Changes in Family Life in Modern China

(a) Changes in material life and social customs since the modern era Since the Opium War, Chinese society has undergone profound changes: economically, the natural economy of self-sufficiency began to disintegrate, the emergence and development of China's national capitalism, and the emergence of the trend of industrialization; politically, the western capitalism of the constitutional monarchy, the idea of civil rights, and equality, the emergence of the trend of democratization; ideological and cultural aspects of the traditional Confucianism, and advocate the study of the West, there is a trend of science and democracy. In terms of ideology and culture, we oppose traditional Confucianism and advocate learning from the West, and there is a trend towards science and democracy. After the founding of New China, we are moving step by step towards modernization, towards material, spiritual and political civilization. Along with these changes, there have been significant changes in the social life of modern China. (1) Clothing: People's clothing basically reflects the economic outlook and degree of modernization of a country or region. Before the Xinhai Revolution, a number of benevolent men and women took the lead in rising up to cut off their pigtails, which symbolized the Qing Dynasty, to show their determination to oppose feudal dictatorship. After the Xinhai Revolution, the Nanjing Provisional Government issued a decree on the cutting of pigtails, and within a few years, most of the men in the country had cut off their pigtails; the change in dress was the emergence of the Zhongshan suit and the cheongsam; and the abolition of foot-binding, which was detrimental to the physical and mental health of women, was also abolished. For a long time before New China's reform and opening up, people wore the same gray Zhongshan suit or blue liberation suit, which was described as "a sea of blue (gray)", and people had to buy clothes with a cloth ticket at that time. After the reform and opening up, with the development of the economy, clothing styles have gradually diversified, men's clothing to suits and jackets, women's clothing more styles, denim is the favorite style of young people of both sexes, the most popular. Show new styles of fashion show after fashion show, the ever-changing fashion is dazzling. (2) food: food habits have a strong national heritage, but also by the natural environment and production methods of great influence and constraints. For example, rice is the main food in the southern rice farming area, while beans, wheat and corn are the main food in the northern dry farming area. During the Republic of China period, there were new changes in the dietary structure. In some coastal cities, western food has gradually become a fashionable delicacy. Cigarettes imported from foreign countries crowded out the dry and water cigarettes in China. These phenomena have brought about changes in China's traditional food industry. However, in the vast countryside, the poor peasants still ate chaff and swallowed food, and there was no market for Western food there at all. in the late 1950s to 1960s, the state implemented food rationing for urban residents. With the development of the economy, especially since the reform and opening up, the dietary structure of the vast majority of people is changing. The main thing is to diversify the diet, with a gradual decline in the proportion of staple foods and a gradual increase in the proportion of side dishes and fruits. The content of staple foods is also changing, with fine grains such as rice and flour being the mainstay, and the number of people eating cornmeal and sorghum flour gradually decreasing. Meat food, all kinds of fresh aquatic products, fresh vegetables, and beverages are available everywhere. (3) Live: In terms of residential construction, the old-fashioned houses in the cities and thatched roof houses in the countryside still existed in large numbers during the Republic of China period, and in the coastal cities, some rich merchants and bureaucrats built "foreign buildings". In the city houses, there are electric lights and running water, which make life convenient for the general public. After the founding of New China, especially from the 80's onwards, the housing of the residents has been constantly improved. Not only has the living area per capita expanded, but the interior decoration and living environment have also improved significantly. (4) Transportation: Transportation in the Republican period has been improved to a certain extent. Sedan chair and horse-drawn carriage were gradually reduced, and rickshaw and bicycle became the common means of transportation. There were asphalt roads, public **** cars and streetcars in the cities. Highway and railroad transportation also developed. After the founding of New China, there were great changes in transportation. Many new railroads were built, and in addition to buses and trams, urban transportation also included rental cars, and a few large cities began to have subways. The main means of personal transportation for people in urban and rural areas is the bicycle, which is why China is known as the "Kingdom of the Bicycle". Civil aviation has developed rapidly since the reform and opening up of China, and now all citizens can take airplanes. Traveling on holidays has been a major change in the lives of many people in China since the 1980s. People gradually broke the past closed living environment, out of the family, out of the townships and counties, out of travel. (B) the development of modern transportation, communication transportation: (1) the end of the 19th century, the great powers competing in China to invest in the construction of railroads, such as Russia, Germany, Britain, France were built in the Middle East Railway, Jiaozhi Railway, Guangzhou-Kowloon Railway, Yunnan-Vietnam Railway and so on. By building the railroads, the great powers gained high profits, and controlled a large area of land and resources along the railroads, as well as the transportation of armies, etc. Wherever the railroads extended, the Great Powers controlled them. Wherever the railroads controlled by the powers extended, their power extended there. (2) The first railroad built by the Chinese themselves was the Jingzhang Railway, which was built by Zhan Tianyou. (3) There was some development of transportation during the Republican period. (4) After the founding of New China, the People's Government renovated the old railroads and rebuilt many new railroads and highways, forming a brand-new network transportation pattern. Such as the 1950s, the new Baocheng, Eagle Xiamen and other railroads *** more than 30, Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge was completed, Kangzang, Qinghai-Tibet, New Tibet Highway was completed; 1957 to 1966, Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway was completed; 1966 to 1976, Chengkun Railway, Hunan-Guizhou Railway, Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge was completed. Since the reform and opening up, the Daqin Railway and the Beijing-Kowloon Railway have been constructed; the Ningxi Railway and the Qinghai-Tibet Railway are under construction, which is a major initiative to support the development of the western part of China. (5) In the early days of the founding of New China, the development of civil aviation was slow. After the reform and opening up, the restrictions on air travel have been gradually relaxed, and more and more people are traveling by air. There are now dozens of airlines, and the number of routes and flights continues to increase. Nowadays, there are air routes to big cities and some medium-sized cities in China, and there are direct routes between big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai and many other countries. Communication: Modern communication occurred under the influence of the second technological revolution. It was introduced into China at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and during the Republic of China period, the communication undertakings such as postal service, telegraph and telephone, which were only limited to official use, developed to a certain extent and gradually became the main way for the people to contact each other. In the 1950s and 1960s, communication mainly referred to the delivery of letters, but now, in addition to the traditional postal delivery of ordinary letters, registered letters and airmail letters, express and special express programs have been added. since the 1990s, the use of fax machines, or through the network of computers, and friends and relatives thousands of miles away from each other to exchange e-mails. Telephones have largely spread to towns and villages, and more and more people are using pagers and cell phones. In modern times, mass media such as the press, film and television, radio and computer network technology have gradually become more popular, and these have further enriched people's spiritual and cultural life. For example, digitalization, mainly characterized by the Internet, is changing the world. I was born in Qingdao, Shandong Province in the countryside, 30 years ago, I should say that in the country as a whole is not very poor, these years I witnessed a lot of changes:

One, the standard of living has improved. Clothing: only the New Year's Eve to have new clothes to wear, of course, summer to buy sweatshirts pants another story, now the children of the old family dress has been almost the same as in the city; food: the past food is very bad, I told my children that I was a child of the winter staple is the groundnuts the children said that you're really happy when I really have mixed feelings, and now the children of the old family can often eat seafood; live: when I was a child living in the earth tamped wall house, now many people in the village to live in the building, and the children of the old family can often eat seafood. Now many people in the village to live in the building; line: 30 years ago, I live in the township to the county seat of the county only two shuttle buses a day, now the village are open to the bus running hair; entertainment: 30 years ago, the nearby town of the middle school has a color TV, summer on the playground to put, around the village go to see the people; work: 30 years in the village, there are only two tractors, and now almost every family has a farm machine, the level of agricultural mechanization greatly improved.

Second, the ideological outlook is not much improvement. 30 years ago, backward, ignorant farmers today are still backward, ignorant, although the illiteracy rate is very high to now universal 9-year compulsory education, but people in the ideological realm is not a great improvement, but 30 years ago have been extinct land temples are now villages and villages have rebuilt.

Three, the increase in income is mainly due to part-time work. My father's generation are facing the soil back to the sky planting, now the young and strong have entered the factory, rely on simple mechanical labor to earn thousands of hundreds of dollars / month's wages, the ground income excluding price factors have not changed, nothing more than the past, planting food is not profitable to pay the retention, and now free of charge and tax exemptions, more or less earn a little bit of income in agriculture to improve very little.

Four, village officials may be the most lack of supervision of the leadership cadres. In the past, people said "don't take the village officials as cadres", now the village officials can be really great, especially located in the urban and rural areas, by the whole country to engage in real estate affected by a large number of land sales in the village of the village secretary! This may be the largest collective corruption! Specific means are various, but the collective property transfer to the village officials in the hands of the phenomenon is not the case. For example, the village to engage in a company, the village two committees of a cadre of people became the company's "executives", through backroom operations, the village's wealth has become the company's assets, and the company's ordinary people are not share. The change is indeed too great.

It is not something that can be explained in a few words.

Clothing, food, housing and transportation have changed in every aspect, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it has turned the world upside down. To be honest, I don't know much about it.

I guess it's amazing how much has changed, and even more amazing how much has stayed the same!

Supplementary: the change is amazing needless to say, Shenzhen should be considered the first choice, right? （

I think what's even more amazing are the ones that have changed little or stayed the same.

This morning I watched the Green Space program about the lives of villagers in the mountainous areas of the Nu River Basin, and I marveled at how unchanged they have been for decades, seeing the zip line, an eight-year-old girl who crosses the zip line alone 2 times a day in order to go to school, and a few others who have lost their lives due to the zip line 。。。。

Today, I watched the TV program about the trafficked woman who has been locked up in a kiln for 15 years, and once again marveled at the amazing constancy of the unchanging countryside! (It seems to change only the deterioration of the environment and people's cruel indifference) This year is the 30th anniversary of the reform and opening up, as Chinese people know that 30 years, China's reform and opening up has made great achievements:

China's reform and opening up for 30 years, China's farmers' annual per capita net income has increased from 134 yuan to 4,140 yuan, and their living conditions and quality of life have been substantially improved and improvement. Farmers' memories and statistics bear witness to the dramatic changes in their clothing, food, housing, transportation and use.

Change 1: From "not having enough to eat from farming every day" to "not farming but eating well"

Contrasting the past and the present: "Before the Great Patriotic Purchase, my family consisted of five members, and the production team distributed grains in every season, and we could take them home in our coats. I was often starving." In the 1980s, Qian Yongyan of Qianxi Village, Pancun Township, Mingguang City, Anhui Province, served as a cadre in the village, and in the late 1980s, he began to engage in aquaculture, and is now a farmer-entrepreneur. He said, "In the past, I couldn't get enough to eat even if I farmed every day, but now I not only get enough to eat, but I eat well."

Figures and comments: from "not enough to eat" to "eat well", reflecting the life of farmers "across the poverty into the subsistence, across the subsistence into the well-off," the two major changes. Before the 1980s, China's peasants had to make a living. Before the 1980s, China's farmers generally live in poverty, Engel's coefficient as high as 70%, starting in the 1980s, with the package production to the household widely carried out, China's farmers crossed the line of subsistence, Engel's coefficient fell to 60%; into the new century, especially with the implementation of a series of policies to benefit the rural areas, including the abolition of agricultural tax, farmers continue to improve their lives, Engel's coefficient fell to 50%, reaching the well-off line. The well-off line has been reached.

Change 2: From "one coat for many seasons" to "one coat for many seasons"

Contrasting the past and the present: "In the past, the children's clothes could be worn as long as they were able to wear them, and a piece of clothing had to be worn by a number of children, and the older brother wore it for a small time and passed it on to the younger brother. The first time I saw this was when I was a child, and the second time I saw it was when I was a child. But unlike now, a child's beautiful clothes may have a big box." Najiadu Village, Yanghe Town, Yongning County, Yinchuan City, Ningxia Province, 81-year-old Hui old man Na Zhibang said that at that time there was a shortage of everything, to buy food stamps, clothes to make their own, and to buy cloth but also cloth stamps.

Figures and comments: "Three years of new, three years of old, three years of mending". This is the memory of the previous life of many farmers. With the improvement of income level and the change of consumption concept, China's farmers' clothing consumption is changing. In Ningxia, for example, in 2007, the per capita consumption expenditure of farmers in Ningxia reached 2528.8 yuan, of which the per capita consumption of clothing 184.3 yuan, 28.8 yuan than in 1983, an increase of 155.5 yuan, an increase of 5.4 times.

Change three: from "dry barriers", brick houses to "villa building"

Contrast between the present and the past: "When I was more than 10 years old, the village are living in dry barriers of the house, can not dream of the day to live in the building. I can't dream of living in a building one day." Jiangxi Wuning County, Qingjiang Township on the Bay Village, 54-year-old Qiu Jili so said. In recent years, 31 households in the village of Shangwan, all government support to tear down the old and build a new, built a small building ranging from 2-4 floors, each family building running water, flush toilets, the building is hundreds of acres of green carpet outside the hanging melon, the entire village as if it were a cluster of villas on the outskirts of the city.

Numbers and comments: 70s "dry barriers", 80s brick houses, 90s concrete, into the new century to build new rural areas, farmers began to live villas. Jiangxi Provincial Bureau of Statistics figures show that in 2007, Jiangxi farmers per capita housing area of 11.8 square meters in 1980 increased to 36.8 square meters; of which the brick structure and reinforced concrete structure per capita housing area of 34.26 square meters, accounting for 93% of the housing area. Jiangxi Provincial Bureau of Statistics Agricultural Division Director Ye Dexiang said that 81% of the province's agricultural housing has sanitation equipment, of which 14% for flush toilets.

Change 4: from "catching" to "tourism"

Contrast between the past and the present: "Originally, sunny days, a gray, rainy days, a muddy, yellow mud everywhere, have leather shoes do not dare to wear! ", said the village road changes, Jiangxi Anyi County, 47-year-old villager Liu Shangjia endless. Now the village groups and groups, households and households are connected by concrete roads. In the remote mountainous area of Gannan, the original farmers go out mostly to catch the market, many people are rare to go to the county town once in a lifetime. But in recent years, Xunwu County, several species of navel orange fruit farmers, but the spontaneous organization of travel to the United States, incidentally, to study the production and marketing of the U.S. New Chips navel orange.

Numbers and comments: At the end of 2007, the townships in Jiangxi Province, the basic through the asphalt or cement roads, administrative villages through the oil (cement) road rate and through the highway rate of 71% and 93%, respectively, nearly 1/4 of the natural villages through the oil and cement roads. The road is good, with the popularity of bicycles, motorcycles, small cars began to go into the farmhouse, farmers go further and further. 2007, Jiangxi Province, 2% of the farmers to travel.

Change 5: from the "old four pieces" to the "new N pieces"

Contrast between the past and the present: under the government's subsidies, Liu Guoping, a farmer in Yushui District, Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province, recently installed a solar water heater. He said, "With a solar water heater, there is no need to burn wood or consume electricity, which is affordable and convenient." Some farmers in Shandong have the habit of keeping a diary. The reporter saw that Liu Zongshui, a farmer in Zouping County, recorded in his diary the process of updating his family's TV set many times; in the diary of Yang Chunling, a farmer in Pingyuan County, his neighbor's purchase of a "home theater" and a computer were all recorded by him.

Figures and comments: In the past 30 years, China's farmers have constantly upgraded their household consumer durables, from bicycles, watches, sewing machines, radios, "the old four", to televisions, washing machines, tape recorders, refrigerators, electric fans, and video disk players, "the new six! ", to range hoods, water heaters, air conditioners, computers and other commodities, the grade is getting higher and higher. In Shandong, at the end of 2007, the province has realized the village electricity, telephone, per 100 rural households have 39 refrigerators, color TV 104, 61 DVD players, 57 washing machines, water heaters 23.

Change 6: From "dropping out of school due to poverty" to "free schooling"

Contrasting the past and the present: Zhou Xuexin, a 19-year-old girl from Gaoji Township in Dengzhou City, Henan Province, who works in Beijing, was very envious when she talked about her younger brother, who is still in middle school. She said: "Because of the family's bad situation, I read to the second year of junior high school dropped out. My younger brother caught up with the good times and didn't have to pay school fees to go to school." Li Xuefang, 51, from Qiao Liufan Village, Gaobeidian City, Hebei Province, spent more than 40,000 yuan on surgery in Beijing in 2007 for a serious heart condition, and received a subsidy of 12,000 yuan from the New Rural Cooperative Management Center after returning home. He exclaimed: "As a farmer, can be like the city people to see the doctor reimbursement, before I dare not think."

Figures and comments: The latest change in the lives of China's farmers on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the reform and opening up is that they have begun to enjoy public **** services in culture and entertainment, as well as education and health. Now, all rural compulsory education students in China are exempted from school miscellaneous fees, benefiting 150 million primary and secondary school students and their families nationwide. With the introduction of a new type of rural cooperative medical care, the level of medical protection for farmers has also entered a new phase. As of the end of March this year, 2,679 counties (cities and districts) nationwide have carried out the new rural cooperative, 800 million farmers participated in the cooperative medical care, the participation rate of 91%, they can enjoy the same as urban workers, the reimbursement of medical treatment.