The Chinese Cultural Revolution The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, beginning as a campaign targeted at removing Chairman Mao Zedong's political opponents, was a time when practically every aspect of Chinese society was in pandemonium. From 1966 through 1969, Mao encouraged revolutionary committees, including the red guards, to take power from the Chinese Communist party authorities of the state. The Red Guards, the majority being young adults, rose up against their teachers, parents, and neighbors. Following Mao and his ideas, The Red Guard's main goal was to eliminate all remnants of the old culture in China. They were the 'frontline implementers' who produced havoc, used bloody force, punished supposed 'counter revolutionists', and overthrew government officials, all in order to support their 'beloved leader'. ?Red Guards? was a title given to people belonging to many different social groups: workers, peasants, demobilized soldiers and students. A vast majority of the people in this group were youngsters in their mid-teens, who were summoned at their middle schools by Mao. The Red Guard youth soon turned from obedient to rebellious students. Red Scarf Girl is a novel based on truth, terror and courage during the Cultural Revolution. The following excerpt discusses about the hundreds of wall posters the young Red Guard?s wrote, which discriminated against teachers, and members of their community. ?Sheet after sheet, article after article, each da-zi-bao was a bitter accusation. One was titled, ?Teacher Li, Abuser of the Young.? The student had failed to hand in her homework on time, and Teacher Li had told her to copy the assignment over five times as punishment. Another student said his teacher had deliberately ruined his students? eyesight by making them read a lot, so they could not join the Liberation Army. Still another accused Teacher Wang of attempting to corrupt a young revolutionary by buying her some bread when he learned that she had not eaten lunch.? (42) With the incentive of being promoted, the youth set out to change the whole educational system. The students denounced the old curriculum and lessons, which taught abstract ideas not pertaining to the revolution. They vilified respectable administrators, whose only intentions were to educate children and turn them into intelligent young adults. This disruption in the ... ... middle of paper ... ...ng the time of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, mayhem was a part of everyday life. Mao Zedong encouraged rebellious actions from the Red Guards, and rewarded those who shone as leaders. He also targeted his political rivals by provoking the Red Guards to follow his ideas, and annihilate all remnants of china?s old culture. After the revolution ended, the Red guards received the disciplinary actions they deserved, and the tortured victims finally inadvertently received the vengeance they deserved. Works Cited Cheng, Nien. Life and Death in Shanghai. New York, New York: The Penguin Group, 1986. Hoobler, Dorothy, Thomas Hoobler, and Michael Kort, comps. China: Regional Studies Series. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Globe Fearon, 1993. 174-177. Interview Mr. Nien with His Daughter. The Harbinger. 27 Mar. 2001. 21 May 2004 . Jiang, Ji Li. Red Scarf Girl. N.p.: HarperTrophy, n.d. Mr, Nie. Interview with His Daughter. The Harbinger. 27 Mar. 2001. 21 May 2004 . Nie, Mr.. Interview with His Daughter. The Harbinger. 27 Mar. 2001. 21 May 2004 . "Red Guards." Brittanica. "Red Guards." Wikipedia. 20 May 2004 . "Red Guard." tiscali.reference. 21 May 2004 .
Olendorf, Susan M Trosky & Donna. "Biographical Sketches." 10 September 1998. Jim Kjelgaard. 11 April 2014 .
The prolog of the Red Scarf Girl is about Ji Li's life before the Cultural Revolution started. Before this time, her family was very stable. Ji Li was a respectable girl, who wore her red scarf around her neck, received very high marks in school, and was the top of her class. When Ji Li was twelve-year-old when the Cultural Revolution started.
Nicholas, Walter. Interviewed by Lewis G. Schmidt. Interview with Walter Nicholas. 10 October 1989. Web. 14 March 2014.
Ultimately, The Death of Woman Wang, by Jonathan Spence is a timeless, educational, historical novel. Spence purpose to enlighten the reader of the Chinese culture, tradition and its land were met through the use of sources, like the Local History of T'an-ch'eng, the scholar-official Huang Liu-hung's handbook and stories of the writer P'u Sung-Ling. The intriguing structure of The Death of Woman Wang will captivate any reader's attention.
Pavao, Kate. "Q & A with James Dashner." PublishersWeekly.com. Publishers Weekly, 02 Aug. 2012. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Kline, Benjamin. “NCR Cabin Takes A Place In History.” Dayton Daily News 08 04 2004
...tion. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2006. Facts On File, Inc. Web. January 13, 2014.
...ved the Saturday Review Anisfield Wolf Award for Black Like Me, the Christian Culture Series Award, as well as receiving two honorary doctorates from universities.
There is no better way to learn about China's communist revolution than to live it through the eyes of an innocent child whose experiences were based on the author's first-hand experience. Readers learn how every aspect of an individual's life was changed, mostly for the worst during this time. You will also learn why and how Chairman Mao launched the revolution initially, to maintain the communist system he worked hard to create in the 1950's. As the story of Ling unfolded, I realized how it boiled down to people's struggle for existence and survival during Mao's reign, and how lucky we are to have freedom and justice in the United States; values no one should ever take for
My third informational interview was a face to face sit down interview with Omer Teymur, a young gentleman who is a CEO of a new growing cotton company called AF Cotton LLC located in Dallas, Texas.
Chinese Revolution is about making the entire country into Communists and killing each and one the people who hates Mao Tse-Tung. Mao Tse-Tung is the leader of China at this time who believes in equality and everyone should have the same rights. The Red Guards is a military group in which includes a group of children that eliminates the Chinese population due to hatred for Mao. If any of these events happen to our generation, most youth are smart enough to know that Mao is a bad leader and killing innocent people by the case of bitterness for Mao is wrong. The Chinese youth got swept up in the Cultural Revolution by Mao because the youth were easy to persuade into doing something. To expand this idea further, the Chinese youth weren’t old enough, not on this specific age, to realize whether Mao’s actions were virtuous or inaccurate. On the other hand, they thought that working for Mao and joining the Red Guards will help their country out, but they never knew the truth behind Mao’s plans. The truth about the Cultural Revolution was to kill anybody that gets in the way of Mao’s plans and destroying all the old buildings so that it would be replaced with new buildings or reconstruct the old buildings to become brand new again. In addition, the Chinese youth had no idea that joining the Red Guards will give a highly chance of getting killed. In other words, the adults were smarter than the youth because joining the Red Guards means the opposite of helping the country out. Mao just made them think that joining will help their country, even though it was the other way around like someone apologizing to their neighbor in which manipulating their minds that they’re now cool, but they were still rude to them afterwards. To repeat this, t...
The struggle to bring communism resulted in millions of people being killed, especially in China. During China’s Great Leap Forward, a three-year famine broke out that killed more than 20 million people (Strayer, 1049.) Communism also affected the individual by taking away the value of a single citizen. In order to become an equal society, the people’s freedom to do what they want vanished as they had to take orders from the ruler. People were also forced to give up their personal property so that land could be redistributed to a more equal portion to the population (Strayer, 1047.) Lastly, people were forced to give up their traditions and what made them unique, as shown in Mo Bo’s writing “I was a teenage Red Guard.” She describes her experience of joining the Red Guard, which she joined simply to blend in with the other students. She states that, “Everyone wanted to join the Red Guards because nobody wanted to be ‘unqualified’, ‘backward’ and ‘non-revolutionary’” (Bo.) During the time of the Red Guards, people would carry around a small red book to show their loyalty. These books were a symbol of faithfulness and obedience towards Mao and people who did not carry the book with them was viewed as a bad communism and as an enemy towards the
Brinker Hadley believes in himself and his ideas, letting nothing stand in the way of his success. In A Separate Peace, Finny and
Hornaday, Ann. "'Brian': A Blast From the Past." The Washington Post. The Washington Post Company, 28 May 2004. Web. 20 June 2011. .
Gittings, John. The Changing Face of China: From Mao to market. Oxford University Press, 2005.