REPORTS ON NATIONAL CULTURE AND EDUCATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600350191-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 191
• Publication Date: October 5, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

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CLASSIFICATION conF'IDENTIAL CONFIDE IA
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
WHERE ,
PUBLISHED Shanghai
DATE
PUBLISHED 21 Jun 1950
LANGUAGE Chinese
THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS INIORNATION AIPICTIHA THE NATIONAL Dill MSt
01 THE UNITED STATES WITHIN THE MEANING OF ESPIONAGE ACT SO
U. S. C.. 71 AND SE, AS AMENDED. ITS TRANSMISSION ON THE RIVILATION
Of ITS CONTENTS IN ANY MANNER TO AN UNAUTHORIZED PERSON IS PRO-
MISITSO SY LAW. REPRODUCTION OP THIS IORII IS PROHIBITED.
Rein-wen Jih-pao.
DATE DIST. .4' Oct 1950
NO. OF PAGES 6
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
REPORTS ON NATIONAL CULTURE AND EDUCATION
The following report on-culture and education was presented to the National
Committee of the,CPPQC (Central People's Political Consultative Conference) on
li June 1950 by .uo Mo-jo, Minister of Education.
A. Nation-Wide People's Political Education Movement
This movement began, when the Central People's government was established,.
as a movement of the people for self-reconstruction in a democratic fashion. It
was the political foundation for cultural and educational efforts. Chairman Mao
has said that only no we have a people's government can we on a national scale
reconstruct our way of life free from reactionary influence, which still persists
in'strength, and follow a new road towards socialism and Communism. This is the
nature of the present movement.
1. By adopting the three great resolutions, especially the Common Program,
the masses have come to see the basic difference between the old and the new
China. Most of all, workers and peasants have come to feel themselves possessors
of the New China. Racial unity has been strengthened. Intellectuals have re-
vised their old ideas. The mistaken middle-of-the-road concept has been swept
away.
2. The masses have made progress in distinguishing between the world's two
great camps -- that of peace, led by the Soviet Union, and that of imperialist
aggression headed by imperialistic US. They have come to-see that the US and her
running doV;VV are the deadly enemies of the Chinese people and are stirring up a
third world war, while the great friendship of the Soviet Union has consistently
refuted the shameless slanders of the reactionaries. They recognize the USSR as
the great supporter of world peace, and more than 10- million have signed the Peace
Appeal.
3. Among the masses and the intellectuals, labor has come to be recognized
as honorable, and the working class is receiving widespread respect. In factories
and. mines the workers have inaugurated produt,tion contests and set new records.
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4. The concept of service to the people has gained among intellectuals
and government workers. Educated persons have joined the revolution and re-
construction movements, working hard and showing a fine example of construc-
tive activity.
The masses being thus awakened, our people's democratic dictatorship
has been strengthened, national reconstruction has been forwarded, and re-
sources for preserving world peace have been increased. This is a great vic-
tory in the ideological war.
This victory is, of course, a reflection in consciousness of the revolu-
tionary
success which is due to Chairman Mao, the government, and all who
took part in the struggle.
The national learning movement has been made possible by several factors:
Political colleges and training classes have been set up enrolling at
least 470,000 persons of aU types, the largest number being intellectuals
and students. Various political groups have been represented, Communists,
democratic parties, nonpartisans, and even former reactionaries.
Indoctrination of college and middle-school k 'chers and students has
been effected by setting up political courses in schools as soon as an area
has been liberated. Such courses include history of the growth of society,,
economics, new democracy, etc. After such courses, 20 percent of the nation's
students have joined the New Democracy Youth Corps.
Learning has been organized among workers, peasants, and city dwellers.
As soon as an area was liberated, labor unions and state enterprises were es-
tablished and a lively political education movement was started. With the
arousing of political awareness, there came new demands for higher culture,
skill, and political knowledge; therefore, night schools and leisure-time
schools for workmen arose, and up to the present they have enrolled more than
500,000 persons. Among peasants, this effort took the form of winter schools,
which, during the past winter and spring, enrolled 10 million persons. There
were 14,000 urban schools, with nearly 700,000 pupils.
Great stridas have been made in literature, drama, radio, publications,
etc. In the first 3 months of this year, more than a million copies of revo-
lutionary works were issued. Sociological lectures on the People's Radio in
the last 2 months have linked together 206 organized units of listeners cover-
ing 20 provinces. The play Red Flag Sow had a continuous run of more than
1CO performances in Shanghai, setting a record. These are just a few examples.
Much has been accompli .::d but there remains yet much more to be done under
the Common Program.
B. Nation-Wide Cultural Reconstruction
Our national inneritance here leaves much to be desired. Even in the
older liberated areas the culture and education work, although well done, is
still insufficient. This topic will be treated under six heads: education,
health, science, art, press, l blications.
1. Education
According to incomplete data, there are in the whole nation: 227
colleges and universities with 134,000 students, 3,690 middle schools with
1,090,000 students, and 212,890 elementary schools with 16 million students.
These figures do not include political colleges and classes.
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Distinguishing between government and private institutions, the for-
mer comprise 61 percent of the higher institutions, the latter 39. Private
schools are also found in considerable proportion among the middle and elemen-
tary institutions. Where land reform is finished, and the economy partially
restored, the number of students exceeds pre-liberation numbers, and the qual-
ity of the students is radically changed. In 1949, enrollment in the North-
east had increased 60 percent and in North China about 50 percent over Kuomin-
tang times. Children of the poorer classes predominated.
Partial reports (excluding Inner Mongolia and the Southwest) give
the number of government health centers of all types as 1,2:5, with about
30,000 beds and 28,000 workers. There are no figures for private centers.
Full-fledged Western-trained doctors number 18,000; those trained in native
medicine far exceed this number.
The China Academy of Science has taken over 22 societies belonging
to the former Academia Sinica and the former Peiping Research Institute.
Some of these overlapped, but after reorganization, there are now in China 14
scientific research institutes, one observatory, and one industrial laboratory.
Besides the 14 above-mentioned institutes there are 93 units devoted to the
study of natural science, 17 science centers, and 39 instrument factories.
It. Art
There are three motion-picture studios located in the Northeast,
Peiping, and Shanghai. There are 467 movie theaters; 206 state-operated, 251
private, 10 joint. Other theaters Legitimate?7. excluding the Northeast,
number 161 in 18 chief cities. The Northeast has 82. Cultural workers so-
cieties number about 400, with 40,000 workers.
The nation has 624 newspapers and periodicals. Of the newspapers,
165 are dailies, 122 state-operated, and 43. private. In addition, there are
216 army papers. In May, partial figures showed 153 dailies issuing 2,600,000
copies. The nation operates 51 government and 32 private (22 of these in
Shanghai) radio stations: the government stations are by far the most power-
ful. In news reporting, the Hsin-hua News Agency has seven branches, 46 sub-
branches, among them three overseas.
6. Book Publishing
The government-owned New China Bookstore now has 887 branch stores,
about 30 printing shops, with a capacity about one-fourth that of the whole
nation. Private publishing housed number 244; six are jointly operated. In
the three regions, Northeast, North China, and East China, in the first 3
months of 1950, all houses published 878 titles, 52 million copies. Of these,
the New China Bookstore published 40 million.
The Ministry of Education has also been reorganizing and expar.ding activ-
ities along the following lines:
After the educational- conference in December 1949, short-course
middle schools were started for workers and peasants. In the first half of
1950, 13 experimental schools of this type were set up. Some were set up
among troops and government workers. This work will be expanded in the autumn.
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Many spare-time schools have been begun in factory districts. A recent gov-
ermaent directive stresses this. The same objective can beat be attained in
rural districts by the use of winter schools. Many of these have continued
as year-round schools.
b. Rorming Higher Education
(1) The People's University. Drawing on Soviet experience, we
have tried to fit education to real conditions, to build cadres for the na-
tion's use. Students are carefully selected.
(2) Reconstituting the Peiping Higher Normal School with new
courses and methods to prepare teachers for the nation.
(3) A conference on Higher Education, held this month, has re-
constructed the scheme of higher education, welding theory and practice, to
furnish well-nualified leaders for the nation. The doors have been thrown
open to peasant-worker cadres.
The Ministry of Public Health sent out this spring 395,196 vac-
cine ampules, sufficient for 24 million persons, of whom at least 16 million
have already been treated. Not one caSO of smallpox appeared in Dairen,
where 95 percent of the population were.vaccinated. As to plague,'last year
it was wiped out in North Chahar and now there is a whole string of plague-
prevention stations between Kalgan and Kuei-sui. When plague broke out in
the Lui-chou peninsula, the Health Ministry brought 153 workers down from
Manchuria to help stamp it out so our invasion troops for Hainan could escape
it. We have also helped with such work in Chekiang, Fukien, Yunnan, etc.
More than b million persons have been supplied with preventatives.
Special attention has been given to sanitation in the calamity
districts of the Huang Ho basin, north Anhwei and Kiangsu, Ping-yuan, etc.
It is planned to immunize 480,000 persons this year against tuberculosis.
During 1950, we plan to make 26 story films, 17 documentary, one
art, 46 newsreels, and 40 films translated from the Russian. We are helping
private film companies, and by degrees reducing the distribution of the in-
ferior British and US pictures. In the first half tf this year we loaned 6
billion yuan and 220,000 Hong Kong dollars to the film industry. Progressive
films have largely crowded out those from Britain and the US. We must now
push the production of China-made and Soviet-translated films, to help native
industry and attract larger crowds of movie-goers.
Another project in this field has been the bringing of films to
troops, factories, and villages. We plan to increase the 100 film teams to
700, to have some 20 operating in each province.
In this we have worked in close cooperation with playwrights, ac-
tors, and other artists belonging to the previous order. In fact, they them-
selves have taken an active part in remodeling plays, songs, etc., to suit the
new order. Research institutes, training classes, etc. Y '.p in the transforma-
tion.
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f. Improving Newspaper Work and Strengthening Broadcast Activities
At a newspaper work conference in April, it was decided that
newspapers must be in close touch with the masses and do more judging and
self-criticism, fitting in with the national reconstruction and economic
policies, and furnishing leadership therefor. The Peiping Jen-min Jih-pao
and other important dailies are offering criticism and guidance to both gov-
ernment and people, thus gaining popular prestige.
Management has been put on a business basis, and distribution
improved by arrangements with the post office.
In the first half of 1950 we set up one international broadcast
station, and nine domestic ones; we took over six, and have five under con-
struction. The National Newspaper Conference arranged for a national radio
net, which is now being put into operation.
g. Coordinating Public and Private Publishing Enterprises
We are establishing a single system of sales outlets. The Pub-
lications Bureau is preparing to call a national conference of publishers
this fall, to reform the publishing business and to overcome the present con-
dition of being without government or plan. To provide effective distribu-
tion at low cost for all books publicly or privately published, the bureau
is detaching all publishing functions from the New China Bookstore, which
will become the nation-wide and sole outlet for the sale of books. This plan
is being readied for execution this fall.
h. Fostering Cultural Interchange Among Related Races
For this purpose, we have prepared broadcasts in Uighur and
Tibetan and Are preparing some in Mongolian. We hays published newspapers
in Uighur, Mongol, Kazakh, and Korean languages. We have established the
Sinkiang Institute, Lan-thou Racial Institute, and other schools for minor-
ity groups, and sent out photographers to tuce motion pictures of life in
Inner Mongolia, etc. Expeditions are being organized to visit and study the
Northwest and Southwest.
C. Problems in Executing Educational and Cultural Policies
The past 8 months have brought to light a number of problems.
1. In this time of rapid and tremendous change, we must take careful
steps in the reform of cultural conditions, working out the Common Program,
especially Article 41. Mao advises orderly change into service of the peo-
ple, neither too fast nor too slow. Cultural change it a tedious process,
calling for the united efforts of the patriotic intelligentsia.
2. In cultural reconstruction, we must aim for a union of theory and
practice, elevation and extension. In all spheres we must tie theory to
reality -- not merely in education as called for in Article 46 of the Com-
mon Program. Not only must there be high quality of education for leaders,
but also for the masses.
3. In public and private cultura: enterprises, we must hold to the
principle of conserving the interests of both sides, as provided in the Com-
mon Program. Private efforts should not merely be helped financially, but
by fostering ideological reform and progress. All our resources should be
pooled to meet the people's needs, with division of labor and mutual aid.
The groundwork for a united advance has already been laid for us in the Com-
mon Program. A firm material foundation has come into being through the suc-
cessful efforts of the Ministry of Finance..
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At the national party conference on'6 June, Chairman Mao indicated three
conditions for basic economic recovery: (1) land reform; (2) proper reorien-
tation of trade and industry; and (3) extensive reduction in cost of govern-
ment. With these fulfilled, he said, as they can be in about 3 years, we
should see basic national recovery.
This is a scientific prediction which we cultural workers should bring
about by striving together to fulfill the conditions. In about 3 years, we
may boldly believe, educational and cultural conditions will follow the na=tional economy into basic recovery. No difficulties can obstruct the advance
of the people's business.
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