The Movement Of Publicizing And Carrying Through The Marriage Law In Guangzhou In The Early Stage Of The People's Rupublic Of China(1950-1953)

In the long feudal society, the feudalism marriage system had formedin Guangzhou, which has three main features: namely, mercenary marriageand marriage upon arbitrary decision by a third party, unequal of man andwoman, and ignoring sons and daughters' benefit. In modern times, as aresult of western culture's influence and Chinese society's drastic change,people's marital idea and custom started to change, and the traditionalmarriage system started to be shocked, but overall, the feudal marriage hadstill been the dominant status in Guangzhou, until the marriage law of thenew China was promulgated. On the first of May, 1950, the marriage lawcame into force upon promulgation, and it indicated that China hadabolished the feudalism marriage system from the law, and established thenew democratic marriage system, whose characters are the marriagefreedom, the sexual equality and protecting the children's legitimate benefit.In order to thoroughly eliminate the influence of the traditional marriagesystem on the populace, and cause the marriage law to enter every family,Guangzhou carried on the movement of publicizing and carrying throughthe marriage law from 1950 to 1953. And this movement approximatelypassed through three stages: Initial period stage (1950.5-1951.9), thoroughstage (1951.10-1952.12), and climax stage (1953.1-4). After three years'endeavor, Guangzhou's movement of publicizing and carrying through themarriage law had obtained the remarkable result: basically destroying thefeudalism marriage system, and establishing the new democratic marriagesystem. However, the marriage system transformation certainly can't get itdone in one action. Because the feudal marriage custom and consciousness has the characteristics which is not easy to be changed, the marriage lawitself has the gap with the social tradition, as well as the means ofpublicizing and implementing the marriage law has very big limit and so on,the feudalism marriage system still had a more widespread influence on themarriage and family lives of the Guangzhou's populace. Thus, it still has avery long road to eradicate thoroughly the feudal marriage idea andimplement marriage law.