NO GALLOPING PLAGUE CHINESE FAMILY LIFE NOT YET TOUCHED BY INFLATION

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33521, 30 April 1974, Page 12

NO GALLOPING PLAGUE CHINESE FAMILY LIFE NOT YET TOUCHED BY INFLATION

) (By MARGARET /ONES, staff correspondent of the Sydney Morning Hcrad in I Reprinted ry arrangement > If China were to have an election next month, inflation - gailop „■ i plague in most other countries — would not he an issue. Pri< e> ot staple commodities have stayed more or less the same for the last L’> year* ; ; consumer goods play so minor a part in Chinese life that their prices have little influence on the cost of living. Ihe average urban income China is 60 yuan a month or about $2O. If this seems very low, consii e the case of the average young Peking couple with two children.

They have a two-room flat l ■ and will have it for the rest of their lives until they re-; .lire, as their family will' never grow any larger. Two i children is the maximum 'number considered desirable in China today, and Mrs Yang gets her oral contraceptives free from a clinic run by a street committee. Should she accidentallybecome pregnant she can have a free abortion and, if she wishes, free sterilisation. Mr and Mrs Yang both [work in factories and their, joint income is 120 vuan a' month free of all taxes. Their two-room flat is in the western part of Peking [and costs about 11 yuan: monthly. This includes I [water, electricity and gas.l .'One room is the parents’! I bedroom; the other is a liv-j ing room, dining-room and! [children’s bedroom at week--ends. [ The Yangs have to share a kitchen, toilet and laundry with other families on the same floor. Baths are taken in a communal bathroom; ana cost 10 fen for men and--30 fen for women. The dis-| crepancy in price is because! men use a common bath and| women have separate ) cubicles. ! If Mr and Mrs Yang had! Ino children they would have; Ito make do with one room) [no matter what their in-j [come. As things are they are) 'quite well off because child-1 [ren are home only one day ai [week. Child care Six days a week theyj spend at full-time kindergar-i ten under the care of trained! kindergarten teachers who double as substitute parents. At seven, when they enter primary school, the children will return home to live, but now they are collected by parents on Saturday nights! and returned to kindergarten; lon Sunday nights. ; Boarding out children full; [time can be very costly and' [fees will be the highest; 'charge any family has to > face.

I visited an excellent kin-! dergarten here where the fee! for a child was 19 yuan 40: fen a month, including free; medical care. However, I because Mr and Mrs Yang; work in large factories, their! fees come down to five yuan a child, with the factory [paying the. difference. ; if Mr and Mrs Yang don’t lhave to worry much about ; bringing up children, neither [do they bother about cooking. Both have lunch and [dinner in factory canteens land meet at home in the [evening where they watch television from 7 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. — the maximum viewing time except on special occasions. Their television set cost them 430 yuan — the biggest outlay of their married life. They had to put down [their names and wait for the [set for some months, but ■ they consider it worthwhile [because it is their major form of entertainment.

Their only other recreation is going to the cinema once in a while oi being given by the factory a very occasional ticket for revolutionary opera. They know revolutionary operas off by

'heart, anyway, as they are I staple diet on television. ; Both Yangs also go to “study groups at the factory ; during the current campaign to criticise Lin Piao and 1 Confucius. ! The street committee which runs their neighbourhood also organises regular [study sessions on Marxist-; [Leninis t-Mao Tse-tung [thought. [ That's one kind of homelife in New China, and to ■Western minds it may seem a bit. sterile — especially separation of parents and [children during the childIren’s formative years. One must adinit that the kindergartens which visitors are [shown appear excellent, with [Chinese extreme fondness; [for young children allowed [free rein. - People like Mr and Mrs I Yang are too young to know, any other life, and as they : know almost nothing about; the outside world, they have: no standards of comparison. There still exists another kind of home-life in China [ [which retains many elements: [of Confucianism. Simple life ! When 1 was in Shanghai' 'recently I met a family! which epitomised this way [of life. The family was; ■ dominated by its head, Mrj I Wang Fu-chin, a former I [rickshaw-puller and beggar. [The Wang family had two' [rooms for a family of seven — old Mr and Mrs Wang, [their son and daughter-in-[law and three grand-daugh-Iters. | The second son lives near-} [by and all share expenses. [The rent for Mr Wang’s two rooms is seven yuan 42 fen a month, including all services. The total monthly family income is 245 yuan or 27 yuan a person. Mr Wang did all the accounting and esti-1 [mated that 14 yuan a month; [a person covered rent, food land other day-to-day living! .expenses. This left 13 yuan! ■a month a head for clothing and non-essentials. : Mr Wang pointed out; proudly that both he and his! [sons had savings in the (bank. I Seven people living in two i [rooms, sharing a kitchen and! [having to go outside the I

t building to a commut- ■.• bathhouse, is hardly a We,’, t erner’s idea of luxury. In addition the rooms are i unheated even ,n zero tern I peratures, uncarpeted (carpet is very rare and very ex- ■ pensive in Chit at and lit by a single neon ceiling strip If you query any of this, however, Mr Wang wi'i 1 show you a replica of an unlit, unheated shann not even high enough ( stand 1 upright in and built ■!' s,i.<p materials in which be e-.d his wife brought up tw< children before libera: ■ In those days he begged . - the streets of Shanghai and his wife and small children raided rubbish bins of res [taurants to find scraps of ['food. With the usual unerring Chinese instinct for public [relations, Mr Wang's old shanty has been re-erected in the grounds of a new Ihousing estate in Shanghai Mr Wang considers hint self very well off indeed. Hr is a happy man because like 'most old people — he is 'now 71 — he loves to talk [about the past and he is [actively encouraged to d [so. He is Exhibit A when 'visitors come to Pumpkin Lane housing estate and he also gives talks to children land young people on the estate on life before liberation. Like most retired urban people Mr Wang gets a penision of up to 70 per cent of income on retirement. The [pension comes from a pedi[cab drivers’ co-operative he [joined after liberation. His wife gets no pension, how ever, as she has never been employed. Retirement pensions in China surprisingly enough come not from the State but from the place of employment. Peasants have no retirement benefits nor do the [small and dwindling number of unemployable housewives. I This is the only gap in [China’s excellent social services. Medical care is generally good, with all workers receiving free medical treat[ment. Old people in dire need without relatives will be itaken care of by a street [committee in a city or by a (commune in the country’