A Research Of The Movement Of Publicizing And Implementing The Marriage Law In Wuhan In The Year 1953

The feudalism marriage system had existed in China for a long time, which had three main features: mercenary marriage and marriage upon arbitrary decision by a third party, unequal of man and woman, and ignoring sons and daughters' benefit. On the first of May, 1950, the marriage law came into force upon promulgation, and it indicated that China had abolished the feudalism marriage system from the law, and established the new democratic marriage system, whose characters are the marriage freedom, the sexual equality and protecting the children's legitimate benefit. On the eve of the movement of publicizing and implementing the marriage law, the feudal marriage had still been the dominant status in Wuhan. In order to eliminate the influence of the traditional marriage thoroughly and cause the marriage law to enter every family, along with other districts in China, Wuhan carried on the movement of publicizing and implementing the marriage law in 1953. This movement approximately passed through two stages: preparation stage (1953.1-2)and entirely publicizing and implementing stage(1953.3-4). After diligent endeavor, Wuhan's movement of publicizing and implementing the marriage law had obtained the remarkable result: basically destroying the feudalism marriage system and establishing the new democratic marriage. Affected by social economy,politics and the feudalism marriage ideas, the movement has some limitation. The feudalism marriage system still had a more wide spread influence on the marriage and family lives of the populace in Wuhan. Thus, thoroughly eradicating the feudal marriage idea, implementing marriage law still has a very long way to go. Five sections are included in this thesis.Section One summarizes the background, constitution and main contents of the first marriage law in new China, and briefly describes the corresponding social influence of propaganda and implementation of the marriage law in Wuhan.Section Two introduces the background of Wuhan's movement of the propaganda and implementation of the marriage law from the marriage relationship and the family relationship, and then describes the process of the movement in detail.Section Three is the key content of this thesis, which comments on Wuhan's movement of the propaganda and implementation of the marriage law,and analyzes its success and limits. Section Four makes a general comment on Wuhan's movement of the propaganda and implementation of the marriage law, and deeply analyzes its causes and social influence. This thesis points out that the movement had basically destroyed the feudalism marriage system. Marriage freedom and sexual equality had became social customs. However, it is a long process to thoroughly eradicate the feudal marriage idea.