Changes

== About the Legacy ==

== About the Legacy ==

I'm not going to talk so much right now since I am very busy at the moment. I'll admit that I am not too knowledgeable in PRC and Modern ROC (Post-1949) History, so correct me if I'm wrong. Let's talk about the life expectancy part. It says, "Before 1949, for instance, the illiteracy rate in Mainland China was 80 percent, and life expectancy was a meager 35 years." First of all, a specific time frame is needed to cite the life expectancy. Before the late 1940s, I'm sure the life expectancy was higher than 35 years. My ancestors at the time lived for more than 35 years, I can assure you. To say that the life expectancy in the late 1940s is low is accurate, because the Chinese Civil War and World War II took the lives of many Chinese people. However, to say Mao himself changed it to 70 years is not accurate. No major wars took place when Mao was in power, even though there were people killed who Mao viewed as "dissidents" because of the authoritarian nature of his chairmanship in the Cultural Revolution, 5 Year Plans, etc. Now let's talk about the literacy rate part. Chinese has a rather high amount of characters. Many stuff were written in "Vernacular Chinese" but were still influenced by "Classical Chinese" back then. (It still is today, but I don't think it is to the same extent.) And I think Classical Chinese was much more important back than it is now. To read Classical Chinese, you need to know, I think, 6,000 characters. To read a "Vernacular Chinese" newspaper, you need to know 3,000 characters. The PRC says that a farmer needs to know 1,500 characters to be literate and that everyone else need to know 2,000 characters to be literate. Isn't that a big difference? So, because the PRC lowered the standard of literacy from what was defined as literate before 1949, the literacy rate went up. Also, have you thought about the possibility that Mao might have inflated the values of the literacy rate aside from lowering the standard of literacy? Okay, I rambled too much. I plan to write more at a later date. --[[User:Watashiwa|私は^{上帝不見保守百科之惡乎？}]] 01:12, 5 June 2008 (EDT)

I'm not going to talk so much right now since I am very busy at the moment. I'll admit that I am not too knowledgeable in PRC and Modern ROC (Post-1949) History, so correct me if I'm wrong. Let's talk about the life expectancy part. It says, "Before 1949, for instance, the illiteracy rate in Mainland China was 80 percent, and life expectancy was a meager 35 years." First of all, a specific time frame is needed to cite the life expectancy. Before the late 1940s, I'm sure the life expectancy was higher than 35 years. My ancestors at the time lived for more than 35 years, I can assure you. To say that the life expectancy in the late 1940s is low is accurate, because the Chinese Civil War and World War II took the lives of many Chinese people. However, to say Mao himself changed it to 70 years is not accurate. No major wars took place when Mao was in power, even though there were people killed who Mao viewed as "dissidents" because of the authoritarian nature of his chairmanship in the Cultural Revolution, 5 Year Plans, etc. Now let's talk about the literacy rate part. Chinese has a rather high amount of characters. Many stuff were written in "Vernacular Chinese" but were still influenced by "Classical Chinese" back then. (It still is today, but I don't think it is to the same extent.) And I think Classical Chinese was much more important back than it is now. To read Classical Chinese, you need to know, I think, 6,000 characters. To read a "Vernacular Chinese" newspaper, you need to know 3,000 characters. The PRC says that a farmer needs to know 1,500 characters to be literate and that everyone else need to know 2,000 characters to be literate. Isn't that a big difference? So, because the PRC lowered the standard of literacy from what was defined as literate before 1949, the literacy rate went up. Also, have you thought about the possibility that Mao might have inflated the values of the literacy rate aside from lowering the standard of literacy? Okay, I rambled too much. I plan to write more at a later date. --[[User:Watashiwa|私は^{上帝不見保守百科之惡乎？}]] 01:12, 5 June 2008 (EDT)