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Cultural revolution and great leap forward mao policy
Cultural revolution and great leap forward mao policy
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To what extent did the Red Guards control the Cultural Revolution?
Section A
The Cultural Revolution in China started in 1966 and ended on Mao Zedong’s death in 1976, on September 9th. While headed by Mao Zedong (sometimes spelled Tse-Tung), otherwise known as Chairman Mao, the Cultural Revolution contained a powerful group who called themselves the Red Guard, student activists who killed, pillaged, and destroyed “Old Fours” for Zedong. One could argue they were the drive of the Revolution.
However, the Red Guards were not the Cultural Revolution, though, neither was Mao Zedong. To what extent did the Red Guards control the Cultural Revolution?
This investigation will use memoirs (Red Scarf Girl, Life and Death in Shanghai) which are primary sources, along with historical books (The Great Cultural Revolution, China: 100 Years of China, The Cultural Revolution, and The Great Chinese Revolution 1800-1985) for the background of the Cultural Revolution. By interpreting opinions and putting them into context of the events, this investigation aims to discover how much influence the Red Guards had over the Cultural Revolution.
Section B
Before the Cultural Revolution, Mao had implemented the Great Leap Forward 1958 in the People’s Republic of China. The Great Leap Forward caused a famine with an estimated death count of 20 to 30 million (Fairbank 296). Mao had retired in 1959, and his successor, Liu Shaoqi, was a moderate President who reversed the effects of the Great Leap Forward (Esmein 34). Mao felt threatened by Liu’s success where he had failed.
Mao began to purge the Communist Party to rebuild his power (Fairbank 320). In May of 1966, students at Beijing University put up a poster that attacked the teachers (Salisbury 212...
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...n: 1800 - 1985. New York: Harper & Row, 1986. Print.
Jiang, Ji-li. Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1997. Print.
Langley, Andrew. The Cultural Revolution: Years of Chaos in China. Minneapolis, MN: Compass Point, 2008. Print.
Niu-Niu. No Tears for Mao: Growing up in the Cultural Revolution. Chicago, IL: Academy Chicago, 1995. Print.
Onesto, Li. "Growing Up in Revolutionary China." Revolution. RCP Publications, 12 Apr. 2009. Web. 06 Apr. 2014.
Pomfret, John. Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China. New York: H. Holt, 2006. Print.
Salisbury, Harrison E., and Jean-Claude Suarès. China: 100 Years of Revolution. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1983. Print.
McMurtrie, Beth. "Documenting a Nation’s Madness One Tale at a Time." The Chronicle. University of Chicago, n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2014.
Mao Zedong will forever live on history as a revolutionary, not only in China but across the globe. There are very few communist nations today because of the many difficulties of having a homogenous population, which shares the same ideals. Mao was able to modernize and re-socialize his citizens in a short amount of time. He defined himself as the face of change in China. Mao’s vision of equality for all Chinese citizens has still not been achieved but it is well on its way. The only question lies in, does the end justify the means.
Watch your classmates criticize your teacher; Watch your father being taken away, because of long dead relatives; watch you classmates humiliate you in front of the class; Watch yourself needing to choose between family and future; Watch yourself only watching unable to help. Unfortunate, that was the reality for Ji-Li Jiang. Red Scarf Girl is a memoir written by Ji-Li Jiang, regarding the China cultural revolution between 1966-1976. Throughout the book,Family is important in defining who people are in Red Scarf Girl.
China’s Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution (GPCR) is a well-documented period in world history, but the most profound records are found vivified in the literature and films later into the 20th century, respectively. One of the most profound novels is “To Live”, authored by Yu Hua, which as a fictional narrative offers both a unique and realistic sense of the time period at the individual level. However, the provocative film adaptation directed by Zhang Yimou in 1994 was formidable enough that it was banned in Mainland China. Zhang paints a more realistic picture of how the GPCR influenced Chinese society but adds zest to Hua’s ambiguity but acceptable imperfection. Naturally, the film has many different characteristics yet still manages to overcome the challenges that implicate film adaptations.
The Red Guards tore up people’s houses and tortured them for being disobedient. They walked the towns in their uniforms and holding their red books ready to punish anyone who was rich, smart, attacking the revolutions, or disrespecting Chairman Mao. Even after Mao decided to stop using them, people in the low classes were still abused. I also learned that the revolution had a huge impact after it was over. The economy declined, old historic buildings were destroyed, and education was poor. Because of the large amount of youth that joined the Red Guards, they put school aside and never continued their education. Also, old historic buildings were considered Four Olds so they were vandalized and torn down. The economy declined because the workers were called into political rallys or taken in for political confession classes so often that not much work got done. Lastly, I learned how the revolution ended. The Cultural Revolution did not end until Chairman Mao died on September 9, 1976 He died from Parkinson’s disease. After his death, his wife was jailed forever because of her involvement in the revolution. Hua Guofeng and Deng Xiaoping took power after Chairman Mao’s
Further problems for the implementation of Great Leap Forward can be classified as unintended and intended. An unintended problem was the natural disaster, a famine, which loomed China in 9159 to 1961. This disrupted Mao's reforms because people were starving and the Great leap Forward was not succeeding was not succeeding. An intended problem was the stop of aid from the Soviet Union in its provision of finance and industrial material, namely steel, to China. It was not that Mao literally intended for such a problem to arise. Rather, it was a problem that could have prevented if Mao maintained important diplomatic ties with communism ally, Soviet Union.
...ear and listen. That’s why most of the Chinese youth were inspired to join the army due to the books that were sold and the song that was written just for the Red Guards army. The book’s name is “Little Red Book.” The song’s name is “Red Guard Song.” For the members, the “Red Guard Song” reminds them of their purpose of why they joined the Red Guards. To add on, two young women had wrote their own memoirs to explain what their life was when the Cultural Revolution was happening and how their life was changed when they joined the Red Guards and started to rebel against their parents and their own teachers. As they grew older, they soon realized that everything that they’ve been doing the whole entire time was wrong and regret joining the Red Guards. They realize that all these time, they were killing innocent people that clearly was doing nothing to harm the country.
Fairbank, John King. The Great Chinese Revolution 1800-1985. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1986.
...also sent to the countryside. They were told it was so they could learn from the peasants and teach them too but the main reason was that it saved the government money because they didn’t have to put them on an urban payroll or find them married housing. As Mao’s health started to deteriorate, China started allowing the outside world in and in 1972, Nixon came to China. In 1973, many officials were reinstated in high up jobs, like Deng Xiaoping. Three million people were finally “rehabilitated” in 1978 and had their revisionist and rightist label renounced. The urban youth who had jumped to help Mao were now at the bottom of the totem pole and were sent to the countryside where they were treated badly. The people who were denunciated lost a lot of trust in the people around them and were continually upset and hurt years later. In September of 1978, Mao Zedong died.
Gittings, John. The Changing Face of China: From Mao to market. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Yi, Mu. Crisis at Tiananmen: Reform and Reality in Modern China. San Francisco, CA: China Books & Periodicals, c1989
Kenneth G. Lieberthal (n.d)“Chinese Communist Party chairman, Mao Zedong during his last decade in power (1966–76) to renew the spirit of the Chinese Revolution” (para. 1). People lived in those periods had their worst memory in their life. Mao’s selfish attempt to get rid of his rivals in government and revive his image to the Chinese people. After it was soiled to this campaign called great leap forward. The cultural revolution started of with the campaign to cast the way for the four old’s. They are old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits. This destroyed old arts, museum and streets were renamed with new revolutionary names and keeping the picture and name of Mao all over the place in china. Lieberthal, K. G (n.d) “He shut down China’s schools, and during the following months he encouraged Red Guards to attack all traditional values and ‘bourgeois’ things and to test party officials by publicly criticizing them” (para.4). Mao wanted to destroy religion first because, people believe more in religion and god. So, he damaged many temples, historical sculpture. The second thing he wanted to destroy was education. Because, he believed that people who are educated can have their ability to think for themselves. Lieberthal, K. G (n.d) “The movement quickly escalated; many elderly people and intellectuals were not only verbally attacked but were physically abused. Many died. The Red Guards splintered
Mao’s Cultural Revolution was an attempt to create a new culture for China. Through education reforms and readjustments, Mao hoped to create a new generation of Chinese people - a generation of mindless Communists. By eliminating intellectuals via the Down to the Countryside movement, Mao hoped to eliminate elements of traditional Chinese culture and create a new form Chinese culture. He knew that dumbing down the masses would give him more power so his regime would be more stable. This dramatic reform affected youth especially as they were targeted by Mao’s propaganda and influence. Drawing from his experiences as an Educated Youth who was sent down to the countryside Down to the Countryside movement, Ah Cheng wrote The King of Children to show the effects of the Cultural Revolution on education, and how they affected the meaning people found in education. In The King of Children, it is shown that the Cultural Revolution destroyed the traditional incentives for pursuing an education, and instead people found moral and ethical meaning in pursuing an education.
...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.
Douglas Reynolds, China, 1898-1912: The Xinzheng Revolution and Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.
Hsueh, Chun- tu, The Chinese Revolution of 1911: New Perspectives (Hong Kong: Joint _____Publishing Co., 1986), pp.1-15, 119-131, 139-171