Communism And The Cultural Revolution

Communism in China as we know has played a major role in the countries political system over the past century. Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao were the co-founders of the communist party in 1921. At the time China was in a world or turmoil ever since the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1911. For 10 years China was lost in a world with new ideas coming from all over the world. At the time, Duxiu and Dazhao saw an opportunity to bring change throughout a weakened China and they exploited it. The communist influence being brought by them and powers such as Russia influenced the Chinese way of thinking that Communism had new beliefs of the world and that all people should be seen as equal under the new government. Personally I am a very strong believer in

Communism is a system of social organisation which formerly consumed almost a third of countries in the entire world, having originated in Russia. The first official communist state was founded during the Russian revolutions in 1917, due to the inaugural communist political party ‘Bolsheviks’ gaining primal power. Afterwards, the influence of communism spread to other countries with the likes of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and East Germany to name a few. These countries that were governed on communist principles were known as the ‘Eastern Bloc’. Even countries in Asia were persuaded into the theoretically human equality system such as China, Laos and Vietnam. Communism was gathering strength to strength every year in the mid 20th century, but eventually its impact was wiped off in the late 20th century when the Berlin War was knocked down in 1989, ending the barrier between the Eastern and Western blocs. Communism arguably was the most influential social experiment in history, but also the most flawed and its failure to change the world permanently will always remain significant in history.

The launch of the Chinese Cultural Revolution in 1966 was due to a culmination of political and ideological struggles that had divided the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since the end of the Great Leap Forward. As said by Che Guevara, “A revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall”. Che Guevara’s statement is accurate to an extent in relation to the causes of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Although China was vulnerable during the twentieth century and Mao Tse-Tung, Chairman of the CCP, took control of this susceptibility, the Chinese Cultural Revolution was already ‘ripe’, someone just had to provoke it to ‘fall’. The Chinese Cultural Revolution can be considered a power struggle between Mao and his rivals. Mao needed to regain the control that he had lost after the failure of ‘The Great Leap Forward’ and the Chinese Cultural Revolution was a means for him to do so. Mao genuinely believed in an equal society and went about this belief in a very severe manner. Che Guevara’s statement is not entirely accurate as the Chinese Cultural Revolution was just part of a progression that was taking place and although Mao provoked it to fall, China was ultimately ripe for a revolution.

The Cultural Revolution, which affected China from 1965 to 1968, is the name given to Mao's endeavor to proclaim his convictions in China. Mao Zedong was a Chinese Communist progressive and the establishing father of the People's Republic of China. He had a Marxist-Leninist hypothesis, military procedures, and political approaches which were known as the Mao Zedong Thought. Mao was worried about the traits of post 1959 China. He commented that the unrest had supplanted the old respectability with over again one and expected that these individuals taking in a main part would debilitate Mao's energy inside the gathering and nation. Mao trusted that with the begin of the Cultural Revolution, it would disrupt the decision class and get China to a more equivalent condition of being. August 1966 at a meeting of the Plenum of the Central Committee was the initiation of the Cultural Revolution development.

Today, throughout most of China, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is realized as one of the most chaotic and deadly times in chinese history; often referred to as the “ten lost years.” However, during the revolution, many hopeful individuals sought after change and looked toward Mao as

The Cultural Revolution was based on the belief that school should be simpler, and the more books a person read, the more unintelligent they become. Mao wanted to brainwash Chinese society and create Chinese citizens who would grow up to become uneducated and mindless. According to Jing Chang she wrote that in order to obtain absolute obedience and loyalty, one needed terror. And that's why Mao decided to use young people in their early teens and twenties because they much easier to influence and manipulate. Mao attempted to use young people and influenced them that their democratic system is unfair and succeeded in creating a group of students known as the Red Guards.

When the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong was in power, there was not much room for freedom of religion. Once the government became the People’s Republic of China, there was more freedom of religion such as Christianity, Taoists, Buddhists and Confucians. Politics and governments play an essential role in exerting their power—or not—to allow certain religions to flourish or to give more preference to once over

After World War II, the United States faced a malevolent philosophical dispute that had spread from within itself. Chapter nine in Thinking Through the Past is titled “Pop Culture as History: The War Comes Home” because it identifies America’s disposition over the subject of communism during the Cold War era. Historian Stephen J. Whitfield writes his secondary source entitled, “The Culture of the Cold War” which presents a detailed analysis pertaining to the lives of Americans on both sides of the political spectrum of anti-communism during the 1950s in United States. Questions arise that carry significance to cultural and social growth during the period: How was communism threatening the

During the late 1800s, communism has been a form of government that grew out to be successful throughout time. There was about more than 12 countries who at some point turned communism during this time. Which overall communism became one of the greatest impacts.

The freedom of religion is also violated. This is evident when China prohibits all religious activities outside establishments registered; only four religions which are Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity and Islum, are permitted for people to practise and contents are monitored and sometimes modified. The government has endeavoured to eliminate many types of new religious group, including Falun Gong. Falun gong has been banned since 1999; security forces kidnap and arrest thousands of Falun Gong leaders, approximately 3000 practitioners were tortured to death and 6000 was sent to prison(Human rights watch, 2002), because it had been the most serious threat to the government since the 1989 Tiananmen student uprising. The governments do not approve of religious performance, so people would not share ideas that are not beneficial to obedience under a communist regime.

Marx understanding of society shift into modernism lead to develop a form of communism that would come to be known as Marxism, communism is the economic thought of Marxism. Marx understands that Modernism calls for society to embrace equality for the betterment of society. Part of the problem with Capitalism comes from its exploitation of the working class; Marx understands this problem to be a vein of Pre-modernism and not a pillar of Modernism. Marx calls for the working class to rise up over their bourgeoisie oppressors and seize the equality that rightfully belongs to them. “Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other – bourgeoisie and proletariat. (Communist pg. 9)” If society wants to embrace modernism, then society needs to shift its focus from fighting each other and one exploiting another to a classless society. Marx highly criticizes the bourgeoisie in The Communist Manifesto, and this stems from the problems they created for themselves and for the rest of society. In their attempt to gain more power, land, and resources, their material conditions, upon the prominence which their families had been formed, were dissipating due to the lack of foresight and selfish greed. If the Bourgeoisie continues to exploit the proletariat then society will head to conflict, as is expected of Pre-modernism, but if the Bourgeoisie cease its exploitation and relinquish its power for the group,

China has been a communist country since the communist revolution took place in 1949, since then China has been ruled by the dictator Mao Tse-Tung. However the Chinese dictator died in September 1976, he was hailed abroad as one of the worlds’ great leaders. Certainly one of the more impressive aspects of the Chinese communist government, has been the willingness of the people to protest against it (3, pg. 4).

     Communism had one of the greatest political impacts than any other political ideas in the 20th century around the world. What is important and interesting about communism is its background, concept, and why many countries apply to this idea. This essay will generally focus on the background, ideology, and why the countries and political parties applied to this idea.

Furthermore, the Marxist revolutionary government of Communist China dealt with Confucianism negatively. “In the early 20th century, both before and after the fall of the Qing dynasty, Confucianism was harshly criticized by the New Culture Movement. (Adler 6)” The assumption of this movement was that “virtually everything about China’s traditional culture was holding it back from becoming a modern nation-state.” In fact, Confucianism was high on the list of culprits in this “blanket rejection” of traditional China. “The New Culture Movement criticized Confucianism for its age and gender-based hierarchies, which had become quite rigid during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Communist thinkers also joined this anti-Confucian trend, so by the time of the Communist victory in 1949 Confucianism in mainland China seemed virtually dead. (Adler 7)” “After the Communists took power their anti-Confucian rhetoric only increased. In addition to their professed opposition to social hierarchies, they viewed Confucianism as a feudal ideology. (Adler 8)”

     What is Communism? Communism is the doctrine of the conditions of the liberation of the proletariat. It also can be defined as a conceptualized system of government in which resources and production facilities are the property of the entire society rather than individuals. In a communist society, labor is shared equally as well, and the benefits of labor are distributed according to need (Communism.4all 1). No one person shall be ranked higher than another and there is to be one person in charge of the society in a communism government. There are still to this day many countries that fall under the rule of communism and the ways they were transformed under communist rule is quite interesting.