2013 Cultural Revolution Powerpoint

Events Prior To Cultural Revolution

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A brief overview 1962-73

• End of GLF – loss of power to Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping

• Plan to make Mao figurehead• Mao initiated Socialist Education Campaign• This grew into Cultural Revolution (1966), aim

to totally revise Chinese culture, key role of the Red Guards and youths

Background Information• In the early 1960s, Mao was on

the political sidelines and in semi-seclusion.

• By 1962 he began an offensive to purify the party, having grown increasingly uneasy about what he believed were the creeping "capitalist" and antisocialist tendencies in the country.

• Mao continued to believe that the material incentives that had been restored to the peasants and others were corrupting the masses and were counterrevolutionary.

Background Information• To arrest the so-called capitalist

trend, Mao launched the Socialist Education Movement (1962-65)

• Primary emphasis was on restoring ideological purity, reinfusing revolutionary fervor into the party and government bureaucracies, and intensifying class struggle.

• There were internal disagreements, not on the aim of the movement but on the methods of carrying it out.

• Opposition came mainly from the moderates represented by Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping.

Mao’s Plans For China and Need for Cultural Revolution

• The revolution was to destroy the four olds: old ideology, old thoughts, old habits and old customs

• Those who opposed Mao were publicly punished

• Farm production fell, factory work stopped and schools closed

• As a result there was no economy, many people had left and there was no education

• It was an enormous failure and Mao ended it in 1969

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Toward a Cultural Revolution

• Only PLA campaign successful• Lin Biao Minister Defence – key role

• "Chairman Mao is a genius, everything the Chairman says is truly great; one of the Chairman's words will override the meaning of ten thousand of ours.”

• “Little Red Book”

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The Chinese People's Liberation Army is the Great School of Mao Zedong Thought

Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)

• Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution– commitment to revolution and “class struggle”– power struggle to succeed Mao

• Phase I: the rise and fall of “Red Guards”• Phase II: the rise and fall of Lin Biao• Phase III: the rise and fall of the “Gang of

Four”

Reasons/Causes for the Cultural Revolution

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Why a need for Cultural Revolution?

• Failure of Great Leap – masses capitalist• 1962 Mao tries to implement the Socialist

Education Movement – re-educate masses• Liu and Deng against, ‘unrealistic’ while

countryside still struggling• 1963, Mao appeals directly to people

• Party cadres openly criticise themselves, but masses able to criticise them too

Reasons Mao Wanted Cultural Revolution

• Mao felt that he could no longer depend on the formal party organization, convinced that it had been permeated with the "capitalist" and bourgeois obstructionists.

• He turned to Lin Biao and the PLA to counteract the influence of those who were allegedly "`left' in form but `right' in essence."

• The PLA was widely extolled as a "great school" for the training of a new generation of revolutionary fighters and leaders.

• Remove opposition• Remold China so deeply that it could never change back

in order to ensure the survival of revolutionary spirit• Obliterate the failure of the GLF• Undermine intellectuals and bureaucrats and restore

the peasant nature of China’s revolution• Differentiate China from the USSR, which was too

“revisionist”• Test the young party members who had no experience

Reasons for the Cultural Revolution?

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Purpose of the Cultural Revolution

• Fundamental change in the way the Chinese people viewed the world

• Aim to totally replace older feudal attitudes and to replace with socialist attitudes

• Mao’s bid for power?• Lin Biao and Jiang Qing’s ambitions?• Wu Han’s play – key (Hai Rui = Peng Dehuai,

Emperor = Mao)

Cultural Revolution(1966-68)

• The purpose of this movement was to:– Restore Mao’s power and control– Get rid of Soviet style communism– Renew the spirit of revolution in China– Destroy the rise of differentiation between the

proletariat and bourgeois (he believed a hierarchy was increasing in development)

• Factions During the Cultural Revolution– Maoist Faction

• Closely associated with Mao• Believed in continual revolution, mass campaigns• Believed in virtues of “red over expert”• Members included Mao, Jiang Qing (wife) Ken Shang

– Party Bureaucrats• Leaders of the party apparatus in Secretariat• Believe in pragmatic economic development using

incentives to increae production• Respected Mao but disliked his romantic views of change• Great Leap policies were misplaced and damaging• Members included Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping

– Government Faction• Composed of governmental officials in administration• Ideologically closer to party bureaucrats but members has

close personal relations with Mao• Knew their skills would be necessary to administer China• High managerial ability• Zhou Enlai identified with this faction

– Military Faction• Internally divided between followers of Lin Biao who

supported Mao and Lo Juijin who favored a strong, conventional PLA

• People’s militay vs. regular military• Improvement in relations with Russia favored by PLA

Views on Cultural Revolution• Considerable intraparty

opposition to the Cultural Revolution was evident.

• On the one side was the Mao-Lin Biao group, supported by the PLA; on the other side was a faction led by Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, which had its strength in the regular party machine.

• Premier Zhou Enlai, while remaining personally loyal to Mao, tried to mediate or to reconcile the two factions.

What was the Cultural Revolution?

Communist China Under Mao

► Designed to renew revolutionary spirit and establish a more equitable society► Mao wanted to put “intellectuals” in their place► Schools shut down – students revolted► Red Guards – students who attacked professors, government officials, factory managers

New Movement• Mid-1960s, Mao tried to regain power, prestige lost after Great Leap Forward• Initiated new movement called Cultural Revolution, sought to ride China of old

ways, create society where peasants, physical labor were the ideal

Destruction of Society• Mao lost control; Red guards murdered hundreds of thousands of people; by late

1960s, China on verge of civil war before Mao regained control• Cultural Revolution reestablished Mao’s dominance, caused terrible destruction;

civil authority collapsed, economic activity fell off sharply

Red Guards• Campaign meant eliminating intellectuals who Mao feared wanted to end

communism, bring back China’s old ways• Mao shut down schools, encouraged militant students, Red Guards, to carry out

work of Cultural Revolution by criticizing intellectuals, values

The Cultural Revolution

Cultural Revolution (1966-1969)• “Great Proletarian Cultural

Revolution”– Effort to revive interest in Mao’s

ideas (and for Mao to regain power) after the failed Great Leap Forward

– Mao claimed that reactionary bourgeoisie elements were taking over the party

– Call for youths to engage in post-revolutionary class warfare

– Red Guards (consisting of young people) marched throughout China

– Older alleged reactionaries removed from positions of power

What Was The Cultural Revolution (1966-68)

• Red Guards (groups of youths who banded themselves together) were encouraged to criticize those who Mao deemed untrustworthy with regards to the direction he wanted China to take. No-one was safe from criticism

• Schools were seen as being elitist, so they were closed. Students were encouraged to work beside peasants in the countryside to enhance their understanding of the revolution

• Everyone had a file on them, many were tortured or killed (500,000), humiliated in public, committed suicide, or sent to labor camps

What was the Cultural Revolution?

• The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (无产阶级文化大革命 ), was started in 1966.

• It was set up to secure Maoism and eliminate Political Opponents.

• It officially ended in 1969, when Mao himself admitted that the revolution had ended.

• Over this period of three years, many died and millions more imprisoned. The leaders of the Cultural Revolution remained in power, even after the end of the Revolution.

• The period is widely considered to have been a period of economic stagnation.

What was the Cultural Revolution• The Cultural Revolution took place from 1966 to 1976. • Mao Zedong was the leader of the Cultural Revolution. • He wanted to establish a more effective bureaucracy. • Mao organized a group of young people, and their goals

were to spread the idea of socialism around China. • The Cultural Revolution, instead of creating a better China,

left great negative impacts on the people and the economy of China, and also affected foreign countries as well.

What was the Cultural Revolution?• The Cultural Revolution could also be described as the time

when young Chinese citizens, called Red Guards, fought against the democratic society.

• Much respect and many rewards were given to the Red Guards; therefore Mao was able to gather many student volunteers.

• 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 - especially young people - and create Chinese citizens who would grow up to become uneducated and mindless.

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Key aspects of the Cultural Revolution

• Personality Cult (strongest 1968)• Amongst the young in particular• Cult built around Mao• Deep sense of gratitude to Mao

The Militant Phase, 1966-68 • By mid-1965 Mao had gradually but systematically regained

control of the party with the support of Lin Biao, Jiang Qing (Mao's fourth wife), and Chen Boda.

• In late 1965 a leading member of Mao's "Shanghai Mafia," Yao Wenyuan, wrote a thinly veiled attack on the deputy mayor of Beijing, Wu Han.

• In the next six months Mao and his supporters purged or attacked a wide variety of public figures, including State Chairman Liu Shaoqi and other party and state leaders.

• By mid-1966 Mao's campaign had erupted into what came to be known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the first mass action to have emerged against the CCP apparatus itself.

Elena Songster & Jessica Stowell, OU

The PLA reading Mao’s

Little Red Book

Effects of the Cultural Revolution and Post-Cultural

Revolution Events

Diplomatic Breakthrough• 1971, PRC became the representative of

China in UN (replaced ROC)

“Ping-Pong Diplomacy”: U. S. Players at Great Wall, 1971

Diplomatic Breakthrough

• 1972, President Nixon visited Beijing

Mao Meets President Nixon,

1972

Effects of Cultural Revolution• Schools and factories

closed.• Decline in the

Industrial Production by 12% between 1966 and 1968

• The economy slowed• Civil war was close in

hand

Effects of Cultural Revolution• The result of the unfettered

criticism from China's exuberant youth was massive civil disorder, punctuated also by clashes among rival Red Guard gangs and between the gangs and local security authorities.

• The party organization was shattered from top to bottom.

• The Central Committee's Secretariat ceased functioning in late 1966.

• The resources of the public security organs were severely strained.

Effects of the Cultural Revolution

• Many suffered and died (500,000 – 2 million)

• Housing space increased• An entire generation lost

much of its schooling• Intellectuals suffered most• There was a loss of cultural

heritage

Effects of Cultural Revolution: Reactions of PLA

• Faced with imminent anarchy, the PLA--the only organization whose ranks for the most part had not been radicalized by Red Guard-style activities--emerged as the principal guarantor of law and order and the de facto political authority.

• Although the PLA was under Mao's rallying call to "support the left," PLA regional military commanders ordered their forces to restrain the leftist radicals.

• The PLA also was responsible for the appearance in early 1967 of the revolutionary committees, a new form of local control that replaced local party committees and administrative bodies.

• The revolutionary committees were staffed with Cultural Revolution activists, trusted cadres, and military commanders, the latter frequently holding the greatest power.

Effects of the Cultural Revolution

• Many Chinese lost their jobs as a result of the Great Cultural Revolution

• Education came to a halt across the country.• Many talents were suppressed as they were exiled to manual

labour in the fields.• Many other skilled professionals were either persecuted or

executed, leaving behind vast numbers of poorly educated people ill equipped for the 20th century.

• Foreign embassies were attacked by the Red Guards. The British Embassy was even burned down completely!

Effects of Cultural Revolution• The radical tide receded somewhat beginning in late

1967• It was not until after mid-1968 that Mao came to

realize the uselessness of further revolutionary violence.

• Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, and their fellow "revisionists" and "capitalist roaders" had been purged from public life by early 1967.

• The Maoist group had since been in full command of the political scene.

Effects of Cultural Revolution• The need for domestic calm and stability was occasioned

perhaps even more by pressures emanating from outside China.

• The Chinese were alarmed in 1966-68 by steady Soviet military buildups along their common border.

• The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 heightened Chinese apprehensions.

• In March 1969 Chinese and Soviet troops clashed on Zhenbao Island (known to the Soviets as Damanskiy Island) in the disputed Wusuli Jiang (Ussuri River) border area.

• The tension on the border had a sobering effect on the Chinese political scene and provided the regime with a new and unifying rallying call.

Effects on Japan and Media• Outside of China, the cultural revolution left the greatest impact on Japan.• China had great control over the media at the time, therefore the cause

and effects of the Cultural Revolution were forbidden to be published, and anyone who wrote about it were to be exiled.

• Chinese Government kept a tight seal over what went on in China. • People could only read about what happened through false and

misleading facts approved by the communist regime. • Only supporters of the Cultural Revolution could enter China. • Even Chinese students and citizens had a hard time understanding what

was going on due to the control of the media. • Resulted in much confusion in Japan. Despite that, Japan formed groups

that reacted against the Chinese government. • Since China and Japan were not able to communicate during the Cultural

Revolution, groups of sympathy for the Chinese government soon ended.

Effects on Economy and Families• The Cultural Revolution caused China’s economy to collapse. • The amount of rice grains produced a year decreased greatly and cotton

production also dropped dramatically. • Due to the decreased production, the price for rice increased, and the

price for cotton fabrics and clothes also increased. • Transportation also became a problem for the people of China, as

industrial production dropped during the ten harsh years.• The Cultural Revolution led many citizens to lose their possessions.

Politicians, landowners, and the high class society lost their jobs and properties. The lives of many Chinese were changed for the worse.

• More citizens became peasants and worked in the farms in order to afford foods and earn money for their families.

• Due to the abandonment of the birth control programs, many families increased and birth rates went up. That made living arrangements harder for most families, as the expenses of living were already difficult.

Effects on Schools and Students• Many Chinese students were not able to study during the Cultural Revolution. • They were forced to farm and do manual labor. • The government required that the values of the Cultural Revolution be taught in

schools. • During 1966 and 1967, all graduates and current students were required to completed

a course covering the ideals of the Cultural Revolution before graduating. • The process blocked many students from completing school, and many students

dropped out. • For those children who could not afford to go to school, they worked in factories and

farms to earn petty amounts of money for their family. • For those who stayed in school until graduation, they were sent to the countryside,

because Mao thought it was necessary for graduates to be re-educated by famers and peasants.

• Four million high school and college graduates and sixteen million students were sent to the farmland where they ended up working the farms and performing manual labor.

• Problems arose for most of the young people due to the scarcity of food, housing, and money.

• Many talented students talents were wasted, because they were stuck working in the fields until the revolution ended.

Mao’s legacies