THERE'S: at least one Chinese
aie one must learn before
of mg the People’s Republic

China. That. is
Meaning “thank you.”

The People of China are very

Nd. They greet you with.

HloWers and ice cream, make
You take a rest when they know
at need it even though you
© anxious not to waste a
Nute on your short visit.
can feed you rare treats of
P Mese dishes, or they cook
Pecial Western style food.

fapey will have a doctor on
Spot within five minutes, so
Sure you don’t make casual
.m™ments about your health
If you don’t mean it seriously.
A you do need it, they will
meee you with the most up-
tif ate care, including scien-
edi ly tested old Chinese rem-
les that may work wonders

ne you when other treatment
ails,

oot will be met with a cup

Sea no matter where you

in —a_ hospital, a factory, a

Mieity, church, farm or
Ursery, and yes, even a jail.
May be black tea, green tea
Jasmine. .

s,Maybe you think these are

little things, but they are very
Xpressive.

optbose of us who were in
ina this summer as the first
mee of Canadian women to
Sit under the auspices of the
enetess of Canadian Women,
plainly found it so. Our hos-
ee were members of the
eg ctina Democratic Women’s
€ration. The one regret we
Con Was the ‘lack of avords to
th Vey our thanks for their
°Ughtful arrangement of our
Togram.

c

queere was no hesitation among
liy Nese to tell us how they
«abe from the problem of
4 shing and ironing for a big
Ely. in such hot weather to
ing, hey managed with their
_8Ws in one house.

aug talked about new pros-
an, S for women in industry
tha Professions, and the power
tor 1S moving their society
Nea We ieit completely
Si, to ask the oddest questions,
i €times such that we would
= venture to ask anyone, ex-

Closest friends at home.

eo be sure, there was a
s4ckle over the laundry ques-
MN, but we were honestly

are
Seneration.

“sye-sye” :

- district.

he world’s most
friendly people

By HAZEL WIGDOR

curious because most people

‘wore light, bright clothes—even

men—in white, yellow and light
blue, flashing along on their
million ‘bicycles. The answer
showed us how the Chinese
were kind to each other, not:
just to guests from far coun-
tries.

If the mothe: zs at home, she
likely does the job herself; but

-if she works, then either she

and her husband and in-laws
share the daily round of house-
hold tasks, or she may pay a
little to other mothers on her
street who. have mutual-aid
teams just for the purpose of

helping each other.

“Washing machines and elec-
tric ironers may be a rarity in
China, ‘
operation and helpfulness is
cultivated over there in every
home, every street, every
neighborhood or work-place. It
does not run against the grain
of their whole system of society,
ich pant Ose wl.

*

Take the home of grand-
mother Tu Chun Lien, who
lives in a little five-room cot-
tage in the workers’ district
of Pan Chai Wan on the out-
skirts of Shanghai.

“Tu Chun Lien takes care of
her seven grandchildren while
their mother and father are at
work. You might think this a
very hard job for a grand-
mother, but this is one grand-
ma who is full of enthusiasm,
particularly when she,remem-
bers how tough things were
“before liberation.” -

Pan Chai Wan ‘is a very old
Until five years ago
people had to go barefoot if
they could not afford high rub-
ber boots in rainy weather.

The street outside Tu Chun
Lien’s door was a river of mud.
Now it is paved with stone
blocks. Before she had to walk
a half-mile for impure water
from the river; now there is a
block away, one of eight in the
district. Now, too, they have
electricity in their home, and
water-station less than half a
she proudly pointed out to us
their radio and ‘clock.

Then she explained to us the
meaning of a notice pinned to
the wall, written in Chinese
characters.

“That is our home compact for
sanitation,” she said.

: Rapidly expanding medical services, nurseries and schools

Providing Clina’s children with a care unknown before this

put the spirit of co-*

One of the five points pledges
children and grownups alike to
carry out the general cleaning.
Another provides for a family

meeting every two weeks to~

carry out inspection and see.
who is keeping house well.

In the neighborhood, families
help ;one another, too.

The women meet to discuss
and take part in child care,
plan their community life,
spread information on natural
childbirth methods, hold literacy
classes so that all can read and
write. They see to it that every
woman has her own copy of the
new marriage law—most up-to-
date in the world.

Before liberation only three
out of every 10 children atten-
ded school. Now all in this
district get schooling, although
there are still not half enough
schools for all children in China.

Schools were closed for holi-
days while we were there, but
we could see in many creches,
nurseries, kindergartens and the
Children’s Palace in Shanghai
that these same principles of
planning things, working to-
gether, and helping one another
are developed all over. In one
creche there was the quadruple-»
size playpen, big enough for
five babies to be in together,
with tops suspended by strings
from a light wooden frame near
the ceiling—plenty of toys for
all, so there was no néed for
battles. Even little tykes, not
yet sitting up, get used to play-
ing together.

*k

It was hard to believe that
what we saw was accomplished
in the short space of three to

Li Teh-chuan (right), vice president of the All-China Women’s
Federation, greets Mrs. Marge Ferguson. (left), member of the
Canadian women’s delegation, at a banquet in Peking.

five years.

While driving through new
Peking, already two-thirds the
size of the old Peking, I
counted the new buildings on
one mile of roadway. There
were over 40—mostly apart-
ments, some office buildings,
some buildings for shops and
cultural centres. This was with-
in a few minutes and yet we
were driving for two hours,
seeing all new sections—new
roads, water mains, electricity
lines, in addition to the build-
ings.

In every city and town we
visited housewives proudly
showed us their new homes in
the new workers’ apartments,
the new cooperative stores
nearby and the theatre, post
office and bank.

In every plant there was the
trade union organization which
included in its duties concern
for the welfare of the workers
on the job as well as in spare
time.

Why they play

By BEATRIX
- TUDOR HART.

F we.want to know how to.

hahdle the problem of our
children playing with guns we
must first understand the role
that make-believe games play
in the development of a child.

“Let’s pretend” serves three
distinct, though interconnected,

purposes in childhood. rig

One is to compensate for the
child’s inferiority to adults, his
ignorance and his relative help-
lessness.

That is why in most fantasy
games the children create
situations in which they play
the roles of supermen, kings
and queens, princes, heroes, and
pretend they are very clever
and powerful, achieving miracles
of courage and resourcefulness.

The second is to work out
situations and _ skills — which
they witness, or think they
witness, in the world of adults,
so that they can understand
them and learn them.

It is childhood’s way of “try-
ing things out.”

Thus we see small children
playing at weddings, christen-

-ings, funerals, going away for

a holiday, celebrations, etc.

They try to reproduce the be-.

havior and the speech of adults,
the sequence of events, and so
to puzzle out the meaning and
significance of these events.
Because fantasy play is essen-
tially social, each child contri-
butes his “bits” of knowledge

which he has gleaned to the

. common pool, and so all the

children increase their own
stock of knowledge.
Last but not least, fantasy

play is used to take the fear’ or

terror out of a frightening sit-
uation. :

During the war children play-
ed bombing day after day dur-

ing the periods of air-raids;

they included all the most grue-
some details they had over-
heard grownups describing.
The more they could say:
“You're dead now, you’ve had
your arms or legs or head blown
off,” etc., etc, and then with
relief, at the end of the game,
“You can all come to life again,”

-the happier they were.

It’s as if the mechanism - of
“pretending” the terrible thing,
in order to bring everything
back to normal again, makes
the real terror more bearable.
e@ :

How does “gun play” fit into
this. scheme? ,

In the first place the child-
ren can only find the material
for their play in the world
around them and this environ-
ment includes the press, radio
and the films, as well as the
behavior and ideas expressed
by the adults.

For the younger children

there’is also the very important .

world of youngsters who are
older than they are and much
admired. and hero-worshipped.
By being “a successful gun-
man” you can compensate for
all your failures and misfor-
tunes .

There is no doubt that the

There is still quite a settion
of industry owned by private
capitalists but even where it is
state-owned, the union is active,
looking after health and safety,
and even—as at the Coal Miners’
Union in Fushun—running a
home for retired workers.-

*

People’s China is a growing
country. The people are tak-
ing an active part in shaping
their own future. They show
respect and consideration for
each ‘other, and for guests.

Don’t forget then to learn
that word for “thank you.”

The Chinese people will not be
satisfied with one delegation
of six women from Canada.
They meant what they said—
and showed it to us most clearly
—when they said they wanted
to be friends. They have found
out how to make cooperation
pay off in their own lives and
they are ready to put it into
practice with us and with folk
of all- lands.

gunmen

violence and brutality which
exists today in our “civilized”
society must terrify young chil-
dren and playing it out prob-
ably serves the same purpose’
as playing at air-raids during
the war. :

So long as gunmen enist, and
their doings are publicly exalt-
ed, our children will play with
guns.

They need no shop - bought
weapons for their play: an or-
dinary stick will do, but a “gun”
they must have.

Only when society has final-
ly rejected force and violence
by man against man, as it will
under socialism, will our child-
ren’s play reflect the health :
and happiness of the human
race.

e
is v6 then, can we do about |
it?

Since children reproduce the
situations, the behavior and the
ideas which obtain in their own
small adult world, we must
see to it that from us, at least,
they get the right environment
and the right ideas. : :

The gang stage is, in itself,
a socially valuable stage, when
children are learning to coop-
erate, to achieve loyalties to
persons and causes.

It is our responsibility to see
that our children develop the
right loyalties, the sense of fair
play in the gang games.

Then, as they enter. adoles-
cence, they will be able to see
their gun games in their real
perspective, and give them up
as childish things they put away
on the threshold of adult life.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 14, 1955 — PAGE 9