Changes Within Urban Chinese Lifestyle Over The Last Thirty Years Essay

As the modern day economy continues to grow, more and more discussion are emerging revolving around what are the factors that led to the successful economic growth in some countries and one country that has been gaining researcher’s interest is China and the development of Beijing from a third world country in the to a developed and Newly industrialized country today.

The purpose of this investigation is to examine the extent to which the Chinese Cultural Revolution impacted China’s economy from 1966 to 1970. The main body of the investigation will focus on the persecution and violence towards high-level party officials and capitalists by the Red Guards and the “Destroy the Four Olds” campaign. The “Destroy the Four Olds” campaign was significant because it inhibited industrial and agricultural innovation and production of an entire country for a decade as it placed the country’s economy and industry into the hands of inexperienced revolutionaries. Two sources that will be used will be China: A New History and Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present, and they will be evaluated in regards to their purpose, value, and limitations. An analysis of these sources and the evidence will be used to form a conclusion as to how and to what extent the revolution impacted the Chinese economy.

In correlation to Stalin’s Russia, Mao’s China shadowed through the darkness of an intensive economic crisis, generally referred to as, ‘The great leap forward’. The campaign lasted over a decade despite the catastrophic events that made China and its economy go downhill. Although Mao’s efforts were too colossal to go unnoticed, the monstrosity of a decade lead Mao to slowly fade in the background. Consequently, Zedong’s acquaintances, Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shao-chi, rose to power to rectify the situation. Deng and Liu’s attempts to restore China – after the period of the great leap forward - may have been an optimistic road for the two officials. However, for Mao Zedong, it was far from the ideologies he obtained from the very beginning. Mao’s return in 1966 was merely to enforce his socialist principles, underpinning the Cultural Revolution.

As many other countries around the world China has its long history of a struggle for equality and prosperity against tyrants and dictatorships. The establishment of People’s Republic of China in 1949 seemed to have put an end to that struggle for a better life. “The Chinese people have stood up!” declared Mao Tse-tung, the chairman of China’s Communist Party (CPP) – a leading political force in the country for the time. The people were defined as a coalition of four social classes: the workers, the peasants, the petite bourgeoisie and the national-capitalists. The four classes were to be led buy the CPP, as the leader of the working class.

I aim to establish whether ‘the Great Leap Forward’ and ‘Cultural Revolution’ were successes for China in modernising and pushing the country forward or a failure that achieved

During Mao’s time, he strongly stressed his principles of the “Great Leap Forward” and the “Cultural Revolution”. However, due to these philosophies, China’s economic and social foundations crumbled and was severely damaged. The country was severely poor and economic production slowed. After Mao passed away, Deng Xiaoping emerged as Mao’s successor. He launched comprehensive economic reforms. These reforms aimed to decrease the role of the state in the economy and gradually introduce private forms of production in agriculture and industry. Because of these reforms, production increased by leaps and bounds and poverty was reduced dramatically. However, there was a problem that was arising. There was a lot of corruption and nepotism that was beginning to take over the economy. The gap between the wealthy and poor was growing and people began to see it as unfair.

The China completely changed compared it to before and after the Tang and Song dynasty. In terms of economy, population and social class, these changes are very important. The transformation didn’t happen overnight but happened in a slow process across two dynasties.

Chinese culture is truly one of the great civilization our world has come across. It boasts a vast geographic expanse, over 4000 years of written history, as well as a rich and profound traditional society. Many aspects of Chinese civilization can be traced back many centuries. It is so diverse and unique, yet harmoniously blended, and presents itself a priceless benefit to the world.

After many years of repression and control of the Chinese people by the central government, the Reform Era came about to bring change and hopefully better the lives of everyone. However, the Reform Era did not impact every Chinese person in the same manner, as there were great discrepancies between those whom lived in the city and those whom lived in the countryside. For people whom lived in the city, the privatization of the housing industry had a large impact, while the decollectivization of agriculture impacted those in the countryside. Yet, no matter their geographic location within the country, the benefits and costs every citizen underwent through during the changes of the Reform Era are apparent.

Throughout the twentieth century, the country of China went through many major changes. Dynastic China transitions into Communist China during the Chinese Cultural Revolution with many consequences as a result. Mao wanted to make a society where all could be equal but ended up creating much more damage than intended. In 1971, China was in the midst of extreme cultural and political change due to the Chinese Communist Party’s aim to destroy the Four Olds with the aid of the Red Guard, and to eliminate the bourgeois class.

In light of the economic changes that had occurred from the Maoist period (1949-1976) to the post-Maoist period (1978-2011) of China, the system of economic distribution of China under Mao Zedong’s and Deng Xiaoping’s leadership created a notable contrast of the standards of living for Chinese citizens. Mao Zedong’s establishment of collectively owned lands and state entitlement in the 1950s to 1970s put an end to private ownership and created a system whereby the earnings of Chinese citizens were paid per capita basis, reducing income differences. Upon the death of Mao Zedong and his system, Deng Xiaoping’s establishment of the privatization of lands and economic liberalization under his “Four Modernizations” reform goal created a system

If anything, the 1949 Chinese Revolution entered China into an era of never-ending revolution, violent and nonviolent. Two more “revolutions” occur after 1949: the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Mao believed that China’s socialist transformation was occurring too slowly. He believed China needed to leapfrog into a modern economy and a socialist utopia. In order for this to occur, there needed to be sweeping change within Chinese society. The hallmark of the Great Leap Forward were the People’s Communes. The greatest example of this era of revolution is the Cultural Revolution. At the start of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, Mao instructed young Red Guards to destroy the Four Olds: old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas (Osnos, 285). The Cultural Revolution was revolution in its purest form. Mao intended to transform China into a completely modern, socialist state through the Cultural Revolution. There needed to be a sudden, extreme, or complete change in the way people live, work,

However, the trend of domestic instability continued with the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976, in which attempts to remove class differences became catastrophic for the country’s economy, culture, and education. It also led to tremendous political upheaval due to a score of “counter revolutionary” party members and intellectuals being persecuted and tortured by the Red Guards (Wang 29). Mao’s ineffective and often harsh domestic policies left the country in chaos until Deng Xiaoping came into power (Lin 205). China’s turbulent domestic situation also resulted in a 30-year period of isolation, in which there was no foreign economic presence whatsoever (Lin 203).

The history of modern China starts on October 1st of 1949 with the victory by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the Chinese Civil War and the consequently proclamation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) by Mao Zedong . From 1949 until 1976, Mao started to implement in China his idea of a communist society with a centrally controlled economy based on the Soviet model. In order to achieve the massive changes towards the implementation of communism, he developed several ambitious projects, guided by the Five-Year Plans that included the Great Leap Forward, started in 1958, and the Cultural Revolution (between 1966 and 1976). It’s estimated that the implementation of the Maoist ideals was responsible for more than 65 million deaths in China, mostly by forced

Throughout the early 20th century, China was a country going through political turmoil. During this time, there was the rise of the Communist Party lead by Chairman Mao Tse Tung. He was made leader of the revolutionary forces after he saved the party with the Long March. His policies with the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution lead to the destruction of china’s heritage and many intellectuals being persecuted.1