...History 103 001 Cultural Revolution in China: views on Mao’s Era. Yi Jie Yang 40223109 Professor: Steven Hugh Lee Chinese culture has had great misunderstandings particularly in the western countries owing to the views represented by socio-cultural scholars, historians and literature writers. This paper reviews two books that explore the Cultural Revolution in China with a major focus on the Authors’ Writing Style and their views on Mao’s Era. Writing Style In the book “Born red: a chronicle of the Cultural Revolution.” The author, Yuan Gao, explores the first violent years of China’s Great Proletarian culture revolution. Gao provides an account of his own experience as a Red Guard in the Cultural revolution bringing out the readers as close as they can get to the political vortex that shaped the views of millions of teenagers behind the national movement that brought China to the blink of civil war[1]. Born Red entails more than the recollection of a political nightmare including a concise narrative of an adolescent torn by conflicting loyalties as the author is called upon to participate in the destruction of the world that has nurtured him. The author’s story provides tribute to the durability of cultural traditions at a time when nihilism was at its best. Gao clearly outlines the Cultural Revolution in China in an attempt to create a way for a more egalitarian and...
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...In the past 60 years, Cultural Revolution was the most important event in China. It was the biggest mistake in modern Chinese history. If China didn’t have the Cultural Revolution, Chinese lives would be much better than now. Cultural Revolution was started in 1967 by Mao Tsetung who was the first chairman of the People's Republic of China. In his opinion, China had not finished socialist transformation. There were still some capitalist ideas in some persons’ minds, especially in intellectuals’ minds, so he started Cultural Revolution. 10 years later, in 1977, Cultural Revolution was ended by Deng Xiaoping who leaded China far away from closed-door policy, and made China become more and more opening. This decade was called black ten years by Chinese people, because these 10 years had huge effects on Chinese lives about education, culture, or economy and so on. Culture Revolution has influenced China in several ways. First, the education system collapsed at that time, because Cultural Revolution focused on the intellectuals, such as, teachers, professors and scientists. Mao Tsetung thought every person who had high educational background, or high political status had to go to countryside and accept labor reform. Some of them, who used to be capitalism or whose family used to be capitalisms, were put in prison, or even killed. So, in those ten years, people who had high educational background didn’t have any social status, but workers or farmers got the highest social status. So...
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...The Chinese Cultural Revolution "A revolution is not a dinner party or writing an essay or painting a picture or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous"- Mao said in 1927 to a youth activist The reason for china to trying to become such a new generation was solely the opinion of Mao and his followers. Mao had seen the way the Russian revolution had gone astray and worried China would follow in its path. He mad four goals: to rectify China's communists, replace his successors with one more faithful, provide youth's with a revolutionary experience and achieve policy changes to make education, health care and cultural systems less elitist. Obviously, the goals were purely a show when his real concern was his place in history. When he launched the revolution schools were shut down and officials were publicly humiliated to test them. Elders and intellectuals were physically and verbally abused. Many died of ignorant causes, without a second thought from Mao. So as the revolution tolled on Mao truly only had himself in mind. Mao went through great lengths to make sure that everyone was Maoist. He had Lin Bao his defense minister make his whole army maoist. He shut down schools in August 1966 Mao encouraged his red army to attack all traditional values and the bourgeois. He even publicly criticized officials to see how they would react....
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...It has been argued that most of the crucial political and ideological battles of the Cultural Revolution were fought over the issue of the nature of social class structure in post-revolutionary China. What does the Cultural Revolution teach us about class structure and struggle under socialism? The Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution[1] was a political and ideological struggle spanning the decade from 1966-1976. More implicitly, it was a struggle spurned into motion by Mao Zedong to reinstitute his mass line and turn China back to the ‘Socialist Road.’ Mao urged the Chinese to undergo a ‘class struggle’ whereby those truly on the path to Communism would rise against the new bureaucracy who were implementing ideology inconsistent with the main tenets of Maoism. However, what ensued was catastrophic and referred to by Feng Jicai as “Ten Years of Madness.”[2] While the class structure of post-revolutionary Chinese society had effectively eradicated the feudal class structure, a new, elite bureaucratic class had emerged. Indeed, these new elite and the remnants of the old bourgeois class bore the brunt of the violent onslaught of Mao’s Red Guards during the CR. In this essay, I argue that class struggle, and struggle under socialism in the CR was paradoxical as “most radicals in the revolutionary campaign against revisionism were representatives not of the proletariat…but of the bourgeoisie itself.”[3] While many joined Mao in is his crusade for utilitarian reasons, many also...
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...The Cultural Revolution lasted for a decade and saw the fragmentation of China only ending after yielding seemingly little benefit to anyone involved. Mao Zedong was foremostly, and most successfully, a revolutionary and much of his life had been spent seeking to fundamentally transform China. Mao’s goal, to form a new strong and prospering China, required the creation of a new national sense of being through the Cultural Revolution. To forge a new society and culture, rid of entrenched feudal ways was considered absolutely necessary with the omnipresent shadow of the New Culture Movement, which had been frustrated by the size of the task. Only a mass movement by the entire nation to reform themselves could succeed. Mao found his answer in the political philosophy of Marx and Lenin whose work he synthesised and altered, eventually focusing on the potentially revolutionary aspects of widespread revolution. Mao made a significant contribution to Marxist philosophy by concluding that in order to keep the results of a revolution in place, the revolution too had to be permanent. Mao launched the Cultural Revolution, motivated by this genuine desire to preserve and protect the revolution by making it impossible for China’s leaders to become comfortable and lead the nation to regress to capitalism. The Communist victory in 1949 and subsequent decade of control saw some slow improvements in the life of the ordinary Chinese, and few leaders of the CCP were adamant that a revolution was...
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...Name: Course: Tutor: Date: The Hundred Flower Movement and its impact on Chinese culture today: Introduction: In Chinese history, specifically the years 1956 and 1957, Mao Zedong the then paramount leader of People's Republic of China (PRC) launched the Hundred Flower Movement which was a movement that encouraged open intellectual and political debate. The main intention of the campaign was to cause a stir in the bureaucracy and at the same time weaken the Chinese Communist Party’s position as a dominant pro-Soviet right wing and slacken its tight grip over the freedoms of thought and expression. However, the situation went rapidly out of hand resulting in an uncalled for censure of party members. Background information: The movement began in May 1957 after a secret speech by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev attacking the excesses of Stalinism came to light. Its founder, Mao adopted the slogan ‘Let a hundred flowers bloom together, let the hundred schools of thought contend’. He then invited Chinese intellectuals to openly voice their criticism over government policies and party cadets. Mao’s intention was to win over alienated intellectuals by giving them a certain degree of intellectual freedom. Such incentives included: increased access to foreign publications for intellectuals working in schools, colleges and universities since the people had began losing faith in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after it introduced a Soviet-style education system to China in 1949...
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...Reflective Statement: Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution’s roots can be traced all the way back to 1925. Fundamentalism and modernism both originated in that period as well. However, I have come to realize that time does not play a significant role so much as place does. It was because of the people living in Iran that such a divide between those with anti-western sentiments and the supporters of western powers existed. I learned today that the Cultural Revolution was essentially the government trying to get rid of western influences. It surprised me how dedicated some fundamentalists were to the cause of holding on to their traditional roots—I would have figured that the goal of the majority would be to barrel ahead with modernity, as this is the norm. The place of school—especially the strict reforms in school—also gave me insight into how important school was to the Iranians. I suppose the government realized that the best way to change Iran back to its traditional ways was to target the schools, which held the children, the next generation of Iran. The harsh punishments that communists had to face were a concept I found difficult to understand. I have never personally experienced in any way beating, shooting, or whipping. The idea that a group of people could so violently discipline another simply because of conflicting beliefs is very strange to me. However, I found it very easy to understand and relate to the Satrapi family’s actions in the novel when they disagreed...
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...Question: What Was the Cultural Revolution? Answer: Between 1966 and 1976, the young people of China rose up in an effort to purge the nation of the "Four Olds": old customs, old culture, old habits and old ideas. In August, 1966, Mao Zedong called for the start of a Cultural Revolution at the Plenum of the Communist Central Committee. He urged the creation of corps of "Red Guards" to punish party officials and any other persons who showed bourgeois tendencies. Mao likely was motivated to call for the so-called Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in order to rid the Chinese Communist Party of his opponents after the tragic failure of his Great Leap Forward policies. Mao knew that other party leaders were planning to marginalize him, so he appealed directly to his supporters among the people to join him in a Cultural Revolution. He also believed that communist revolution had to be a continuous process, in order to stave off capitalist-roader ideas. Mao's call was answered by the students, some as young as elementary school, who organized themselves into the first groups of Red Guards. They were joined later by workers and soldiers. The first targets of the Red Guards included Buddhist temples, churches and mosques, which were razed to the ground or converted to other uses. Sacred texts, as well as Confucian writings, were burned, along with religious statues and other artwork. Any object associated with China's pre-revolutionary past was liable to be destroyed. In their...
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...China during the Cultural Revolution was a place where you were told what to do, and what to say. Today I will be speaking to you about Mao’s Last Dancer, the film adaption of the autobiography of Li Cunxin. To begin with, I will speak about the Cultural Revolution in China, where the story is set. Li’s story took place during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of China, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution. This revolution took place from 1966 to 1976, lead by Mao Zedong, who was the leader of the Communist Party of China at the time. The Cultural Revolution led to millions of people being persecuted and thousands more being killed. Because of the Cultural Revolution, people no longer had freedom of speech and actions. If anyone was found criticising the Government or taking part in anti-communist operations, they would be arrested immediately. Generally, the people of China took to the idea of communism because they had been convinced and continually told that communism would bring great wealth to China. This was great news to the people of China because they had suffered a famine, which lead to the death of millions of people. The Cultural Revolution officially ended in 1976, after Chairman Mao died. Those found to be part of The Gang of Four, a group of Chinese Communist Officials, were arrested for treasonous crimes. In Mao’s Last Dancer, it is shown how Li was taught at school in Shandong that Chairman Mao would end poverty in China. After he arrived at...
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...In 1966, China’s Communist leader, Mao Zedong started a revolution. It became known as the Cultural Revolution to reaffirm his authority over China’s government. A significant part of the Cultural Revolution were the peasant communes. These communes were places where many poor families lived. Nothing was owned by an individual person, from cattle to kitchens, everything was shared by the members of the commune. Despite the positive ways the government propaganda displayed or described the communes, they were places of suffering. Feng Jicia, a former Chinese athlete who is now a writer, tells the story of his sister’s suffering in an article called “Feng Jicai on mistreatment in a peasant commune (1981)”. In this article, Feng talks about the...
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...Liu Shaoqi -Revolutionary, Communist, president of the PRC -1898-1969, died in prison. -The most famous victim of the Cultural Revolution, “the biggest unjust case of the CCP”, he was posthumously rehabilitated in 1980 and given a state funeral Zhou Enlai -A leader of the CCP, Revolutionary, diplomat -1898-1976 -The first Primer of the PRC, most important political partner of Mao, very positive appraise by the history and Chinese people. American Volunteer Group Lin Biao - a major Communist military leader -Leader of the army during the civil war, especially in Northeastern China. - Lin had chance to be the successor of Mao, but his relation with Mao became terrible later in the Cultural Revolution. Lin died in plane crush in Mongolia, and he is also blamed for the cultural revolution Jiang Qing -4th Wife of Mao -Became to be active in Chinese political life in 1960s Cultural revolution. -She is the leader of Gang of Four, also one of the main leaders during the CR. Joseph Stilwell -American General, -US government sent Stilwell to Chongqing in 1942 - The Chief of Staff in China Burma India Theater, left the position because of conflicts with Jiang; Red Guards -A special group of China during the CR. Most RG are students -During the CR -So called “solider of Chairman Mao”, regard the little red book as all the truth, easy to be egged and the main power of CR Hu Yaobang -The General Secretary of the CCP -Took the position during 1982-1987...
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...you do more skilled work you get paid more * By 1965 they’ve doubled their 1957 output * Introducing elements of capitalism and its working Politics: - Ideology takes second place to pragmatism - Mao is being ignored - They bring back many of the people in labour camps people Mao had purged in the past - Mao tries to get power back, power struggle and it’s going to bring negative impacts Cultural Revolution Key dates: 1976 Mao dies 1966-1976: - Cultural Revolution- intensifies in the beginning - In the mid 60’s the pragmatic group of the party led China - Trying to create a reasonable standard of living with economic stability - Still working on national unity - Making sure China’s place in the world is made secure Why it happens? * Mao still has a very revolutionary vision * One of those visions, is greater equality and of mass participation to create change * Mao thought China was stagnating in terms of revolution * He identified the things that were holding China back from proper revolution * Mao looks at education as one of the factors * Education gave a view privileges, e.g. people from rural areas received bad education * He saw this was becoming hereditary * Towns allowed privileges to people, more money, more opportunity, better health… * The party is a bureaucracy, if your parents were in the party your automatically privileged. – Hereditary elite * Mao’ s utopian vision of China ...
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...Mountain and Ganzhuang Mountain were very similar to each other prior to the Cultural Revolution. However, the official promotion of Ganzhuang Mountain as the home of the first Zhuang ancestor, begun in 2003 and consummated in 2004, has created a dramatic disjunction between these two song fairs. The present differences between these two fairs permit an analysis of elements of change that have recently affected Zhuang music culture. While there are several aspects of these changes that could be examined, in this essay we limit the analysis to government-sponsored tourism. The comparison between the two song fairs is used in this case to provide the perspectives of full involvement in, and absence of, government-sponsored tourism to better understand positive and negative effects inside of a given cultural context. To address those positive and negative aspects, we re-posit the questions asked by Carol Rubenstein: “What genre of culture was being formed and shown, and to what end, and at whose expense, and for whose benefit and purposes?” (1992). Information for this paper is taken from experience and research conducted by Qin Jin Dun, a native Zhuang who grew up near the Ganzhuang Mountain Song Fair, as well as fieldwork around the Baise prefecture, including visits to these two song fairs by John Widman during the 2010–2011 academic year. It is an understatement to say that the decade after the Cultural Revolution saw a dramatic shift in government policy towards China's minorities...
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...Son of the Revolution excels in illustrating how pervasively the Leninist partystate can intrude into the daily lives of ordinary citizens, particularly when a carefully orchestrated personality cult is added to the picture. In Liang Heng’s story, even the most fundamental social unit, family, was not able to keep off the intense political pressures during political campaigns in 1950s and Cultural Revolution. The most horrible thing is that traditional Chinese family values were totally destroyed under the red impacts. Stories happened in Liang Heng’s family is typical and universal in society during that period. There is no warmhearted feeling found but the political ruthlessness. The most attractive part of this book is description of love...
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...welfare or develop eventual benefits in a system where there are a growing number of states that want to increase control on an international scale, as well as to uphold their own interests. So that when it comes to decision-making, lawmakers are able to take advantage of this knowledge in order to make more effective policy decisions. The aim of the text is to establish the idea that decision making made by national bureaucracies, leaders and individual members of the government body has the capability to influence and impact decision making upon other international decision making systems. Sometimes, decisions are made for the best although it does cause misunderstandings and inconveniences. It is important to understand and accept the cultural and historical reasons of another state as to why they decide to make particular decisions. These decisions can draw meanings and can be used to make sense of other foreign policy decisions. In order to gain this understanding as to why certain nation behave in way or why certain foreign policy decisions are made, all levels and perspectives must be taking into consideration and analysed – individual, state and international. Each of these levels all has a relationship; they are not separate. For us to make sense of one entity, we must understand the...
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