Communism in China
Chinese communism consists of three main historical themes. As the book Red Azalea, by Anchee Min, resplendently illustrated all of the historical themes while telling her prolific memoir. In my opinion, Red Azalea was a perfect source to draw historical themes from because she told a story throughout the eyes of someone who has experienced everything that went down in history during that time period. Also Contemporary World History, by William J. Duiker, And The True Story Of Mao Tsetung And The Communist Revolution In China - Part 1, by Li Onesto have greatly highlighted these historical themes. These three historical themes stood out in all three of these sources. These three themes are: The Romanticism of Mao Zedong,
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Who at the time was the chairman of China. His goal was to modernize China and create a classless society along with many other things. Mao gained a lot of followers because of his beliefs and the longing for change. He wrote a book with all his speeches and quotes that people in China basically lived by, this book was commonly known as the little red book. This was one of the key weapons used for Mao’s Romanticism. As I Observed in the book Red Azalea (page 15) “I became a Mao activist in in the district and won contests because I was able to recite the Little Red Book.” Min, Anchee. Red Azalea. London: Bloomsbury, 2009. Print. This book was used almost like the bible during this time. If you disagreed with Mao’s words or teachings you’d be punished and looked down upon. Here is a prime example of the people romanticizing Mao as if he’s god. Another example from the from the Red Azalea book, “In school Mao’s books were our texts-We hung portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin next to Mao in our classroom. Each morning we bowed to them as well as bowing to Mao praying a long, long life for him.” Min, Anchee. Red Azalea. London: Bloomsbury, 2009. Print. Again this is another example of the apotheosis of Mao’s authority. The third example of the romanticism of Mao, outside of the …show more content…
Throughout chinese history poverty has played a part of chinese society. This also makes sense why people praised Mao, because for some people he helped save them from poverty. But the struggle was definitely a part of the revolutionary movement towards a classless society. On page 11 in Red Azalea “We were called “Rags” and “Fleas.” My father said to us, I can’t afford to buy you new clothes to make you look respectable,” Also in The True Story Of Mao Tsetung And The Communist Revolution In China - Part 1, by Li Onesto, the author explains how Mao came from poverty himself and how this prompted his passion to make change. “In the China where Mao grew up, most people were poor peasants suffering under the system of feudalism. Big landlords owned most of the land and landless peasants were forced to work for them, getting barely enough to survive. The peasants lived in constant debt, subjected to the tyranny of the landlords and conditions of poverty, hunger and disease. Families sold their children because they couldn’t feed them.” "The True Story Of Mao Tsetung And The Communist Revolution In China - Part 1." The True Story Of Mao Tsetung And The Communist Revolution In China - Part 1. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2017. The last source of poverty is Contemporary World History, by William J. Duiker on page 254 “Many peasants were reportedly reduced to eating bark off trees and in some cases allowing infants to starve.” Duiker,
The Communist revolution in China was loosely based on the revolution in Russia. Russia was able to implement the beginnings of Marxist Communism in the way that it was intended They had a large working class of factory workers, known as the proletariat, that were able to band together and rise up to overthrow the groups of rich property owners, known as the bourgeoisie. The communist party wanted to adopted this same Marxist sense of revolution, but they realized that there were some fatal flaws in the differences between the two countries. The first was that there was not the same sense of class difference between people, yes there were peasants and landowners but there was not a sense of a class struggle. The other difference was that China was not industrialized like Russia so there was no proletariat group, as defined by Marxism, to draw the revolution from. What the Chinese Communists needed to do is re-define the proletariat for their situation, who they looked at were the peasants.
Mao Zedong was a very influential man in history. He forever changed the face of Chinese politics and life as a whole. His communist views and efforts to modernize China still resonate in the country today. Jonathan Spence’s book titled Mao Zedong is a biography of the great Chinese leader. Spence aims to show how Mao evolved from a poor child in a small rural village, to the leader of a communist nation. The biography is an amazing story of a person’s self determination and the predictability of human nature. The book depicts how a persuasive voice can shape the minds of millions and of people. It also shows the power and strength that a movement in history can make. This biography tells an important part of world history-the communist takeover of China.
Following the Chinese Revolution of 1949, China’s economy was in ruin. The new leader, Mao Zedong, was responsible for pulling the economy out of the economic depression. The problems he faced included the low gross domestic product, high inflation, high unemployment, and high prices on goods. In order to solve these issues, Mao sought to follow a more Marxist model, similar to that of the Soviet Union. This was to use government intervention to develop industry in China. In Jan Wong’s Red China Blues, discusses Maoism and how Mao’s policies changed China’s economy for the worse. While some of Mao’s early domestic policies had some positive effects on China’s economy, many of his later policies caused China’s economy to regress.
In a last ditch effort to gain political control over China, Chairman Mao Zedong, launched the Cultural Revolution. The effort was due to the changes he saw happening in the Soviet Union. To avoid becoming more like the Soviet model, the Cultural Revolution aimed at removing the “Old China” ways (Harper). Met with disdain and seeing that his party was failing at his mission he launched the Red Guards. The Red Guards were a group of militant high school students recruited for the sole means of spreading the word of Chairman Mao. The students were typically recruited by the use of posters in the schools and after recruitment the groups of students would travel to areas of China where they typically were unknown or didn’t have familial ties (Lieberthal).
Mao actually blames the Hunan landlords and the higher, wealthier class for a bloody battle between the peasants and the landlords. He said that for a long time now, the wealthier class has been taking advantage of the peasants and has driven them to do this to the landlords.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The Cultural Revolution in China was led by Mao Zedong, due to this Liang and many others faced overwhelming obstacles in many aspects of their life such as work, family and everyday encounters, if affected everyone’s families life and education, Liang lets us experience his everyday struggles during this era, where the government determined almost every aspect of life.
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
Mao's period of communal reform and the establishment of the Communist party from 1949-1976 was needed in order for Deng's individual oriented, capitalist society to thrive. Mao's period encompassed the structure of a true dictatorial communist government. It strove to concentrate on unifying communities to create a strong political backbone while being economically self-sufficient and socially literate and educated in Maoist propaganda. Under Mao's leadership individual wealth was seen as a hindrance to community goals in meeting production quotas and was crushed by such policies as collectivization, land reformation, and movements such as The Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. Under his rule, modeled under the Stalinist USSR archetype, China raised its masses from poverty and starvation to a standard of living that was considered a substantial upgrade.
One of Mao Zedong’s motivations for beginning the Cultural Revolution was his view that a cutting-edge bureaucratic ruling class had surfaced because of the centralized authoritarian nature of the political system, which had little hope for popular participation in the process of economic development (The Chinese Cultural Revolution revisited). The motivations of Fidel Castro, on the other hand, were different in that he wanted all people of all classes to be equal. The notion that the poverty-stricken could live a life equal to all other humans was an immense sense of happiness and alteration. In China, Mao Zedong developed many things to entice people.
Creel, Herrlee. Chinese Thought from Confucius to Mao Tse-tung. New York: University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Jung Chang, who wrote Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China was the first of her 3 generations to be raised under the Communist regime. Her parents worked for the Communist party and throughout her childhood she had to follow a set of rules that forced her respect orders under Mao’s rule. Like most Chinese people, she indeed followed Mao’s words and perspective, but in the end she knew that it was Mao that was responsible for China’s suffering. Her views are very biased because she hated Communists, and primarily wrote about the bad that Communism brought to China. She watched her family suffer for years, hating the Communist regime.
...of communist ideas. Americans saw communism as the ultimate “evil” and capitalism as the ultimate “good.” And so began the second Red Scare. The Red Scare gave way to the communist witch hunts of the McCarthyism era. China had become communist after a revolution in 1949 by leader Mao Zedong who established the Peoples’ Republic of China. The “fall” of China to communism caused the U.S to become even more suspicious of people of Chinese descent as being spies out to sabotage the U.S.
It was the events between 1946 and 1964 that strengthened communism in China. At the end of World War II, the Nationalist Party (GMD) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) raced for power in China. The chairman of the Communist Party was Mao Zedong and their army was known as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The Nationalist’s were led by Chiang Kai-shek and their army was the Kuomintang.
people on to the side of the CCP. The CCP’s victory was also down to
The Cultural Revolution destroyed countless lives; while some died during reeducation, the Revolution drove others to suicide, madness, or depression by the shame, humiliation, and isolation they faced. The government of China, however, often denies that such suffering occurred. Instead, it promotes a positive, romanticized image of the Cultural Revolution in sanctioned fiction and in official history. Therefore, one of the few ways we can see the true effects of the Communist regime is through the fiction that the disillusioned Chinese citizens wrote about the actual experience and impact of the era. Through these writings, we can see clearly who were the victims and who were the oppressors