BOOK REVIEWS
151
The Chinese Family in the Communist Revolution is a worthy companion to the earlier volume by Marion J. Levy, The Family Revolution in Modern China, Cambridge, Mass., 1949. Levy analyzed the traditional Chinese family as a status-role system, and noted the disruptive tensions and the controls which had maintained the system until modern times. He related changes that were occurring in urban areas to the anti-traditionalist movements of the first three decades of this century, and to the weakening of the traditional controls. Yang gives a brief description of the traditional family, and discusses in detail the movements for change beginning with Kang Yu-wei in 1898 and continuing up to the end of Nationalist rule in 1949. The Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China promulgated in 1950 is contained in an appendix. The author discusses the theoretical origins of the law, and the implications of its implementation are traced through discussions of marriage, widow remarriage, divorce, and inheritance. He goes on to discuss the interrelationships of changes in the family, changes in the economy, secularization, clan disorganization, and the promotion of the state as the new focus of the individual's loyalty.
The second study, A Chinese Village in Early Communist Transition, is based upon field work (1948 to 1951) by Yang and his students in Nanching, a suburban village near Canton. Information on developments after 1951 came from articles in the China and Hong Kong press. Yang had to leave his field records in China, and the village study was written from memory in 1952. The author carefully distinguishes what could be recalled exactly, what data are approximations, and what press information from other areas of China is used as a basis for conjecture on later developments in Nanching.
The study is divided into three parts. Part I describes the village during the pre-Communist period, with particular attention given to the family, the economy, and the decentralized village power structure. Part II describes the early impact of Communist rule, through the land reform program, on the economy, on the family, and in the formation of a new power structure in the village. Part III is based upon press reports of collectivization in various parts of China, with conjecture as to the further changes which probably occurred in Nanching after the author's departure.
BOOK REVIEWS
151
The Chinese Family in the Communist Revolution is a worthy companion to the earlier volume by Marion J. Levy, The Family Revolution in Modern China, Cambridge, Mass., 1949. Levy analyzed the traditional Chinese family as a status-role system, and noted the disruptive tensions and the controls which had maintained the system until modern times. He related changes that were occurring in urban areas to the anti-traditionalist movements of the first three decades of this century, and to the weakening of the traditional controls. Yang gives a brief descrip- tion of the traditional family, and discusses in detail the move- ments for change beginning with Kang Yu-wei in 1898 and continuing up to the end of Nationalist rule in 1949. The Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China promulgated in 1950 is contained in an appendix. The author discusses the theoretical origins of the law, and the implications of its imple- mentation are traced through discussions of marriage, widow remarriage, divorce, and inheritance. He goes on to discuss the interrelationships of changes in the family, changes in the economy, secularization, clan disorganization, and the promotion of the state as the new focus of the individual's loyalty.
The second study, A Chinese Village in Early Communist Transition, is based upon field work (1948 to 1951) by Yang and his students in Nanching, a suburban village near Canton. In- formation on developments after 1951 came from articles in the China and Hong Kong press. Yang had to leave his field records in China, and the village study was written from memory in 1952. The author carefully distinguishes what could be recalled exactly, what data are approximations, and what press informa- tion from other areas of China is used as a basis for conjecture on later developments in Nanching.
The study is divided into three parts. Part I describes the village during the pre-Communist period, with particular atten- tion given to the family, the economy, and the decentralized village power structure. Part II describes the early impact of Communist rule, through the land reform program, on the economy, on the family, and in the formation of a new power structure in the village. Part III is based upon press reports of collectivization in various parts of China, with conjecture as to the further changes which probably occurred in Nanching after the author's departure.
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