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Mao Zedong influence in China
Effects of the Chinese cultural revolution
Effects of the Chinese cultural revolution
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The 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre in China or the June Fourth Incident was one of the most famous student protests in the world’s history. The Massacre took place on June 4th 1989 – the last day of a series of pro-democracy demonstrations around Tiananmen Square beginning from April 14. The Tiananmen protest ended in tragic failure and bloodbath as the Chinese state decided to put down the protest with a martial law. At last, army troops and tanks were sent to take control of the city and were ordered to clear the square by firing at the crowd of protesters. The number of deaths has been a matter of controversy over the world until now, which ranges from several hundreds to thousands. In spite of the massiveness and the great influence of the protest, June Fourth was a great failure of civil disobedience because of its lack of organization and the dominant power of the Chinese dictatorial government. The root of protest came into existence since the early of 1980s after the death of Mao ZeDong – the first chairman of the Communist party of China – in 1976. Since the communist party came to power, it had conducted many social and economic campaigns that had tremendous influence on the nation. The total domination of the socialist government towards the society caused many mistakes that made China face many disasters, for example, the severe famine caused the death of 30 million people from 1959 to 1961 (Zhao 42), or the Cultural Revolution which annihilated traditional culture and murdered a lot of intellectuals. In 1978, the new leaders decided to reform to rescue the Chinese economy which was on the verge of collapse. They corrected the past mistakes with an open-door policy on all areas from economy to culture, thus loo... ... middle of paper ... ...down the student demonstrations and somehow killed the revolution spirit of the people, the world will always remember the Tiananmen protest as significant, bravery and dramatic civil disobedience in the pursuit for democracy. Works Cited Branigan, Tania. “China lifts ban on Tiananmen sites.” Guardian.co.uk 3 August 2008. < http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/03/china.humanrights>. Mackerras, Colin. “June Fourth.” Dictionary of the Politics of the People’s Republic of China. 1st ed. 1998. Pei, M. From Reform to Revolution: The Demise of Communism in China and the Soviet Union. Harvard University Press, 1994. Zhang, Liang. The Tiananmen papers. Ed. Andrew J. Nathan and Perry Link. 1st ed. New York: Public Affairs, 2001. Zhao, Dingxin. The power of Tiananmen. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2001.
In addition, this takes place in the novel 1984, the government has workers from the Ministry of Truth to alter history the way the party wants it to be. The government in the novel and the government in China both enforce false history in order to protect their image. The final similarity between the novel and the poem is their use of doublethink. Doublethink is the action of being able to hold two completely contradictory thoughts simultaneously while believing both of them are true. Phrases from the novel 1984 such as, ¨ War is peace,¨, ¨ Freedom is slavery,¨, and ¨ Ignorance is strength,¨ are all examples of doublethink. Evidently, these quotes are all completely contradictory to one another, this also occurs in the poem, ¨ No one died in Tiananmen Square¨. A phrase from the poem constantly stating, ¨ No one died in Tiananmen Square,¨ when in reality about several hundred protesters were gruesomely murdered. In the poem, it also claims, ¨ Despite all their attempts to subdue the rioters, the troops were forced to open fire,¨. While the poem states that their were no fatalities, they still claim that they were forced to open fire on the
How Important was the My Lai Massacre in Generating Support for the Peace Protest Movement?
Tiananmen Square Massacre is an event that took place in the summer of 1989 in Beijing, China. It is an event that forever will leave a haunting legacy on the Chinese culture. The Chinese citizens just wanted freedom, liberty, and justice, but, with their communist government, they knew they wouldn’t get anywhere without a fight. What many people don’t realize is that the massacre wasn’t just with Beijing, but it was a national movement with people from all over the country who stood behind the students who were also willing to put their lives on the line; they were not alone. The Tiananmen Square Massacre left many speechless and at lost for words as they watched their brothers, sisters, mom, dads, cousins, etc. be murdered in front of them.
June 4th, 1989 is a day that changed China forever. Children growing up in China today will not be able to learn about every aspect of their country in schools, even the most important events. Even though the people in China are forbidden to even talk about it, it is still an important event in history not only in China, but the whole world. There were a lot of causes that shaped the massacre and the goals were very hard to be achieved, but the people of China never gave up. Censorship played a major role in this event. The Tiananmen Square incident of 1989 will never be forgotten.
Walder, Andrew G. The Beijing Red Guard Movement: Fractured Rebellion. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.
Twenty five years ago, almost one million protesters, many of which were students, crowded the streets of Tiananmen Square; however, they were unaware of the tragic consequences they would be forced to face only a few weeks later. The group of protesters held daily vigils, marched, and chanted for three weeks, and then armed Chinese troops stormed through the square. Many of the student protesters tried to escape, however there were a few who chose to fight back against the Chinese forces. According to Marquand, “The victims were not only students, but ordinary people who were outraged that the soldiers of a people’s army had been given warrant to shoot the people” (Hay 47). The Tiananmen Square Massacre remains a significant historical event because it was the first major pro-democracy protest in China, and the incident ignited similar protests across the country.
... This essay critically analyses and examines the effect of Communism on the Chinese Society during the period of 1946-1964. The overall conclusion that can be drawn is that the Chinese Communist Party managed to defeat the Kuomintang (Nationalist) Party and achieve victory in the Civil War, in spite of alienation by the Soviet Union and opposition from the U.S. This was primarily because of the superior military strategy employed by the Communists and the economic and political reforms introduced by this party which brought more equality to the peasants in the form of land ownership and better public services. This increased China’s production and manufacturing, which not only boosted the country’s economy but also provided a more sustainable supply of food, goods and services for the Chinese people.
Gittings, John. The Changing Face of China: From Mao to market. Oxford University Press, 2005.
China is a communist country, whose citizens faced many difficult situations while trying to fight for their human rights. According to the “Freedom Rankings” from the database CountryWatch China is not a free country. Specifically the Political Rights and Civil Liberties are in their maximum numbers; this means that these rights are confiscated from the people. Therefore freedoms of press, expression, speech, religion, and movement are all severely limited in China. The government has also kept a close watch on art in China; Chinese art went through many different stages starting from the year 1842. But the massacre of Tiananmen Square in the year 1989 was a turning point in the political life of China and on the country's art. Until the year 1992 art in china was underground, but it kept expanding. As a result of that some Chinese artists started to do art works that rebel against their government and express their feelings towards China. One of these artist is the famous Chinese artist Ai Weiwei who expressed in each piece of art he did, his feelings that China should let its people break away from the rotten traditional, in order to express their thoughts freely.
...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.
Yuan, Jing- Dong, “Sino-US Military Relations Since Tiananmen: Restoration, Progress, and Pitfalls”, Spring 2003, http://strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/parameters/articles/03spring/yuan.pdf
Revolution was the only solution to save China. D’Addese 8 Works Cited Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China. New York: NY 2013.
Xiaobo, L., (2011), ‘Two Essays on China’s Quest for Democracy’ Journal of Democracy, 22(1): 154-166.
BEIJING, June 5, 1989 --What started as a peaceful protest weeks ago in Beijing, China ended yesterday in a massacre of an unknown number of Chinese students in Tiananmen Square. The protest, which began in April, was triggered by the death of former Communist Party General Secretary, Hu Yaobang, a liberal reformer. Unsuccessful in his attempts to facilitate political and economic changes, Yaobang had garnered the support of university students who marched and gathered in Tiananmen Square on the day of his funeral. Over the course of the next several weeks, the number of students grew and they were joined by other citizens seeking political, social, and economic reforms.
Rosenberg, William G., and Young, Marilyn B. Transforming Russia and China: Revolutionary Struggle in the Twentieth Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.