The Impact of The Cultural Revolution on China from 1965-1968

The Cultural Revolution had a massive impact on China from 1965 to 1968. The Cultural Revolution is the name given to Mao’s attempt to reassert his beliefs in China. Mao had not been a very self-motivated leader from the late 1950’s on, and feared others in the party might be taking on a leading role that weakened his power within the party and the country. Basically, the Cultural Revolution was a failed attempt by Mao to re-impose his authority on the party and therefore, the country as well. Not only did the Cultural Revolution have a massive impact on China, but many other countries as well. Having a huge tragedy like the CR in history, we have to face and learn from it to avoid an event like this from repeating itself in the future.

From 1964-1966, Mao Zedong and Jiang Qing started to condemn intellectualism (Fortune City). This campaign influenced the Chinese, and soon it was driven into a movement. This movement, the Cultural Revolution (CR), began in October, 1966, when Mao Zedong and Jiang Qing organized “Red Guards,” using them to spread Mao’s principles and theory on Communism around the country (Britannica, 2008). Although there were numerous amounts of people involved in the revolution, Mao Zedong was the “leader” of it. During the early 1960s, disagreements with the Soviet Union convinced Mao that the Russian Revolution had gone off target, which in return made him fear that China would develop the same way (Fortune City). Programs carried out by Mao’s colleagues to bring China out of the economic crisis caused by the Great Leap Forward made Mao doubt their revolutionary commitment and also resent his own diminished role. He then threw China’s cities into chaos in an effort to reverse the ongoing historic developmen...

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... Many artifacts were seized from private homes and often destroyed on the spot. It is suggested that much of China's thousands of years of history was destroyed during the ten years of the Cultural Revolution, and that such destruction is unmatched at any time or place in history (Gray).

The Cultural Revolution, no matter how many people it affected, should never have taken place. It separated people against each other, making them violent and intolerant toward one another. In that sense, the pain of the Cultural Revolution cannot be recovered easily, and still now a lot of people agonize over this period of history. One can never replace a lifetime of memories or terrible experiences, but one can move on and learn from these experiences. As many people suffered and died during this time, it becomes a lesson to everyone to cherish and respect life while one has it.