ABSTRACT
By the mid-1950s, the pace of production slowed, causing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership to look for new ways to reenergize China’s economy. In 1956, Mao began a campaign known as the “Hundred Flowers Campaign,” which solicited criticisms to improve both the party and country. On May 1, 1950, the first Marriage Law in the People’s Republic of China’s went into effect. On many levels, the law was the country’s first introduction to the methods the CCP sought to employ in its quest to fundamentally alter traditional Chinese society. The campaigns of the mid-1950s tended to stress the medical, financial, and educational advantages of having fewer children. In the autumn of 1955, the Chinese leadership began to assess the success and failure of their first Five Year Plan. Initially, the campaign began amongst party members, only eliciting mild discussions, but by the spring of 1956, Mao sought to open the discussion more broadly.
