Cultural Revolution

The Chinese youth was swept up in the Cultural Revolution simply because they were the youth. As children and teenagers are younger they can be easily influenced and that was what had happened to the youth of China.Teenagers read a book called ¨ Little Red Book¨”and it was

This revolution created a strong middle class and took the power away from the monarchy and gave to the entrepreneurs that invested their money in order to get what they wanted, by hiring with it people that needed it. Second, this revolution helped to create the idea of imperialism in order to satisfy the needs of the metropolis. The imperialist country colonized the weak

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.

1966 brought the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. This was designed to clean the communist society and also to bring Mao back into power. Mao's swimming in the Yangtze River marked the beginning of this movement. "The whole nation rejoiced because our beloved leader had battled the waves for so long at the age of more than seventy, turning his feat inevitably into a metaphor. `The current of the Yangtze is strong and there are many waves, but if a person is not afraid to struggle he will overcome all difficulties'" (43). And that metaphor was the whole basis for the Cultural Revolution: suffer for the greater good of the country. In actuality it became a way for people to point out other's disloyalty to the Party. Intellectuals were attacked, which was specifically bad for Heng's father. Since he worked for the newspaper, he was attacked as having Capitalist or Rightist thought. As a result of this anti-intellectual thought the Universities were eventually closed for about ten years. That was very sad for Liang Heng, since he had a life-long thirst for knowledge. But the immediate result was persecution of intellectuals and their families.

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 development was in a general sense about tip top legislative issues, as Mao attempted to reassert control by setting radical young people against the Communist Party pecking order. Be that as it may, it had across the board outcomes at all levels of society. Youngsters combat Mao's apparent adversaries, and each other, as Red Guards, previously being sent to the wide open in the later phases of the Cultural Revolution. Intelligent people, individuals regarded "class foes" and those with binds toward the West or the previous Nationalist government were oppressed. Numerous

The begins of Mao’s Cultural Revolution begins with the Hundred Flowers Campaign which took place during 1956-1957, the government embarks on this campaign with the hope that the tension between government and scholars can end, but this approach does not work and backfires. The next event which takes place in the Anti-Rights Campaign (1957-1958), this campaign disciplines those who spoke out during the Hundred flowers Campaign, a significant amount of people lots many jobs due to this and are sent away by government. This leads into the Great Leap Forward (1958-1959), this just happens to be one of Mao’s more intense programs of economic reform, in this program Mao’s main attempt was to modernize China’s economy, the consequence of this resulted in Mao’s having a temporary loss of power. He believed that all he needed to develop was agriculture and industry and believed that both

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.

The Cultural Revolution had an enormous impact on the people of China From 1965 to 1968. The cultural Revolution is the name given to the Chinese Communist party’s attempt, under the leadership of Mao Zedong, to reassert its authority over the Chinese government. The main goal of the revolution was simple: the Chinese Communist party wanted to reform the Chinese people so that they believed and followed the communist ideology of absolute social equality. The group of people that the CCP, under Mao, wanted to help most was the rural people or the peasants. Mao’s man desire was to create a China which had peasants, workers and educated people all working together for the greater good of China. No class of people was more privileged

Mao’s Cultural Revolution was an attempt to create a new culture for China. Through education reforms and readjustments, Mao hoped to create a new generation of Chinese people - a generation of mindless Communists. By eliminating intellectuals via the Down to the Countryside movement, Mao hoped to eliminate elements of traditional Chinese culture and create a new form Chinese culture. He knew that dumbing down the masses would give him more power so his regime would be more stable. This dramatic reform affected youth especially as they were targeted by Mao’s propaganda and influence. Drawing from his experiences as an Educated Youth who was sent down to the countryside Down to the Countryside movement, Ah Cheng wrote The King of

Atwood parallels the Cultural Revolution in China to the how the Gilead government gains power and control over the United States. The Chinese communist leader, Mao Zedong launched the

Humans are not only social beings but also cultured beings. Since the commencement of civilizations, humans were always eager to improve their society and their lifestyle. Revolution is a fundamental change in society brought by people getting together for a common cause. Many revolutions had taken place in human history, led by different causes, situations and people. Some examples are like political revolution, socio-economic revolution industrial or commercial revolution, philosophical revolution, Cultural Revolution etc. Those revolutions vary in methods, motives, duration and its effects on society. Sometimes the intentions behind the revolution or movement do not coincide with its effects due to certain circumstances or certain unexpected episodes. Different types of revolutions had touched almost every aspect of society like economy, culture and socio-economic issues. Culture is something, which has elevated humans from the level of animals to the heights of civilized human beings. Renaissance was a cultural revolution that spanned roughly from the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spread to the rest of the Europe. American renaissance also was intended to be a cultural revolution led by the causes of cultural aspects but resulted in the birth of several social problems

Although the Cultural Revolution had a huge impact on all of the citizens of China, it seemed to affect the youth the most. The youth of China began to get involved after a speech by Lin Biao by 1965. It urged the students in schools and colleges to return to the basic principles of the CR. The Chinese youths quickly formed a group called the Red Guards early in the CR, which encouraged all the Chinese students to disapprove of whoever didn’t support Mao and his beliefs or anyone associated with Mao’s rival, Liu Shaoqi (Trueman). Schools and colleges were closed, and the students neglected their studies. While the Red Guards were very passionate about what they did, their enthusiasm nearly pushed China into social disorder. The economy was affected very badly, and almost driven to a near collapse (Busetto, Galduroz, and Satou). Food shortage was one of the main problems the economy caused. Also In some areas, the activities of the Red Guards got out of hand. They

The Communist fervor that gripped mainland China under Mao Zedong’s rule had lasting effects on the economy and culture. In particular, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution devastated rural and peasant populations, leading to fatal consequences for a large portion of the chinese demographic. The Great Leap Forward was an attempt at socializing the chinese economy almost ten years after the People's Republic of China was established in 1949. Property and businesses were stripped from private owners by the government and given to community leaders to run with the help of community members. Unfortunately, revolutionary passion blinded community leaders and the government. The former over reported food production while the latter continued to support a failing economic structure and policy. This lead to the Great Chinese Famine, and a decline in economic productivity and revolutionary zeal. The Great Cultural Revolution was meant to reinvigorate the revolutionary spirit. Launched several years after the failure of the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution targeted the youth. A successful propaganda campaign mobilized groups of mostly disadvantaged youth (red guards) and the working class to purge those antithetical to the movement. Millions were killed in the resulting class warfare which targeted capitalists, rightists, and landlords. The effects of these influential events are still explored in modern chinese cinema many years after their occurrence. An

Cultural Revolution, refers to a political movement that leads by Mao Zedong during May 1966 to October 1976. The original intention for Cultural Revolution is to prevent the restoration of capitalism. Mao want to clean the force who block the development. However, because of the failure leadership, this movement goes to a wrong way and become out of control. This ten years revolution seriously impact Chinese economic and development, it gives Communist Party and its people a big damage: school closed, factories shut down; students recruit for the “Red Guard”, they took to the streets to against democracy; millions of people involved into this revolution. It is a painful memories to Chinese. Today, some people prefer to call this revolution “Civil War”. Its influence until now. It is a war between Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi. Their struggle for power makes Chinese culture remains stagnant and fell far behind the world, and even go backwards.