The Cultural Revolution and its aftermath 1966-76 - detail Flashcards
why did Mao launch the Cultural Revolution?
- divisions within CCP : believed “capitalist roaders” and “bourgeois elements” infiltrated Party
- personal slights: jealousy of Xiaoping and Shaoqi’s success
- quest for permanent revolution in 10 points: transform Chinese culture to create “an entirely new ideology and culture… - those of the proletariat”
how did divisions within the CCP lead to the Cultural Revolution?
- after retiring to the “second line” of politics, Mao spent time in the Forbidden City and began to distrust his old friends
- eg Liu 1962 speech dismisses Mao’s claim that successes outweighed failures of famine by 9:1 and recognised it was caused mostly by man made disasters
- Deng “it didn’t matter if the cat is white or black, so long as it catches rats”
- pragmatism replaces revolutionary fervour
- Party split between ideologues and pragmatists
how did personal slights lead to the Cultural Revolution?
- Mao jealous of Shaoqi and Xiaoping’s successful econ policies that replaced “Walking on Two Legs”
- Party leaders publicly state Marxism Leninism shouldn’t be surpassed by Mao Zedong Thought
- Mao claims he’s “treated like a dead ancestor”, respected but ignored
how did the quest for permanent revolution lead to the Cultural Revolution?
- feared party become bureaucratised and cadres had become the new ruling elite
- permanent rev = constantly replace those in authority, never become too comfortable to exploit their power
- demand constant class struggle to rid Party of “revisionists”
what was the Ten Points and why was it important?
1963: Mao drafted “the Early Ten Points” proposing masses should be mobilised to criticise corrupt Party cadres
- 4 Clean Ups to cleanse society of non communist ideas and
- aimed to whip up revolutionary fervour and denounce cadres at “struggle meetings”
- failure: people still recovering from famine
- Xiaoping’s “Later Ten Points” de emphasises class struggle and wants campaign to be organised by Party cadres
- Mao convinced all he worked for during revolution in danger of being dismissed by “revisionists”
how did Mao start the Cultural Revolution?
- eliminating opponents
- The Cultural Revolution Group
- Yangtze River swim
how did Mao subtly eliminate opponents to launch Cultural Revolution?
- indirectly attack well Liu and Deng
- Han (deputy mayor of Beijing) and Zhen (mayor of Beijing), close allies of Liu and Deng forced to resign and damned as right wing “revisionists” after Mao organises a negative review of his play, containing veiled comparisons to Mao as a corrupt Emperor, to be published
- Mao successfully eliminates 2 allies of enemies leaving them more isolated
what was the Cultural Revolution Group?
- 17 member sub-committee of the politburo run PRC’s cultural policy
- dominated by ideologues in “Gang of Four”:inc Boda (propaganda chief) and “cultural tsar” Madame Mao
- propaganda campaigns call “counter revolutionaries” within the Party “our main enemy” which indirectly targets Liu and Deng
how did Mao return to politics to launch the Cultural Revolution?
- July 1966 Yangtze River swim to prove he’s as strong as ever and to re establish his power
- Central Committee “sixteen point directive on the Cultural Revolution” calls for “new stage of socialist revolution”
who were the Red Guards?
young people were Mao’s revolutionary soldiers
- formed violent new groups to smash “the four olds”, torture teaches and murdered atleast 1M
- Mao stated: “everything that does not fit the socialist system and the proletarian dictatorship should be attacked”
why did Mao have such a hold on the red guards?
- indoctrinated by propaganda in education system: encouraged them to his attack enemies who were “freaks and monsters”
- genuine appreciation for early successes of Mao’s policies: eg land reform, success in Korean War
- young people have little recollection of Great Leap Forward + Great Famine
- Mao made them feel important: Little Red Book stated “China’s future belongs to you”
- China always hierarchal society based off of Confucian thought, children taught obedience in schools
what did Mao say about the cult of personality?
following Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin’s cult of personality, Mao disagreed arguing cults of personality depend on if the individual represents the truth and “if he does, then he should be worshipped”
why did the young join the Red Guards?
- RG was not a monolithic movement as many young people joined for different reasons and participated with varying levels of ideological enthusiasm
- at first the RG were the children of party cadres, so their parents told them heroic stories of Mao
- pragmatic careerism played a role, kids whose parents had a lack of party connections were hindered, they toom the chance to remove senior communists from the hierarchy
- children of “black elements”(bourgeois, right wingers) initially they were not allowed to join but in 1966 the restriction was lifted and these children tended to be the most violent as they were overcompensating for their family background.
give examples of the cult of Mao
- a factory in Beijing created a ritual known as “asking for instructions in the morning and reporting back in the evening” involving a portrait of Mao
- this became nationwide policy
- passengers had to perform “loyalty dances” before boarding train
- revolutionary fervour and loyalty to Mao encapsulated in the song “The East is Red”
mass rallies 1966
- published his own big chracter posters that urged people to “bombard the headquarters”, writing a blank cheque for the Red Guards to attack those who had “enforced a bourgeois dictatorship”
- 8 massive rallies whipped revolutionary fervour and subservient PLA leader Biao helped transport young people across the country
- Song Binbin (student leader) places Red Guard armband on Mao, legitimises movement
when did Red Guard attack the 4 olds?
August 1966: attack “old culture” “old ideas” “old customs” “old habits”
- destroy old habits ensures bourgeois feudal class that had poisoned minds for thousands of years could no longer endure
examples of attacks upon the 4 olds
- surgeons cancelled operations out of fear, risked being accused of “class revenge” if it went badly
- childrens names changed to Red Glory or Face the East
- changed meaning of traffic lights so red meant go until Enlai feared chaos and stopped them
