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 is a strange period in Chinese history laced with intense struggle and anguish. The cultural revolution mobilized the all of society to compete for all opposing factions that they belonged to (Ong, 2016). Mao mobilized the young people of society during a background of political turmoil, which helped Mao to mobilize the students in order to enforce his political legitimacy and ideas (Ong, 2016). Mao’s charismatic authority created his personality cult and most defiantly leant a helping hand in mobilizing the red guard movement (Ong, 2016) (Weber, 1946) (Andreas, 2007). No matter which faction of the red guard they belonged to, they all mobilized against their common enemy; the better off, upper class. (Ong, 2016). Multiple ideologies within the youth led red guard movement explain why the movement gained momentum and became incredibly powerful (Walder, 2009).
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.
According to the Online Dictionary, the “Chinese Cultural Revolution” is defined as “a movement in China, beginning in the year 1966 and led by Mao Zedong, to restore the vitality of communism in China.” To begin, the Chinese Cultural Revolution performed a significant role in establishing the setting and conflicts in the novel of “Red Scarf Girl”. The setting of the story took place in the city of Shanghai, specifically throughout the course of two and a half years from the year 1966 to 1969. The protagonist and narrator of the story, Ji Li Jiang, was a 12-year-old Chinese girl who lived as a wealthy resident in the brownstone apartments of Shanghai. As the story progressed, Ji Li developed alterations in her relationships with her peers at school, the perception of her goals and responsibilities in life, and knowledge of her family history in relation to her class-status in the community. Therefore, throughout the course of the story, it was evident that significant changes and development of the relationships, perceptions, and knowledge of Ji Li Jiang occurred as a result of the events that she experienced.
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 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
China’s “lost generation” was part of one of the largest and most difficult time periods in history, pertaining to social and cultural areas. While Mao Zedong’s persistent communist ideals resulted in the loss of a college education for some, or even a life for others, the impact of the Cultural Revolution is undeniable. Many youth during the time period of the Cultural Revolution were empowered to an extreme extent, making this decade chaotic and violent. Mao Zedong viewed many youth as the future, and the generation born to catapult China to the top, which resulted in the excessive empowerment of many children, giving them a false view of the world around them. For example, Mao delivered many speeches, and wrote a myriad of propaganda passages,
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
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
“Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy. “Mao Zedong clearly referring to the Kuomintang.
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
For Mao, It was impossible to tolerate the fact that political elites of CCP were no longer cohesive and shared the same ideology. In order to achieve pure communism in the state, there was a need to remove other ideology which might probably undermine the governance of CCP. Therefore, Cultural Revolution was triggered off to eliminate people and elites who caused class struggle and violate the dominant dictatorship of CCP.
Education prior to 1964 was primarily focused on exams, teachers and role models, and set guidelines and rules. Everyone in China was given a chance to improve their social and economic standings. However, the only way to achieve this was through hours and hours of studying and hard work. A final exam to test that lasted for almost three whole days was given to the students, which determined their future careers. Education was also biased or more favorable to the wealthier/upper class even though the goal of the exams were to make it equal and fair. The Cultural Revolution had many goals for education reform. However there were three main objectives that the Cultural
Called the Cultural Revolution, it was led by the Red Guard, who were youths under Mao’s revolutionary vanguard. They fought teachers, figureheads, and any other “representatives of the bourgeoisie who have [snuck] into into the party, the government, the army, and a bunch of spheres of culture.” (Schell 245) Their goal was to purge society and
After Mao failed to modernize China’s economy through industrialization and collectivization with the Great Leap Forward plan, he launched the Cultural Revolution in hopes of reclaiming his position in the government and maintaining a communist society (Ramzy).The revolution commenced in 1966 and lasted for a decade. During the revolution, the youth of China was influenced by Mao to join the student mass paramilitary movement where they served as soldiers, known as the Red Guards. They executed orders that benefitted Mao, inflicting violence towards intellectuals and citizens who were against his communist beliefs (Lieberthal). The disturbance by the youth created economic instability due to the torment towards professionals in the industry.
Mao at first considered about continuing the revolution for a longer time except his Red Guards constantly causing problems. Those young naive students were no longer listening to Mao as the denunciation and big