Traditions
One of the biggest traditions is celebrating Chinese New Years. The new year will start beginning to mid January and end beginning to mid February, during this time there would be Lion dances, Dragon dances, fireworks, family gatherings, family meals, visiting relatives, giving red envelopes, and decorating with duilian. Red envelopes are special gifts given to people you love and care about, they are believed to bring good luck, they usually carry money and the amount of money will end in an even digit. Duilian are chinese poetry that are hung on the side of doors. Another tradition is to make a pilgrimage to the birthplace of Confucius, most people made this journey around his birthday September 28. These are only a few of their many traditions.
Roles
Family Structure
During the 1930s Chinese families were quite large and complex, in fact many families had many relatives living in the same house or unit, this was normal for an average household. Parents would live with one or more sons and their own families, usually one married son and his family. This will continue from generation to generation, they also call it the three- generation- stem- family. Marriages were arranged by the parents, and the law required you to marry someone from a different family. The husband- wife relationship was strictly to come second to the parent- son relationship, if there was a argument between his wife and his parents, the son was to take his parents side, even if it meant losing his wife. The purpose of a marriage was to continue the father- son line or generation.
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Women's main role were to provide solely for the men in their family including brothers, fathers, and sons. Women had no other rights, and were looked down on. Many chinese girls were often sold into slavery and endured suffering, such as foot binding,this was to symbolize the hardships of being a women. It was unheard of for a women to be educated in this time in age. Women were told to cook, clean and do manual labor, they were also put under lots of pressure to bear children especially a son. Men were considered “gifts” from god and treated like one. Men were seen as intelligent and strong, the men were the ones who ran the family, providing the money and receiving the education. Another one of the men's roles is to run the different branches of government, become great soldiers, farmers,and as well as merchants. Being seen as a gift from god also meant you were honored for wisdom and strength.During the 1930`s child were to wake at 6am, most every child was a boy or girl scout, they would wear their uniform to school. After dressing they were to brush their teeth, and wash their hands before breakfast. Older girls were to watch the younger siblings while their mothers cook. Around 8am children would walk to school, schools focused on family and treating them with respect, they were also taught to read and write chinese characters.Your after school activities were based on what your parents did, if you were a boy and your father was a farmer , you would help your father in the field, if your father owned a business then you would help him with his business. Girls would help their mothers with cooking, cleaning, and watching younger siblings..
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Religion
The three main religions in the 1930’s are Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Confucianism was named after the founder Confucius, Confucianism focuses on etiquette, priority, righteousness, and trustworthiness. Buddhism's mainly focuses on meditation and the eightfold path, the eightfold path is one of Buddha’s Four Noble Truths which as the basic principle for how they live. Taoism is a Philosophy, they believe that the universe should be balanced.
Daily Life
Life in the 1930`s was very difficult especially for the Chinese. Farmers were the lowest class and the majority of the society. Farmers live with 100 other families and work on small farms or their family farm. Farmers must work for the government for one month once a year, they are used to build walls, canals, and palaces. Food was determined by where they live, most people ate rice, if you live by the river you ate fish. People who lived in cities had jobs such as, craftsmen, merchants, people lived inside the city were locked in by a gate at dark and we not allowed to leave.
Government
Communism is theory that all is owned by the public, you are paid based on your abilities and needs. In 1921 a Communist party was formed. Mao Zedong started controlling in 1927 and lead China into a Cultural Revolution. The cultural Revolution was a time where people were killed in the streets, house were ransacked, and you were forced to read a book written by Mao Zedong. The Little Red Book were quotations written by Mao.
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