in urban areas who were enthusiastic about Mao’s communist ideals) were mobilised to attack all kinds of authorities (including party leaders, teachers and professors) who were considered enemies of the proletarian class (see Zhang, 2005, pp. 226–229).
- 13.
After Mao died in 1976, Deng Xiaoping came to power in 1978 and initiated the opening-up and reform policy and the household responsibility system. Under the household responsibility system, ‘households could obtain land from collectives in return for contracting to meet a minimum target of production for sale to the state at fixed prices, any surplus being saleable on the free market …’ (Hunter & Sexton, 1999, p. 38).
- 14.
Following the collapse of the collective communes in the early 1980s, most villages lost the collective welfare funds on which the Cooperative Medical Scheme depended (Lei & Lin, 2009, p. 26). As a result, membership of the scheme decreased sharply, from 90 per cent in 1980 to about five per cent in 1985 (Liu & Cao, 1992, p. 504). Health care became unaffordable for many peasants.
- 15.
The central government launched the New Cooperative Medical Scheme in 2003, a new government-run voluntary health insurance programme. In this scheme, individual premiums were minimal, because it was heavily subsidised by local and central government (Yang, 2013, p. 22). According to Ma, Zhang and Chen (2012, p. 1059), ‘By 2010 the fee for participants had increased to only the equivalent of US$4.50 per month’. Currently, the NCMS covers most rural residents: 97.5 per cent of the rural population was covered by 2012, and ‘government contribution to insurance premium increased from 10 RMB (US$1.60) in 2003 to 240 RMB (US$38.51) in 2012’ (Yang, 2013, p. 3).
- 16.
‘Big’ diseases usually refer to those that require expensive medical treatment, such as cancer, stroke and heart disease.
- 17.
The term ‘old age home’ is used here because these two places do not provide nursing care to their residents, and the residents are required to be capable of self-care on admission. I use the term ‘nursing home’ to refer to the ‘Xihua County Honourable Court’ as this place provides residents with nursing assistance.
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Cao, F. (2019). Setting the Scene: Dougou Village. In: Elderly Care, Intergenerational Relationships and Social Change in Rural China. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2962-3_2
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