How do Chinese children celebrate Children’s Day?

In 1931, the Kuomintang party and government agencies established April 4th as Children's Day every year. Children were regarded by the Nationalist government as the hope to save the country from peril. The protection of children, children's happiness, and Salesianism have become hot topics in society. How did children spend this festival at that time?

Children's Day on April 4th in the Republic of China

Although China has long had a Salesian tradition, such as the ancient motto "You are as young as you are young, and so are the children of others", but more often than not, children are still part of the family vassal without independent meaning. After the late Qing Dynasty, due to the introduction of "child-centrism" ideas from European and American countries, the discovery of the value of children themselves, and the high hopes that children can save the nation in the future, the status and significance of children's independence have been re-understood and established.

In feudal society, children were the private property of the family. After the New Culture Movement, people realized that children are now members of the family and will be members of the country in the future.

In order to give children political status and shape "new citizens", the Kuomintang party and government agencies established April 4th as Children's Day in 1931. Children were regarded by the National Government as the hope to save the country from danger. For a time, child protection, children's happiness, and Salesianism became hot topics in society.

Regarding the necessity of establishing Children’s Day, China Weekly once explained: “National education has not been universalized, and compulsory education has not been implemented. Although several primary schools and kindergartens have been opened in various places for children’s education, the number is limited. Very limited, and the people's wisdom is not yet enlightened. Children's education is often regarded as an insignificant matter in society. Children have no status in society. Fathers and brothers raise their children for no other reason than to consolidate the family and provide for the heirs. There is no idea of ????strengthening the country and strengthening breeding. If the government does not designate a date and do a grand propaganda, it will not be enough to awaken the people's attention to the cause of children."

At the same time, due to the Japanese aggression at that time, the article It also connected children with national salvation: "The fundamental way to save the country is to rely on adults to be the vanguard of saving the country, and at the same time pay more attention to the children as the back-up team to save the country." Kong Xiangxi also wrote a special essay: "If you want to save the country, you should start from Fundamentally, we need to start by cultivating the children on whom the country’s life is entrusted, and educate the majority of the country’s children in the spirit of ten years of birth and ten years of lessons. In this way, the national crisis can be solved and foreign aggression can never be eliminated.”

In this guideline. Since then, various slogans about children have become popular, such as "Children are not the successors of the old era, children are the pioneers of the new era!", "Children are the little workers who transform society", "Children are the new force in rejuvenating the Chinese nation" ", "Intensify the education and training of children", etc. There are also some Children's Day slogans with the characteristics of the times, such as "Young masters and young ladies are useless, and they will die if they try to enjoy happiness" and "Don't take the milk of suffering children to eat."

In 1935, the Republic of China government also decided that from April 4 of that year to April 3, 1936, it would be the "National Children's Year." The Children's Day projects at that time were quite complicated. For example, the procedures for commemorating Children's Day in Shanghai include: playing music, singing, paying tribute to the Prime Minister's portrait, silence, chairman's report, mayor's speech, speeches by representatives of various agencies, celebrity speeches, speeches by children's representatives, Cheering slogans, music played by the Public Security Bureau, drills by the security team training group, etc. The conference often invites celebrities to speak. In his speech at the Fourth Children's Day, Cai Yuanpei proposed that adults should pay attention to children's "food, clothing, housing, transportation, intelligence, physical virtue, and beauty. Because their future responsibilities are extremely complicated, without appropriate training, it will be difficult for them to take on them in the future."

< p>The commemorative conference was not only attended by a large number of participants, but also large-scale and had a strong political atmosphere. Children's Day commemorative conference committees are established in various places on every anniversary, and the presidium of the conference is mostly employees of party and government agencies. At the end of each commemorative event, children will chant slogans: "Children must take responsibility for the Three People's Principles...Long live the Chinese nation, long live the Three People's Principles" and so on. From the above Children's Day program, we can see that there are not many activities really related to children, but more activities held by adults according to their own wishes.

As a new festival, it is one of the means by which the National Government demonstrates social control, and it is also a way to educate adults through children. Although this kind of Children's Day, which is based on political instruction, has its significance under the circumstances at that time, it still cannot help but be questioned.

The 1935 "Popular Pioneer" article "Whose Children's Day" asked rhetorically: "Every year on Children's Day, the young ladies of various families wear new clothes, and their little photos are published in various newspapers, but those rural economies are bankrupt. Children in the countryside, children engaged in small business, some of them can only wear rags and sing from door to door all day long, some are chewing turf in the countryside, and many thirteen-year-old children have to dig ditches all day long for a dime. Children are also the masters of the future. In such a contradictory society, I really don’t know which children the Children’s Day is for.”

At that time, those who could celebrate Children’s Day in the city were not the children of wealthy families, at least they were educated. There are even more children who cannot go to school and are even reduced to child labor. This kind of reflection also appears in Tao Xingzhi's "Democratic Children's Day": "Fortunate children celebrate Children's Day every day, 365 days a year, but for unfortunate children, even April 4th has nothing to do with them. , they still wiped leather shoes and picked up dog poop on Children's Day.

While the Kuomintang was vigorously carrying out Children's Day activities, the Communist Party also attached great importance to children's education on June 26, 1938. , Mao Zedong taught in his inscription for "Children of the Border Area": ??"Children, get up and learn to be a free and liberated Chinese citizen, learn how to fight for freedom and liberation from the oppression of Japanese imperialism, and turn yourself into the masters of the new era. "On April 4th Children's Day in 1942, he wrote an inscription for "Liberation Daily": "Children unite and learn to be the new masters of New China. "

In February 1940, the Chinese National Liberation Vanguard and the Northwest Youth National Salvation Federation made a resolution on commemorating the "April 4th" Day and carrying out children's work, proposing to "help existing children groups, and anti-Japanese children's leagues were generally established. "Since then, children's league organizations have been established in various anti-Japanese base areas. The main tasks are: to publicize our fight against Japan, to detect the enemy's situation and catch traitors, to stand guard and send letters, etc.

Children's Day after the founding of the People's Republic of China

< p>After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Children's Day was moved to June 1st, and the original "April 4th" Children's Day was abolished. Since then, children no longer have the important task of saving the country. They have become the "flowers of the motherland". "The successor of socialism." After experiencing the great social turmoil, people's hearts settled down a little, and the image of children returned to innocence from the "new citizens" who shouldered political needs.

After that, another Some slogans about children became popular. At the end of September 1951, Mao Zedong received a delegation from Anhui to participate in the National Day. Among the members of the delegation was Ma Sanjie, a young hero who crossed the river. Mao Zedong asked her about her studies with concern and gave her a beautiful book. Notebook, and wrote an inscription on the title page: Study hard and make progress every day. This eight-character inscription quickly spread across the country and became a childhood memory for many people.

Now, Children’s Day. On this day, children will carry out more enriched activities at school and receive various gifts from their parents. While they are happy and happy, they will also learn more about the hard-won happiness of life.