TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > History > China Revision Notes
Background
- After the failure of the Great Leap Forward, Mao sunk to the background while Lui Shiaoqi, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping tried to undo the damages
- Mao thought they were too far down the “capitalist road” thus begun the mass movement
What is the Cultural Revolution?
- Mass movement ‘rectification campaign’ from 1966-69 begun by Mao directed against: rightists and ‘capitalist roaders’, upper middle class – bureaucrats, artists, and academics
- Many of these were killed, imprisoned, humiliated, or ‘resettled’
- Most of the people involved were the Red Guards (students Mao had converted to his side)
- Mao, Lin Biao, Gang of Four, Red Guards vs. Lui Shiaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, other rightists and upper middle-class intellectuals
Mao’s Aims
- Re-establish supremacy of Maoist ideology over economic objectives
- Revolutionalize Chinese youth
- Have the Party officials realize their mistakes, but still remain in power
- ‘purify’ Chinese Communism
Methods/Events
- August 16, 1966 Mao gathered millions of student Red Guards to see him at Tienanmen Square; from then on Mao made many public appearances to the students
- Mao encouraged millions of student Red Guards to organize themselves against the Party
- Campaigns against the “Four Olds”: old ideas, culture, customs and habits.
- Destroying and looting of religious structures (monasteries, temples, mosques)
- Religious practice attacked
- Destroyed architectures and cultural sites, antiques, arts, literatures were burned
- Red Guards put up criticism posters on the walls, attacked teachers and school administrators
- No more classes, examinations; free rail transport for Red Guards to travel the country to gain experience
- 1967 Mao began to encourage purges : self-criticism and criticism of others
- Resulted in a massive power struggle, purge after purge
- Some committees because dysfunctional
- 1968 Mao suppressed the Red Guards with PLA
- Mao started campaign to purge officials disloyal to him (rightists)
- Many of these were sent to re-education camps
- Liu Shiaoqi eventually died in one of these camps
- Deng managed to survive being purged 3 times
Why it failed
- There were factionalism within the Red Guards: bourgeois, party officials’ children
- Students were difficult to control and situations went out of hand
- Mao had to backtrack
Consequences of Cultural Revolution
- Academic institutions closed down and re opened in 1968(schools) and 1970 (universities)
- The Red Guards became “the changed generation”; severe generation gap, these Red Guards were denied education and sent to walk the streets from what they’ve done to their teachers
- Constant change in political/economic instability left the country in disarray
- CCP leadership and system loss legitimacy and PLA gained unprecedented power
- Increased corruption in the government due to scarcity caused by worsened economy
- Destruction of many cultural heritage
- Over 500,000 dead
- Almost 3 million CCP officials and intellectuals were purged and need to be reinstated
- Increase in factionalism between those who were for and against CR
- Mao was elevated to the status of God
Historiography
- View 1: Mao’s personal mistakes were responsible
- View2: Mao was affected by other extreme leftists (Jiang Qing and Lin Biao). His previous heroism and the mistakes from CR should not be mixed.
