The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China

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The “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” or the “Cultural Revolution” had been a failed attempt at making China a stronger country. This revolution had destroyed China’s rich history. The period from 1966 to 1969 had been terrifying years in which the Red Guards used violence to purge China of any anti- communist sources. Mao Zedong had led the violence and turmoil in China after his failed attempt at the Great Leap Forward. He relied on China’s youth to change the traditional customs and ideas. The students carried the Cultural Revolution forward and were encouraged to attack authority. Mao said, “to rebel is justified.”(par. 2, Schell). The stated goals of the Cultural Revolution were to abolish the four olds, “old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas.” (pg118, Kort) Mao Zedong’s failed attempt was shown in the poor educational reforms, the loss of China’s cultural history, and the horrible treatment towards anti-communists.
The detrimental effect of the Cultural Revolution was shown in the change in China’s education system. The education system’s decline in performance was a result of the horrible system changes. In order to purge the students that opposed the revolution, officials closed down schools. Since Mao Zedong needed the students to create the Red Guard, he took them out of schools and universities. In the book, China Under Communist, Kort states that, “By the summer there were over 11 million of them [students].”(pg. 118) The students that were taken away from their education imminently led to a significant decrease in the education system. They were taken out of school to join the Red Guard. He had selfishly taken the students away from school to strengthen his ideology of making China a communist c...

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Wright, David Curtis. The History of China. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2001. Print.
Kort, Michael. China under Communism. Brookfield, CT: Millbrook, 1994. Print.
Laris, Michael. "Courage When It Counted." Mailtribune.com. The Washington Post, 15 Nov. 2009. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.
Malaspina, Ann. The Chinese Revolution and Mao Zedong in World History. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 2004. Print.
Mark, Chi-Kwan. China and the World since 1945: An International History. London: New York, 2012. Print.
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