ZHU Xiaohui*

 

Abstract: The liberation of women is the historical process in which women have striven for gender equality, freedom from oppression, confinement and discrimination, and are be?coming the masters of the society and their own destinies. According to the diversity in history and the state, the process can be divided into a serial of correlated phases, with each phase focusing on different issues. Sexism order in China had remained stable in the traditional society for centuries through a set of institutions. Women had believed in a sexual order and the rules of propriety, which advocated that men were superior to women. After the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, women's rights in politics, economy, society, and even family were recognized and secured by the Constitution and laws just as men's during a short peri?od. Women's liberation in China has made a significant progress.

 

Key Words: Human Rights; the Initial Stage of PRC; women's rights; women's liberation

 

A basic doctrine of contemporary human rights states that all people, regardless of races, ethics, colors, sexes, languages, religions, political or other opinions, nationalities, family backgrounds, properties, birth and other identities, are equal before the law. Their personal dignity, value and freedom are equally protected by law without discrimination. The concept of human rights emerges along with certain social and historical conditions and changes accordingly. Women's rights belong to the scope of human rights in contemporary times beyond all doubts, yet the process for women to win equal civil rights with men is rather long and difficult, which distinguishes it from ordinary liberations.

 

The literal meaning of "liberation" is to break away from oppressions and constrains. "Women liberation" refers to the historical process to overturn the oppressions on women, to release women from constrains and make them the owner of society and their own destinies. Compared with ordinary liberations, the specialty of women liberation lies in that the discrimination and oppression that women suffer are based on their gender difference with men. Such discrimination and oppression are not only shown in the level of institution but also in that of culture and ideology. Therefore women liberation in China can be divided into several different but related stages, each with different connotations. Women liberation in 1949 to 1954 mainly reflects in the following aspects: civil rights of women as "human beings" are fundamentally recognized; rights are endowed to women by the state and government; efforts are made in legislation to guarantee the equal economic, political, cultural and social rights of women with men.

 

 

 

The concepts of "human rights" and "feminism" were firstly showed up in Chinese in late 1800s or early 1900s. From the very beginning, feminism had been studied as an important part of human rights, and was discussed together with "human rights" and "civil rights." During this process, "feminism" was considered as the right or power of women. In the Modern Chinese Dictionary published by Kwong Ming Book Store in 1933, "feminism" referred to that "women enjoy equal social, political and educational rights and treatments with men."¹ Discussion on the Issues of Women (6 volumes) in Republic Series published by Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House in 1989 includes all 148 articles on women issues from 1910s to 1920s. The scopes of these articles are rather wide, including almost all female issues in 1920s from education, living, political participation, fertility, social activity to family, love, and haircut.

 

Though there was a heat discussion on women's rights and status, the influence was rather limited. Especially, for most ordinary women, their status didn't change too much, let alone the safeguard of their rights. Even women working in factories were still strictly constrained by traditional sexual order.² After the founding of  People's Republic of China in 1949, the idea that women should enjoy equal civil rights with men as human beings began to spread in which the power of state and government played a role of domination and guarantee. The strategy of the central government in women liberation was to fully use national legislative, administrative, economic and educational resources to empower women and to safeguard their interests through institutions, thus to change the disadvantageous social status of women and endow them with equal rights with men in politics, economy, society and family. Such rights were confirmed by the constitution and laws. The promulgation and implementation of national policies, laws and regulations provided institutional guarantees for women liberation. Women won equal political rights with men. "Women liberation" and "gender equality" become mainstream social discourses. Women were widely mobilized to walk from families to social production in a short time. At the same time, traditional family patterns were greatly impacted. With the safeguard of national institutions, women liberation reached an unprecedented level.

 

 

Some scholars held that women liberation in China was not won by Chinese women themselves but was "endowed" by the state thus there were great limitations. The opinion of American scholar Susan L. Mann was a representative. She thought that policies of the government during the initial stage, such as ban of concubinage, maidservant and commercial sex service and increase of the remarriage rate of widows, were to alleviate social contradictions. Thus class structure change along with the revolution caused sexual, political and social changes. However, such a process was not to promote sexual equality but to support production based on families and to maintain social order, which fixed everyone to their family and made it easier for the government to control.³

 

The largest problem of this opinion is ignoring conditions in China and made that of the Westerns the one and only standard of women liberation. In the western society, after the French Revolution in 1789, some women gradually realized the freedom that the revolution brought and the establishment of democratic system, which yet didn't bring good to them. Women were still excluded from public life. Obviously "men" in "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights," as stated in Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789), did not include women. During the French Revolution, Marie Gouze brought forward the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, proposing that women should have equal rights with men, thus initiated the movement for women to fight for their rights. After over one hundred years, western women gradually won the rights of education, work and political participation successively around WWI, which were established by laws accordingly. Without the long and hard struggles and resistance of women, women liberation movement could never be expanded, and constitutions and laws endowing women equal rights with men would be hard to be passed.

 

The situation in China was rather different from that in western. Sexual identity of women had kept stable in traditional society, which, along with a whole set of institutions, resulted in women's obedience to the sexual order and the rules of propriety which advocated that men were superior to women, and their conscious identification to the women's gender role. Gender roles are characteristics, manners, interests and behavior patterns desirable by societal norms and others for men or women based on their sex. Both men and women follow such norms to act consciously or unconsciously.⁴ The identification of gender roles is a process of socialization, during which what plays a key role is not the physiological factor, but the values and societal norms related to the societal roles of men and women. Though during the whole historical process, women's life had changed in different dynasties, yet the tradition which advocated that men were superior to women was never shocked.

 

Traditional sexist order of China was built up gradually. Entering Zhou Dynasty, the social order established by the Rites of Zhou clearly specified behavior norms of women. On the sexual order which highlighted the difference between men and women, the principles of men's priority and men dominating social activities and women dominating inner-family activities were set up.

 

Song experienced a changing period. Various schools of thoughts contended and created a rather loose ideological space for women. Though Cheng and Zhu's Neo-Confucianism confined the thoughts of women, yet its influence during Song was rather limited. Scholar-officials were rather tolerant to women's divorcement and chastity and widows' remarriage. Still the scholar-official class held serious bias and discrimination towards the nature and characters of women as before. Generally women were considered as carnal, evil, jealous and fierce. The opinion of Li Changling was rather typical. "The natures of women, mostly, are carnal and evil but less honest, moody and unreasonable. If imposed with strict requirements, something unexpected might happen. Their situations are unknown, and they might complain deep in their hearts. Thus there are few that don't do wrong when it lasts long. If imposed with loose requirements, their behaviors would go against rites. They would be careless and have no fears. Thus there are few that don't do cause messes when it lasts long."⁵ In this way, character and moral education must be inflicted to women. The textbooks used were Lessons for Women, Stories about Famous Women, the Analects on Women and the Classic of Filial Piety etc.

 

The rulers of Qing Dynasty spoke highly of Zhu's Neo-Confucianism and advocated "Three Obediences and Four Virtues" as behavior norms of women. Constraints on women's thoughts and behaviors in Qing were much stricter than before and the requirement for women's chastity reached the highest level in Chinese society. In Qing, the number of chaste, heroic and virtuous women commended by the government was more than millions, which was higher than ever. These women didn't only won names but also got some economic benefits. For example, the government would cost 30 tael silver coins to build a chastity memorial arch. Before the rule of Kangxi, the family with chaste women could be exempted from labor services. In contrast, those remarried women, no matter how chaste or heroic, they could never be commended. Due to the highly advocating of the rulers of Qing and the preaching of officials and scholars, the thoughts and theories about the chastity of women reach the peak.

 

 

In last Qing Dynasty, Chinese society gradually transited from traditional to modern. New thoughts, new concepts and new things began to spring up, such as the appearance of industrial female worker, the establishment of new schools, the return of overseas students and the increase of professional women etc. Female social activists also appeared. Tracing the source, these new things were also related to the western. People influenced by western thoughts kept advocating that women should have equal rights with men. What worth to be noticed is that among these people most were male intellectuals. Their purpose was certainly not to arouse feminist movements as in the west, but to connect the women's rights condition with the fate of the nation. They thought once the female got strong, the nation would be strong and would not be oppressed by the western states. This is a distinctive feature of Chinese women liberation movement.

 

However, in that situation, only a few women got benefits from the discussion of "feminism" and broke the constraint of traditional gender order. Most women were still under oppression. Traditional gender order was not substantively shocked in practice. With such a strong traditional gender order, and the lack western conditions such as the popularization of female education and female political participation etc., the road of women liberation in China was certainly different from that in the West. If they were the same, the road in China would be far longer and harder and Chinese women would be much bitter.

 

The Chinese Communist Party had long proposed to take women liberation as a special issue mainly because the special status and interests of women in society. Chinese women had been long and seriously constrained by feudal rites. Hadn't developed independent personalities and wills, they had been oppressed for thousands of years. Thus women had special requirements of rights, to win equal political, economical and social living rights with men. However, the conditions in China decided that women liberation was not only the issue of women, but was closely connected with national liberation and social liberation. Without the latter two, women liberation would not be existed. In this way, numerous women, along with men, made great contributions and sacrifices to national liberation and social liberation. Chinese government represents the interests of the masses, which of course include women. Complying with the requirements of time and women's yearning for liberation, Chinese government has made a series of policies and laws to promote and maintain the liberation of women. In this sense, Chinese women liberation is not endowed but is won by women themselves, or Chinese women liberation has made a great progress in the interaction between the nation and women.

 

 

 

In the history over thousands of years, Chinese women were deprived of basic rights in politics, economy and education etc., excluded from public social life, confined in families and constrained by various rites. The values of women only showed in families. Before married, they were daughters of fathers; filial piety prevails. After married, they were wives of their husbands; they had to serve for their parents-in-law and obey their husband. While having a baby, they were mothers; they had to breed the babies up. These values didn't only hide in statues, but rooted in social values and customs. The combination of inner values and outer regulations made the oppression of Chinese women much serious than that of western women.

 

At the end of 19th Century and the beginning of 20th Century, the concepts of "human rights" and "feminism" entered into China. New thoughts advocating women liberation and gender equality constantly emerged. Some women won the rights of education, work or ever political participation. However, most Chinese women at that time were still under the oppression and confinement of patriarchy, for whom both "human rights" and "feminism" were only flowers in the mirror.

 

At the initial stage, women were endowed equal rights with men by legislation, which promoted the awakening of women's gender subject consciousness and ensured the legitimacy for women to participate in public life. With the support of strong ideology, women liberation entered a new phase. With the direction of Marxism women liberation theory, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) carried out a whole set of policies, laws and regulations. In this period, the goal was rather clear, that is, to combine the issue of women liberation to the careers of the state or even the people. It was widely broadcasted that all the work of men could be done by women, even better, and encouraged women to walk out of families.

 

The New Chinese Women started on July 20, 1949 was affiliated with All-China Democratic Women's Federation and was an authoritative magazine for the CCP to guide feminism movement. Abundant articles were posted to report those women that walked out of families to participate in social work. Pictures were printed on the covers to highlight these new figures. For example, the cover of February, 1950 was Zheng Shuxiang, a plate-turning worker in the metal machinery factory and a first-class model in Lvda City; the cover of March was Tian Guiying, a train driver; the cover of January, 1951 was Fu Xianyun, a female welder in Jinan Train Inspection Center; the cover of October, 1953 was Kong Qingfen, a female steamship driver. What worth to be mentioned is that they entered the careers that used to be dominated by men, worked with them and got the same pay. Later Mao Zedong stated that the time was different; men and women were the same. What men were capable of, women were capable of too. Taking part in social work to win economic independence was the first step of women liberation. At the same time, it shocked the traditional patriarchy, and admitted women's values out of family.

 

 

Western feminism challenged gender essentialism in 1970s, which held that physical structure differences decided that men and women were different in natures. Women were gentle, obedient and maternal, and were suitable for housework and child care. Feminists against essentialism thought that femininity was not innate but was an acquired quality. What decided women's nature were social genders but not physical genders. Genders were structured in society. Feminism took that women should resist the defining of women's natures. There were no differences between men and women. What men were capable of, women were capable of too; women should enter social public fields, working equally for equal pay. With the support of state power, Chinese women reached this goal in 1950s. Policies in this stage caused some problems, such as ignoring physical specialty of women, blindly stressing that women could do what men did and caused physical harms to some women. But after all, women's taking part in social work as men greatly shocked traditional patriarchy. Their values were not only limited in families but expanded in society since then.

 

According to Marxism classic theory about women liberation, the primary condition is to walk out of homes to take part in social labors, to enter public fields from the private fields of families to win economic independence. This was the central idea of CCP's women policy at the initial stage and was consistently followed, which was not an expedient policy in the situation where labors were in great shortage. Those typical figures of new women that walked out of homes and participated in social labor actively were not due to the consciously ideological propagandas of the state to reach its goals, which had nothing to do with women's real will and experiences or was even liberations forced to women. In contrast, for many women, these new figures provided new convictions about gender identification and gender roles and aroused their courage to challenge traditions and customs.

 

In countryside, since women could work in the fields for work-points, which made their contributions to families externalized, their status in families got improved which provided them happiness of respects. Take a woman in the countryside of Ankang Region in Shanxi for example. In the past, busy with housework and baby-care, she seldom worked on farms. Her parents-in-law and her husband looked down upon her and thought she was futile and was only able to cook for children at home. While participated in farm labor, she was modest and eager to learn. Soon she mastered lots of farming skills. At the end of the year, what she earned was more than her own needs. Since then, her parents-in-law changed their views and their family became more harmonious.⁶

 

 

Women's right of political participation has long been taken as an important index of women liberation. After the Revolution of 1911, feminist movement striving for women's right of political participation began. In November 1911, Lin Zongsu organized Women's Political Participation Club and demanded Sun Zhongshan to admit women's right of political participation. Yet Sun refused. Though some local governments allowed women to participate in political activities, overall women's right of political participation was denied in a long period.⁷

 

That women won the right of political participation which was widely applied in political practices was embodied in the Electoral Law of National People's Congress and Local People's Congress at All Levels passed on February 21, 1953, which clearly stipulated that men and women had equal rights to vote and to be voted. The Constitution passed on September 20, 1954 stated in particular that women had equal rights to vote and to be voted with men; women had equal rights with men in all aspects of politics, economy, culture, society and family lives.

 

Women's participation in politics objectively stimulated their enthusiasm for public affairs, which at the same time increased their longing for education. In October, 1950, the New Chinese Women posted a set of articles, telling about the stories of ordinary women. Among these female workers, there was a young widow, who had received 2 years of education and was living in the chastity for her husband. After the founding of the central government, her enthusiasm for study was aroused and finally became a government official. Another one used to be a child bride in the village, who took an active part in the rural work and become the president of women's union of the village. But her lack of education and illiteracy caused great inconvenience to her work. Thus she gathered women in the village together and started a literacy class to learn culture knowledge. It was the first time for some women to read and write their own names, which highly increased their self-esteem. Women were no longer men's vassal, but were "persons" with independent personalities. They had their own names that would be written down. In October, 1950, the New Chinese Women published an article named A village woman Tan Chunhua was Elected As the County Magistrate, telling a story about how an uneducated village woman gradually became a leader. Her story made quite a stir in the local region. Though it was secured by national systems and institutions, the stories of these women were inseparable with their strong will to change the existing gender order.

 

Throughout the history of women liberation, what women strived for first were the rights of education, work and political participation. To reach this goal first of all women had to prove that "all that men could do, women could too" to strive for the same civil rights with men as "human beings." Reviewing this opinion now, it limitation is obvious. It ignores the physical features of women. However, at that time it was an affirmation to the human rights of women and laid a foundation for women to further pursuing their interests.

 

 

 

Families had long been the place where men were superior to women, which strictly followed the rule of patriarchy. The first basic law published after the founding of the PRC is Marriage Law (come into force on May 1, 1950). In the form of laws the state implemented the equality of men and women within families, eliminated women's affiliation to fathers, husbands and sons, and confirmed that women were subjects with independent personalities and enjoyed equal civil rights with men.

 

Article 1 of the Marriage Law abolished the feudal marriage system which forced to arrange marriages, advocated men's superior of women and ignored children's interests, and implemented new democratic marriage system which advocated free marriage, one husband and one wife, and protected the legitimate interests of women and children. An Ziwen, the leader of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee at that time, wrote an article stating that "In politics, the feudal power has been cracked down; in economy, the land reform has finished in some areas, or is still undergoing in some other areas. But the survival of feudal thoughts still leaves in the minds of the masses or even in the minds of some party members. Such thoughts exist in many aspects, especially in marriage issues, which have brought great harms to the people."⁸ The guiding principle of the state was clearly embodied in the principles of the Marriage Law and the article of An Ziwen. The fundamental aim in changing the unreasonable marriage system was to totally eliminate feudal patriarchy and realized the equality of men and women within families.

 

The soul of the Marriage Law is the freedom of marriage, that is, free marriage and free divorce. "The orders of parents and the words of matchmakers" had long been a rope around the necks of young ladies, which deprived of their rights to choose spouses and sometimes even sold them like goods. American scholar Gayle Rubin observed that in pre-state society, exchange was the main form of social communication. In such a society various things circulated in exchange—foods, rites, tools, powers and women, where women were taken as exchange objects.⁹ From then on, women lost their independent personality and became the vassals of men. The Marriage Law endowed women with the right of free love and the right to choose spouses. Since then they are no longer goods or vassals, but independent persons of flesh and blood. They have the right to dominate their own marriage, which stroke the family rule of patriarchal tremendously.

 

 

The custom of child brides has a long history in China. Though in some families, child brides were raised like daughters, yet most child brides' fates were rather miserable. Once entered the family of her mother-in-law, a little girl had to work like an adult. Not having enough to eat or wear, they were always assaulted by the mother-in-law, or even beaten to death. The Marriage Law banned child brides definitely. Related policies stipulated that child brides should be allowed to return their own homes or look for other spouses according to their own wills. If they were not satisfied after consummated, they could plea for divorce; if they'd like to stay, family members of the husbands' shouldn't assault or bully them. In January, 1951, New Chinese Women posted a case. Becoming a child bride, a girl was frequently beaten by her parents-in-law. They beat her to disabled and forced her to work. She could no longer stand it and went for a suit in the court. The court dismissed her marriage according to the Marriage Law and ordered her husband's family to bear her medical bills. However, some women were not as lucky as her. A man in Shang County of Shanxi kept assaulted and beat his child bride. After the issuing of the Marriage Law, this woman applied at least 20 or 30 times to the officials in the County or the District for divorcement, yet those officials only persuaded her to return to her life. On April 8, 1953, she was slashed over 20 times by her husband while she was dealing with divorcement procedure and was badly injured.¹⁰

 

The Marriage Law exerted great impact on the traditional status of men and women within families, thus came across strong resistance in implementation. In October 1951, New Chinese Women published an article of the Secretary of the Supreme Court. According to the calculation of the article, in the past year the number of women that committed suicide or being killed due to marriage problems in the Middle and North Area had reached 10,130.¹¹ This was already one year after the issuing of the Marriage Law. The resistance of implementation did not only come from ordinary people, but also from leaders or officials. Among the women that committed suicide or being killed, some had went to local governments or courts for divorcement, but was ignored. Out of desperation, they were killed or committed suicide. The Head of Civil Affairs Office of Weinan in Shanxi thought that "the divorcement of all the 13 women in this year was result from their indecent behaviors." It was not rare in Weinan District that militiamen violated marriage policies and got together to catch adulterous couples; or, officials took advantage of their power refusing to write cover letters for those applying for divorcement, preventing divorcement and forcing people to fight etc. Even some people were hounded to death due to marriage problems.¹² However, no matter how strong the resistance power was, in front of national legal systems, the core of the Marriage Law—the freedom of marriage and divorcement—was still got implemented in practices, which strongly guaranteed women's rights.

 

 

To secure the implementation of the Marriage Law, the Central Committee of the CPC, the Central Government and social groups published a series of orders, notices and instructions.¹³ The Instructions on Implementation of the Marriage Law issued by the Central Government on February 195 stated definitely that in some areas, due to the leaders' or officials' partial understanding to Marriage Law, it didn't got broadcasted seriously and correctly; and, marriage disputes were not solved properly. Some officials even held a resisting attitude to the implementation of the Marriage Law. They supported the past feudal customs and intervened into marriage freedom. As a result, in these areas arranged marriages or mercenary marriages were still quite popular. Women continued to be oppressed and bullied. The events where women committed suicide or got killed still kept taking place. This was definitely unbearable. The Instruction mentioned particularly that in women's striving for marriage freedom, it was inevitable that some would come across difficulties in living or be oppressed; thus, party and government offices and people's organizations at all levels should provide necessary protection, relief and temporary shelters for them and should not shirk from the responsibilities.¹⁴

 

According to the requirement of this Instruction, to make the Marriage Law well-known, all powers were mobilized to propagandize it in all means, which left most people some knowledge about the Marriage Law and eliminated false ideas such as "the Marriage Law is women's law" and "the Marriage Law is a divorcement law." Women's status in Families got improved.

 

Article 7 of the Marriage Law stipulated that "husbands and wives are partners in living for each other, and are equal." While talking about it, the famous French Feminist Julia Kristeva said that it could serve as the ground for women to keep their family names after getting married. "Men's family names, as we say, are the symbolic equivalents of social unions and social powers, thus is imagined to possess some masculine value of phallic. In this way once the law allow women to keep their family names, it stroke patrilineal relative structures and improved the status of women in symbolic power. Women's man-like helped them to escape from cook benches and bedrooms. Family names became a psychological therapy and medicine to change women's weak in cultures, politics and economics."¹⁵ The propaganda and implementation of the Marriage Law influenced thousands of families and increased women's status within families, and caused great crash to the traditional gender order which advocated men prevailed women and men took in charge of external affairs and women took in charge of internal affairs. It influenced women's gender identification and encouraged them to challenge the old gender orders. It changed traditional concepts of families and was helpful to increase women's status within families. Freedom and democracy gradually increased within marriages and families and the relations between couples became equal, which promote the harmony of families.

 

 

From Jin Tianhe's Nv Jiezhong in late Qing and early Republic period, to the great discussion on female issues in the Republic period, this topic had been discussed hotly and widely. However, for most ordinary women at that time, the influence was rather limited. They were still under the confinement of patriarchy. They didn't get any rights; or, even if they got some, there was no safeguard. After the founding of the People's Republic China in 1949, the state provided women equal rights with men through legislation, which shortened women's striving for liberation, reduced their cost, increased their education, protected their rights to take part in political lives and increased their status within families. All these above stimulated women's enthusiasm for self-liberation and self-improve, changed their knowledge about questions such as what women were, what women's natures were and what women's roles were. Without the strong political support and institutional safeguard of the state, women's road to strive for equal civil rights with men as "human beings" would be much longer and harder. Without women's crying and wish for equality, it would be difficult to implement the rights endowed by the state and to mobilize women's initiative to participate. The interaction between state's endowment and women's will finally broke patriarchy's confinement to women, which had lasted for thousands of years. Women's civil rights in as "human beings" won admission, respect and secure in economy, politics and families, which laid a good foundation for the further development of women liberation.

 

(Translated by XU Xinyan and ZHANG Kai)

 

* ZHU Xiaohui ( 朱晓慧 ), Associate Professor at School of Marxism of Fudan University and Researcher of Human Rights Research Center of Fudan University.

 

1. See Mizuyo Sudo, China: the Changing of Feminism: Human Rights and Social Sexes in Late Qing and Early Republic years, Social Science Academic Press, 2010, at 51.

 

2. Susan L. Mann, Gender and Sexuality in Modern Chinese History, Cambridge University Press, 2011, at 48.

 

3. Ibid., at 61.

 

4. Database of the Encyclopedia of China.

 

5. Fang Jianxin, XuJijun, Chinese Women's History (Song Dynasty), Hangzhou Publishing Group, 2011, at 436.

 

6. Li Qiaoning, Chen Hairu, Daily life of Women in the Countryside of Shanxi (1949‒1965), China Social Sciences Publishing House, 2014, at 138.

 

7. In 1911, the temporary provincial capital of Guangdong divided the numbers of representatives to all fields, allowing each to elect their own representatives. Among the total number of 165, Women's Union got 10, which marked the born of the first group of female representatives in China. See Mizuyo Sudo, supra note 2, at 119.

 

8. An Ziwen, the Implementation of Marriage Law and the Elimination of Feudal Thoughts Survivals, New Chinese Women, May, 1950.

 

9. Peggy McCracken, Feminism Reader, translated by Ai Xiaoming & Ke Qianting, Guangxi Normal University Press, at 45‒48.

 

10. Supra note 6, at 35.

 

11. Min Ganghou, "Judicial Officials Must Solve Marriage Cases Fast and Correctly," New Chinese Women, October, 1951.

 

12. Supra note 6, at 22.

 

13. On May 1, 1950, the Central Committee of the CPC issued the Notice on the Implementation of the Marriage Law; on April 30, 1950, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, the All-China Youth Federation, the All-China Students' Federation, and All-China Women's Federation co-issued the Co-Notice in Support of the Marriage Law of PRC to people's groups at all levels; on September 26, 1951, the State Council of the Central People's Government issued the Instruction on Examination of the Implementation Situations of the Marriage Law; on September 26, 1951, five organs including the All-China Democratic Women's Federation co-issued the Co-Notice on Further Assisting the Government on Implementing the Marriage Law; on February 1, 1953, the State Council of the Central People's Government issued the Instruction on the Implementation of the Marriage Law; on February 18, 1953, the Central Committee of the CPC issued the Supplementary Instructions on the Propagation Campaign Month of the Marriage Law; on February 24, 1953, the All-China Democratic Women's Federation issued the Notice to Democratic Women's Federations at All Levels in Support of the Instructions, the Supplementary Instructions and in Memory of International Women's Day. See All-China Women's Federation, Important Literatures on Chinese Feminism Movement, People's Publishing House, 1979.

 

14. Ibid.

 

15. Julia Kristeva, Des Chinoises, translated by Zhao Liang, Tongji University Press, 2010, at 123.