Mao ZeDong and the Cultural RevolutionMao ZeDong and the Cultural Revolution

By Rick CharlesBy Rick Charles

• The Cultural Revolution was started in 1966 by Chairman Mao Zedong; it lasted for 10 years and ended with Mao’s death in 1976.

• As a child, Mao Zedong had a dream to become a leader of his own country, China.

• Although he was born into a poor family, it did not prevent him from accomplishing his dreams.

• Without his existence, there would not be a People's Republic of China.

• In 1919, students, and intellectuals called for China's modernization.

• Mao published articles criticizing the traditional value of Confucianism.

• Professors at that time refused to acknowledge his presence because he was poor and had no status.

• Because of the Marxian Socialism and the May 4th Movement of students at Peking University, Mao has been turned into a pro-revolutionary.

• His early experience with China's bourgeois intellectuals had left him with a residue of destruction toward the purveyors of "book learning."

• He later joined the Chinese Communist Party. • After 7 years of controlling China, the KMT (Kuomintang)

and the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), the 2 main parties in China began a civil war.

• The CCP won because it had a good army and great support from the citizens and forced KMT's leader Chiang Kai-Shek to flee to Taiwan.

• Mao founded The People's Republic of China in Beijing on October 10, 1949. He created the Cultural Revolution, an idea that he designed himself. The purpose is to destroy the pro-Communist China

The Great Leap FowardThe Great Leap Foward• Mao’s early experiences with peasant revolution convinced him of

the immense potential of peasant strength. He believed that if properly organized and inspired, the Chinese masses could accomplish amazing feats.

• Beginning in the mid-1950s Mao advocated the rapid formation of agricultural communes, arguing that the energy of the people could help China achieve a high tide of Communist development.

• This ideology exploded in the Great Leap Forward in 1958. Mao called upon all Chinese to engage in zealous physical labor to transform the economy and overtake the West in industrial and agricultural production within a few years.

• Afraid to disappoint their leaders, peasants falsified grain production numbers.

• Several poor harvests caused massive famine and the deaths of millions of people throughout China.

• Mao’s policies in the Great Leap Foward had failed, but those in the government who criticized him directly, such as Peng Dehuai, were humiliated and purged from office.

• Criticism of Mao from outside the government was also muted because the educated elite remembered the turmoil of the “Hundred Flowers” and “Antirightist” campaigns of 1957.

• Mao’s relationship with intellectuals was an uneasy one, and he was critical of the gap between the lives of the urban educated elite and the rural masses.

• These tensions were among the underlying causes of the Cultural Revolution

The main ideasThe main ideas

• The main idea behind the cultural revolution was to get everyone in China living at the same level of wealth.

• Another aim of the Cultural Revolution was to stop the growth of Soviet Communism.

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The “four olds”The “four olds”

• One of the ways to approach this is to rid every one of their valuable possessions.

• Mao’s red guards would raid • houses looking• for “four olds”.

*A four old is an item or behavior that shows old custom, old culture, old habit, or old ideas.

*Remember that while Mao was draining the people in China of their wealth and power, Mao was a very wealthy man himself.

this is a poster showing the red guards raiding houses

EducationEducation

Not with Mao around!

• Mao told the people of China that teachers were against the revolution and that children shouldn’t continue their classes.

• This left the children with free time since they didn’t go to classes. Mao encouraged them to become red guards.

• If you were chosen at a red guard audition it was considered a great honor and was many children’s dream.

ClimaxClimax

• The cultural revolution brought about chaos as the red guards went about destroying temples, artwork, books, and anything that resembled a “four old”.

• Thousands of people died either of suicide or of torture from the red guards.

• People now despised Mao. This was completely opposite from 10 years ago.

And in the end…And in the end…

In 1976 Mao’s death brought about the end of the revolution. China got a new leader and the people of the country began to build back the ruins and monuments that were destroyed in…

the cultural revolution.

BibliographyBibliography

• The Cultural Revolution, ”Four Olds”. www.en.wikipedia.org

• The Cultural Revolution. www.library.thinkquest.org The cultural revolution. www.fortunecity.com

• Posters of the cultural revolution. www.kaladarshan.arts.ohio-state.edu The PLA and the

• Cultural Revolution. www.iisg.nl Cultural revolution. www.encarta.msn.com