Mao Zhiling 1966 Analysis

In 1966, China's Communist leader Mao Zedong launched what became known as the Cultural Revolution in order to reassert his authority over the Chinese government. Mao called on millions of young Chinese students to expulse the “impure” elements of Chinese society such as what was known as the “Four Olds” -- ideas, customs, cultures, and habits. These students united and became Red Guards, who humiliated teachers, made intellectuals wear dunce caps, and destroyed anything old they could find. In the final years of the revolution, millions of students were pulled out of school to work in the countryside. Hundreds of thousands of people died as Mao plunged China into chaos. Nowadays, the effects of the Cultural Revolution are still seen in all levels of society. For the young people who didn’t complete their education during the cultural revolution, their problems have had a lasting legacy. The Cultural Revolution had affected many people in China. About 130 million Chinese were left unschooled. Because of this, it ruined China’s educational system. Today, the Chinese should be moving into positions of responsibility and putting China's economic

A writer named Gao Zhiling was just a child at the time of the revolution. According to the article, “Children of the Cultural Revolution: the lost generation of 1966”, Gao strongly believes that “the revolution condemned people to a life without a proper education and turned them into a ‘lost generation.’” Gao says that at just six years old, Mao claimed that Russia was going to bomb China. As a result, she and her classmates were forced to spend their school days digging trenches instead of studying. Gao claims that these same people are now fifty or sixty years old and can barely read and write, and have trouble adjusting to Chinese society. "You see them dancing in the streets, simply waiting for their life to end," she