The Chinese Cultural Revolution

The Chinese Cultural Revolution “A revolution is not a dinner party or writing an essay or painting a picture or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous”- Mao said in 1927 to a youth activist The reason for china to trying to become such a new generation was solely the opinion of Mao and his followers. Mao had seen the way the Russian revolution had gone astray and worried China would follow in its path.

He mad four goals: to rectify China’s communists, replace his successors with one more faithful, provide youth’s with a revolutionary experience and achieve policy changes to make education, health care and cultural systems less elitist. Obviously, the goals were purely a show when his real concern was his place in history. When he launched the revolution schools were shut down and officials were publicly humiliated to test them. Elders and intellectuals were physically and verbally abused. Many died of ignorant causes, without a second thought from Mao. So as the revolution tolled on Mao truly only had himself in mind.

Mao went through great lengths to make sure that everyone was Maoist. He had Lin Bao his defense minister make his whole army maoist. He shut down schools in August 1966 Mao encouraged his red army to attack all traditional values and the bourgeois. He even publicly criticized officials to see how they would react. Anarchy, terror and paralysis disrupted the economy. The 1968 industrial production dipped 12% below 1966. When leaders actually called for a halt in February 1967, Mao and his radical partisans ignored and by summer disorder was wide spread. Mao did not care what others thought; his word was the only word that mattered. Like the red sun rising in the east, the unpreddescented great proletarian cultural revolution is illuminating the land with it’s brilliant rays long live the red guards armed with Mao Zedong’s thought Long live chairman Mao our great teacher great leader and supreme commander helmsman” Chairman Mao was seen as somewhat of a God-like figure; someone who could solve all of china’s problems. The new education taught people to love Mao with such praise that could only be compared to idiocy. Selected quotes from Mao were expected by the people to be memorized. They would be given one line and were to reply correctly. Each word in Chairman Mao’s works is a battle drum each sentence is the truth. ” All of China was literally brainwashed. Officers took over schools, factories and government agencies. Chen Boda worked with Wang Dong Xing to carry out Mao’s directions about ideology and security. Even Mao’s wife Jing Qing brought in radical intellectuals to rule the cultural realm. Mao was literally trying to make himself a place in history by making a large difference in China’s history. So as you can see by my paper he succeeded. The people of China were in fact tortured. They were forced into praising Mao in everything he did; they were his robots.

Mao was so completely selfish that he changed his successors quite a number of times. Elders were beaten for even speaking slightly of the old traditions. Mao was creating a completely new generation of people that would do completely and fully anything he said or wanted. China was scared of him, people were extremely careful about what they said out loud because the Red Army was everywhere. People had nowhere to hide; they were forced to be a specific way. Being different was almost an insult. You had to be a complete Maoist fool to survive or you were beaten brutally Mao even had clothes named after him A Mao jacket, and suit.

It was beyond ridiculous. When the Cultural Revolution was launched in 1966, it did not really have much effect until January 1967 when he actually began to overthrow the provincial party. What was he doing in that whole year? Hardly anything; forming his army to kill innocent people who did not even commit something to be considered a crime. Why were people not afraid of Mao? Why would they “worship” him if he killed and beat all these people? Simple; he used the red guard. Chinese Cultural Revolution p 69 Chinese Cultural Revolution p 11