China's ‘national unselfishness'

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33383, 15 November 1973, Page 6

China's ‘national unselfishness'

China is carrying out one of the greatest social experiments of all time, says Mrs Fern Every, of Sumner, who made a visit there last month. Mrs Every, whose parents were American missionaries, lived in Shansi Province (North China) from the age of six to 18, returned in 1935 after graduating from an American university, and went back last month on a tour arranged by the New Zealand-China Society. “The changes made since 'liberation’ amazed me,” Mrs Every said. “The kind of national unselfishness you see there today, based on what is best for the most, would have delighted my parents, who were working there in times of graft and corruption by Chinese warlords and foreign interests.” Mrs Every’s family arrived in China in 1919, soon after a law came in forbidding women to bind their feet. “But this was a hard law to enforce, because parents were afraid they would not be able to sell off their daughters into matrimony unless they had small feet,” she said. “I can remember hearing the pathetic screams of little girls who were having their feet bound.” “ABSOLUTE EQUALITY” In those days, the only women seen on the streets were beggars or "bad women,” except at festivals when women emerged with their families. “I still did not see women

in the street when I returned in 1935, except the few who had been at mission schools and were going to universities,” Mrs Every said. Today, women had absolute equality with men and took part in every aspect of community and national life, she said. “It was wonderful to see happy, diligent schoolchildren everywhere instead of the ragged, dirty, and underfed little beggars on the streets of Peking in 1935.” Mrs Every returned to China recently in a party of 25 doctors and academics, including her husband, Dr R. G. Every. “We were most impressed by the absolute honesty of the people,” she said. “You could leave your handbags and cameras anywhere and

they would not be touched. There was no need to lock your bedroom doors in hotels. The only time we were given keys and asked to hand them in before going out happened in a large hotel where there were many foreign visitors.” Throughout the 21-day study tour, Mrs Every said she was deeply aware of the warm, sincere concern the Chinese had for one another. “This spilled over to us as visitors,” she said. “The Chinese people’s thoughtfulness for us was quite overwhelming.” Because she had learnt Mandarin as a child, Mrs Every could speak direct to women in their homes about everyday living. But she had to depend on interpreters in factories and hospitals when technical terms were used. By talking to older people,

who had lived in dire poverty in pre-liberation times, she came to realise the depth of their gratitude to Mao Tse-tung for all he had ' done for China. These people 1 made a point of telling the : younger generation what 1 China was like in “the old 1 days.” When she lived in China, ; Mrs Every had “an attachment” to Peking’s city walls ! with their corner guard towers. Most of them have ' been demolished now, though many of the towers have been left as an aesthetic heritage, she said. The walls had been demolished to make space for modern buildings, such as blocks of flats. In one area, where the city walls once stood, there is now a commune of 39,000 workers living in modern flats, with wide streets,

trees, and garden plots fori people who want to grow i their own vegetables. Of the cultural revolution, Mrs Every said: “The great masses of Chinese people benefited considerably from this, when most doctors and teachers had to go into the country to work. The revolution brought unity of theory and practice. People learnt from one another. Now, agricultural workers from farming communes give lectures to students in the cities about the country, and university students go into the country to help bring in the crops.” Mrs Every was greatly impressed by the productivity of the country, particularly in parts of the land she knew as a girl which were regularly flooded by the Yellow River and grew nothing. “One area I used to pass through by train was cove r e d with burial mounds—family graveyards—where there was no space for anything else. Now it is flourishing farmland,” she said.

DENTAL SERVICES Another Christchurch woman who went to China on the recent tour was Mrs Mary McAlpine. A former tutor sister at the Christchurch Training School for Dental Nurses, her particular interest was in dental services. “It seemed to me that dentists had very little work to do because of the healthy state of people’s teeth,” she said. “Nevertheless, treatment standards and equipment are the same as ours in New Zealand.” All water supplies and toothpaste were fluoridated she said. The people lived on a balanced but not luxurious diet. “Dentists are aware, however, that tooth decay is likely to become more prevalent as the standard of living rises and more sweet foods are consumed,” Mrs McAlpine said.