Ma Yinchu | |
|---|---|
马寅初 | |
 Ma Yinchu | |
| President of Peking University | |
| In office June 1951 – March 1960 | |
| Preceded by | Tang Yongtong |
| Succeeded by | Lu Ping |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1882-06-24)June 24, 1882 Sheng County,Zhejiang,Qing China |
| Died | May 10, 1982(1982-05-10) (aged 99) Beijing, China |
| Political party | Chinese Communist Party |
| Alma mater | Tianjin University Yale University Columbia University |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Economics |
| Institutions | Peking University |
Ma Yinchu (simplified Chinese:马寅初;traditional Chinese:馬寅初;pinyin:Mǎ Yínchū; 1882–1982) was a prominent Chinese economist.[1] He was the father ofChina's family planning.
Ma Yinchu was born inSheng County,Shaoxing,Zhejiang. He was the fifth child of the owner of a small distillery that specialized in fermented rice liquor. While his father wished for him to carry on this business, Ma showed an inclination toward scholarship. As a result, his father cut him off financially, and their relationship never recovered. His Christian uncle enlisted Ma into a Protestant church middle school inShanghai.[2] Despite losing his father's support, he studiedmining andmetallurgy atBeiyang University (now calledTianjin University). In 1907, Ma received government sponsorship to study economics atYale University, after which he received aPh.D. ineconomics and philosophy fromColumbia University in 1914.[3] At Columbia, Ma studied New York City’s finances.[4] Hisdissertation on New York City's public finance was later used in a textbook at Columbia.[5]: 172
When he returned to China, Ma sought to promote Western ideas of fiscal policy and banking.[4] In 1920 he helped to found theShanghai College of Commerce, and in 1923 he became the founding president of theChinese Economics Society. During the 1930s, Ma began to criticize theKuomintanggovernment underChiang Kai-shek. He was imprisoned by the KMT government for supporting the student protest movement,[5]: 173 spending time at theXifeng concentration camp.[6]
From 1945 to 1949, Ma lived in Hong Kong.[5]: 173 In 1949, at the request ofZhou Enlai, he served as a nonpartisan delegate to theChinese People's Political Consultative Conference. From 1950 to 1951, he served as the president ofZhejiang University, and then as the president ofPeking University from 1951 to 1960.[7] In this position, Ma was well liked, and seen as warm and genuine by his students. However, he was removed due to his unorthodox economic views.[8]
In June 1957, at the fourth session of theFirst National People's Congress, Ma presented his New Population Theory. Having examined trends of the early 1950s, he concluded that further population growth at such high rates would be detrimental to China's development. Therefore, he advocated government control of fertility. During the following three years, Ma's theory suffered two rounds of attacks, and he was dismissed from public life.[9] The charges of the government were that the theory followedMalthusianism, attempted to discredit the superiority ofsocialism, and showed contempt for the people.[10]
Ma's New Population Theory did not receive mention in thePeople's Daily again until June 5, 1979. On July 26 of the same year, theCentral Committee of the Chinese Communist Party formally apologized to him, stating that events had validated his theory.[11] In September 1979, all charges against him were retracted, and he was made honorary president of Peking University. Ma Yinchu died on May 10, 1982, due toheart andlung disease andpneumonia.[12]
Even before Ma's death, scholars were realizing the enormity of the government's error in censoring his views for two decades. This view can be demonstrated by the title of a newspaper article published in 1979: "Erroneously criticized one person, population mistakenly increased 300,000,000".[11] Ma's theory also became enshrined in public policy; China'sone-child policy drew heavily on Ma's reasoning that "the State should have the power to intervene in reproduction and to control population", and follows his advice in heavily utilizing propaganda on the dangers of population growth.[13] In Ma's hometown, a middle school has been named in his honor. His birth home is being renovated as a museum, and the street on which it resides is now called "Famous Man Street".[14] Nationally, the scholar is featured prominently in primary and middle school textbooks as "Uncle Ma", where he is praised for his contributions to population control and environmental protection. In 1997, a nine-part series about his life was aired in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the publication of his population theory.[12]
| Educational offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | President of Peking University 1951–1960 | Succeeded by |
