the cultural revolution - key features & consequences

The Cultural Revolution – Key Features & Consequences

Learning Objectives: To identify and explain the Key Features of the Cultural Revolution Examine the impacts/consequences of the Cultural Revolution on China as a country and Mao as a Leader

Key Terms, Events, Names: The Little Red Book, Red Guards, Bourgeois, Revisionist, Capitalist, Lin Biao, Jiang Qing, The Four Olds,

Proletarian Culture, denounced, ‘down to the countryside’

Starter: Causes of the Cultural Revolution

By now you should have reviewed the motives behind behind Mao carrying out the

Cultural Revolution.

Review the paragraphs the motives worksheet and put

them under the below headings:

Power StrugglePurify Communism

Education & CultureMao’s Comeback

Discuss: Causes of the Cultural Revolution

Discuss with your partner and make a judgment as to which factors you feel are most important as to why

do Mao launched the Cultural Revolution? Explain your answer with evidence.

1. Genuinely concerned that China was becoming too conservative?

2. Wanted to regain power after the failure of GLF?3. Wanted a committed army to fight the USA in Vietnam?4. He disliked other Communist leaders?5. He was out of touch. Was acting like an ageing emperor

and was only interested in controlling people?

Cultural Revolution:Key Features

You should by now have completed your table on the Mao’s motives for the Cultural Revolution. This lesson you will identify and explain the Key Features and Consequences on China and for Mao of the Cultural revolution. You must provide evidence and examples for both these areas.

LO: To identify and explain the Key Features of the Cultural Revolution

Who were the ‘Red Guards’?

• Mao told the young students of China to form themselves into Red Guards.

• They were loose grouping of college and secondary school students who embraced the cult of Mao and the aims of the Cultural Revolution.

• They were formed to struggle against teachers but quickly took on a larger role.


Why did Mao decide to mobilise young people to promote

the Cultural Revolution?

What did they target?

• Intellectuals are part of the old ways and cannot be trusted.

• Teachers shouldn’t presume to tell the noble Red Guard how to act.

• It is the duty of the Red Guard to rectify society >>> teachers are denounced by their students, schools close, education in China comes to a halt.



• The Red Guards were supported by the PLA under Lin Biao and Mao’s wife Jiang Qing.

• Lin Biao abolished all ranks in the PLA, thus making all soldiers equal.

• Mao denounced the ‘Four Olds’: Old Culture, ideas, customs and habits. Jiang Qing turned Mao’s slogan into a programme for the eradication of traditional Chinese culture.

• A ‘Proletarian Culture’ was to be created and Lin Biao ordered the PLA not to oppose the Red Guards who attacked anything seen as ‘capitalist’ or ‘bourgeois’.


“If the proletariat does not occupy the positions in literature and art, the

bourgeoisie certainly will.”

Lin Biao, Head of the PLA


• Aug 1966 - Mao ordered them to ‘bombard the headquarters’ and attack the CCP from the top down. They soon went on the rampage.

• Children denounced their own parents as anti-Communist. Schools closed and many teachers were beaten and abused.

• By 1967 law & order had broken down as Red Guards fought ‘reactionaries’ with the death of over 400,000 across China.


“We are the critics of the old world; we are

the builders of the new.”

Red Guard Slogan

Source AnalysisRead the following passage by 'Ken Ling' (a Red Guard who fled China to the West at the end of the 1960s).

'Ken Ling', Red Guard, 1972 On the Athletic field, I saw rows of teachers, about 40 or 50 in all, with black ink poured over their heads and faces... Hanging on their necks were placards with such words as 'reactionary academic authority so-and-so', class enemy so-and-so' ... They all wore dunce caps ... Hanging from their necks were pails filled with rocks. I saw the principal, the pail round his neck was so heavy that the wire had cut deep into his neck and he was staggering. All were barefoot, hitting broken gongs ... as they walked round the field and begged Mao Zedong to 'pardon their crimes' ...Beatings and torture followed ... eating nightsoil and insects; being subjected to electric shocks; forced to kneel in broken glass.

Discuss with a partner How useful is this source to an historian who wants to understand the Cultural Revolution? (Take note of who wrote the source)



• For the students that formed the Red Guards in many ways they had never had so much freedom in their lives.

• Once being confined to communes they now were allowed to travel freely around the country, visiting places connected to the Long March or take part in massive rallies.

• The police were under orders not to oppose them and the PLA gave them enthusiastic support.



1. They shaved off the hair of girls with Western haircuts and ripped off Western-style clothes.

2. Smashed windows of shops selling Western merchandise.

3. Burnt bookstores, libraries and closed museums, art galleries, churches, temples and theatres.

4. Stopped couples from holding hands.

5. In August 1967 the British Embassy in Beijing was stormed.



Why might one want to eradicate organised religion?• Religion seen as an

uncontrollable force.• Missionaries (therefore

Christians) traditionally seen as a stealth imperialists/ baby eaters.

• Mao as a god.• Just try to get good

Christians and Buddhists to denounce their neighbours!


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_sGOSS_6GPUM/TUkE0NZjrrI/AAAAAAAABsw/3Yp-O-CuHqE/s1600/4.jpg


• As you have heard, old things are bad so the logical thing to do is….. destroy!

• For this reason, modern China has very little of its original heritage in tact. The majority of historical monuments are in fact contemporary reconstructions.


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_sGOSS_6GPUM/TUkE1a44_1I/AAAAAAAABs0/LyI4knslu70/s1600/5.jpg

Attacks on the Party

• After attacking the Four Old’s, Jiang Qing urged the Red Guards to attack what she called ‘black dogs, slippery backsliders and rotten eggs’ within the CCP.

• Lin Shaoqi was the main target. He was accused of being ‘No. 1 enemy of Communism’.

• He was physically attacked and forced to write his own confession. He died in 1969 after being refused medical treatment for diabetes.


The Cult of Mao• During the Cultural

Revolution, the ‘Cult of Mao’ developed. Mao was worshipped as the new emperor.

• Every day workers would gather before his portrait and read from his ‘Little Red Book’.

• 740 million copies were printed between 1966-1969.

• Statues and portraits of Mao were put up everywhere.


The Cult of Mao

• The ‘Little Red Book’ was a collection of Mao’s writings.

• Pithy quotes for the eager communist.

• Used to justify action and policy.

• People must show their familiarity with the Little Red Book in order to prove their revolutionary zeal.


The End of the Revolution

• By 1967, the Cultural Revolution was spinning out of control. The Red Guards began to divide into rival factions, all vying to be Mao’s supreme revolutionary soldiers. Mao attempted to restore order.

• The PLA was used to restore order. Mao then sent the Red Guards ‘down to the countryside’ to ‘re-educate’ themselves by learning from the peasants.

• By 1969 law and order had been restored in most areas. Mao once again had supreme control over China.


Persecution during the Cultural Revolution

• Look at the photograph opposite. Using your imagination as well as information you have learnt so far, suggest what the government official had done to be treated in this way?

• Now write a wall poster (in English) of about fifty words criticising ‘capitalist influences at Island School and saying what actions you want your fellow students to take.


Impact on China of the Cultural Revolution

LO: Examine the consequences of the Cultural Revolution on China as a country and Mao as a Leader

1. IndustryFactories were reorganised to give

power to the workers. Prizes & bonuses for workers were abolished.

All workers given equal wages. Technicians were dismissed &

production fell. Transport ground to a halt.

3. CountrysideStudents and graduates sent to work

alongside peasants. Private land taken away from the peasants again!

Markets and restaurants closed in villages.

2. EducationSeriously disrupted. Students refused

to sit exams as they showed up inequalities. All students were now made to learn from peasants and

factory workers on work experience. Some schools were closed for over two

years.

4. GovernmentOpponents were killed or sent into exile. Deng Xiaoping was removed.

Revolutionary committees were set up by the PLA to run the country instead of government. CCP members sent to

countryside for ‘re-education’.

Impact on China of the Cultural Revolution


• China left without intellectuals.

• Lost education – by 1981 120m under the age of 45 illiterate

• Industrial and agricultural output had fallen

• Industrial output fell 12% between 1966 and 1968

• Millions persecuted and a million people died

Discuss with a partner and make notes on the following:

1. What evidence is there that Mao achieved his goals (motives)

2. What impact did the Cultural Revolution have on a. Mao’s position and b. His legacy

Use this link to help youwww.johndclare.net/China9.htm

Impact on Mao of the Cultural Revolution


http://www.johndclare.net/China9.htm

http://www.johndclare.net/China9.htm

Review the 25 points outlined in the ‘Cultural Revolution Overview’ worksheet. Identify whether the statement is a Cause, Key Feature or Consequence.

Plenary: Overview of the Cultural Revolution

the cultural revolution - key features & consequences

Education

red guards

lin biao

cult of mao

leader key terms

noble red guard

maos motives

old culture

proletarian culture