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.

Socialist Education Campaign

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Socialist Education Campaign

• 3 interrelated campaigns:1. Educational campaign2. Rectification campaign3. Purification movement – PLA

• Mao: open investigation• Liu: covert infiltration• Mao: mass education movement• Liu: party-controlled rectification operation

Socialist Education Movement• The Socialist Education Movement was soon paired

with another Mao campaign, the theme of which was "to learn from the People's Liberation Army."

• Minister of National Defense Lin Biao's rise to the center of power was increasingly conspicuous.

• It was accompanied by his call on the PLA and the CCP to accentuate Maoist thought as the guiding principle for the Socialist Education Movement and for all revolutionary undertakings in China.

Socialist Education Movement• A thorough reform of the school system, which had

been planned earlier to coincide with the Great Leap Forward, went into effect.

• The reform was intended as a work-study program--a new xiafang movement--in which schooling was slated to accommodate the work schedule of communes and factories.

• It had the dual purpose of providing mass education less expensively than previously and of re-educating intellectuals and scholars to accept the need for their own participation in manual labor.

Socialist Education Movement• The drafting of intellectuals for

manual labor was publicized through the mass media as an effort to remove "bourgeois" influences from professional workers--particularly, their tendency to have greater regard for their own specialized fields than for the goals of the party.

• Official propaganda accused them of being more concerned with having "expertise" than being "red" .

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.

Goals: Destroying the Four Olds

Cultural Revolution Swept Away 4 OLDS

Old customsOld cultureOld habitsOld ideas

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.

Elena Songster & Jessica Stowell, OU

Destroying The 4 Olds…

Eroded family structureFamilies divided to work in countryside

Attempted to wipe out Confucian thoughtSilenced intellectuals

The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)

Against the Four Olds– Red Guards: school students, mostly teenagers– Sacking, looting, beating and killing– Destroyed public and personal properties, and

anything regarded as representing the Four Olds• landlords, reactionaries, counterrevolutionaries, rightists,

bad elements, traitors, spies, capitalist-roaders, all of them “ox ghosts and snake spirits”

Elena Songster & Jessica Stowell, OU

Destroy the Four Olds

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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

Red Guards

Phase I: Red Guards (1966-69)

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8 August 1966

• 16 point decision• Red Guards destroy the “four olds”:

• Thought• Culture• Customs• Habits

Phase I: Red Guards (1966-69)• Purge of party cadres

– Deng Xiaoping• Purge of intellectuals

• Galvanized by the August 1966 Rally, the Red Guards became the primary instruments of the Cultural Revolution

• “We have to depend on them to start a rebellion, a revolution, otherwise we may not be able to overthrow the demons and monsters. We must liberate the little devils. We need more monkeys to disrupt the palace” (Mao, 1965-interesting!)

The Red Guards

The Red Guards• One of the key instruments employed during the Great Cultural

Revolution by Mao is The Red Guards.• These are people in their teens and twenties who supported the

shake-ups within the Communist Party in the Cultural Revolution.• Their key activity was to terrorise closet capitalists.• They attacked and tortured respected teachers, abused elderly

citizens, humiliated old revolutionaries, and, in many cases, battled former friends in bloody confrontations.

• They carried Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book with religious fervour, often using the quotations to justify their revolutionary efforts.

• Most of the Red Guards did not finish their education as a result of the cultural revolution.

Red Guard• The Red Guard is the name given

to the hundreds of thousands of students who left their schools to spread Mao’s message; that the Moderates were bringing China down the ‘Capitalist Road’, and needed to return to pure Communism once again

• They were responsible for a majority of the chaos created during the Cultural Revolution

• They traveled the countryside and visited factories, etc. to spread the message

• At the end of the Cultural Revolution, they were sent to the countryside to ‘learn from the peasants’

Red Guard• Red Guard activities were

promoted as a reflection of Mao's policy of rekindling revolutionary enthusiasm and destroying "outdated," "counterrevolutionary" symbols and values.

• Mao's ideas, popularized in the Quotations from Chairman Mao, became the standard by which all revolutionary efforts were to be judged.

• A Young group of Red Guards Mao gathered to fight against democratic society.

Red Guards

• Schools closed so the kids could join

• They beat anyone that they thought were counterrevolutionaries

• Most of these people with authority.

• They were publicly humiliated, beaten, and sometimes killed

Elena Songster & Jessica Stowell, OU

Struggle Sessions

The Red Guard• They had the workers arrange

meetings so frequent that production came to a standstill

• Anyone who complained was accused of being a bourgeois, etc.

• Vandalism was also common, as the Red Guard started to stamp out authorities, like the leader of the factory, etc.

• High levels of violence ensued

• This meant that national output fell dramatically during the course of the Cultural Revolution

• This caused the Chinese economy to be crippled through the three-year duration of the Cultural Revolution

Elena Songster & Jessica Stowell, OU

Youth: Red Guards

Red Guards (1966-69)• Renamed streets and buildings• Lined the streets with pictures of Mao• Attacked and humiliated those in Western or traditional

clothing• As early as 1967, the Red Guards were seen by many in the

Party to be a liability.

A Red Guard

Red Guards: Struggle Sessions (Purges)

• Red Guard denounce teachers, parents, school leaders in public facing hundreds of people for crimes against Mao and the Revolution.

• This was a unique method used by the Communist Party of China in the Mao era to shape public opinion and to humiliate, persecute, and/or execute political rivals, so-called class enemies .

Red Guards March to Canton

Cultural Revolution• In June 1966 middle schools and

universities throughout the country closed down as students devoted all their time to Red Guard activities. Millions of these young students were encouraged to attack "counterrevolutionaries (teachers school leaders, and parents) " and criticize those in the party who appeared to have deviated from Maoist thought.

• Left is a painting of a young "Red Guard" participating in the campaign. The big characters on the board read "Field for Criticism."  The head of Mao Zedong appears in the upper left corner.

• Why do you think the artist chose to include Mao's image in this poster? 

Sent-Down Youths and Education Policies

Burning of Buddhas

Burning of Books & Old Culture

Elena Songster & Jessica Stowell, OU

Sent-Down Youth

Elena Songster & Jessica Stowell, OU

Sent Down Youth

• Sent to countryside to learn from peasants• Barefoot doctors• Education stopped, schools closed• Teachers persecuted

Education

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.

Mao’s Educational Policies

• The CCP were reliant on Soviet help:– 600 Russians taught in Chinese universities– 36,000 Chinese had studied at Russian

universities• The illiteracy rate improved and so did school

attendance, but not as much as it could’ve been because of the Cultural Revolution

• Students were taught about Mao and the ideology

The Youth Movement

Instead of killing the intellectuals in China, who amounted to less than 10% of the population, Mao decided to re-educate intellectuals in the ways of the proletariat.

To do so, he made many books and learning sources illegal, and relocated members of the bourgeoisie class to farming communities where they were forced to do manual labor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbECxnd5ZA4

Cultural Revolution Targets Students

• Maoists also turned to middle-school students for political demonstrations on their behalf.

• These students, joined also by some university students, came to be known as the Red Guards .

• Millions of Red Guards were encouraged by the Cultural Revolution group to become a "shock force" and to "bombard" with criticism both the regular party headquarters in Beijing and those at the regional and provincial levels.

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The Education System

• All children taught to aspire to being young pioneers, the first rung towards party membership

• Enrollment as a young pioneer was a major event for a student and family

• All students were encouraged to admit their failings in public in an attempt to become better socialists

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The Education System

• Indoctrination in the classroom began with primary education

• History taught to highlight the wrongs of the feudal past and western imperialism

• Students taught to have unbounded love for comrades and hatred for class enemies

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Completely Smash the Liu-Deng Counter-Revolutionary Line, 1967

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“Smash the old world/Establish a new world.”

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“Let the new socialist performing arts occupy every stage”

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“Proletarian revolutionary rebels unite!”

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“Field for criticism”

Cult of Mao

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Elena Songster & Jessica Stowell, OU

The Mao Cult

Revering Mao in Tibet during the Cultural

Revolution

Mao: Cult of PersonalityCharismatic leadership

Mao becomes the preeminent leaderMao can do no wrongMao is the father and hero

Mao has a radical vision of where China must goResents any delayDespises gradualismLongs to see China truly “Communist”

immediately

Cult of Mao Mao deliberately set out to

create a cult for himself (SPS) Single Party State, and to purge the Chinese Communist Party of anyone who did not fully support Mao.

His main selling point was a desire to create a China which had peasants, workers and educated people working together – no-one was better than anyone else and all working for the good of China – a classless society

Cult of Mao There was a cult of Mao that was built up Society was inundated with Mao’s face,

quotes, statues, posters and other forms of propaganda

Little Red Book was published in 1963 and people were encouraged to read it as their “Bible”. Schools used it in their curriculum

Cultural Revolution: Cult of Personality

Cult of personality and ideological correctness

Little Red Book (below) “The East is Red”

(Dongfang hong 东方红 ) Mao buttons (lower right)

With regard to the great teacher Chairman Mao, cherish the word 'Loyalty'. With regard to the great

Mao Zedong Thought, vigorously stress the word 'Usefullness'. (1968)

Cult of Personality

The reddest, reddest, red sun in our heart, Chairman Mao, and us

togetherZhejiang Workers, Farmers and Soldiers Art Academy collective,

1968

Mao’s Little Red

Book

Maoist Propaganda“Long Live Chairman Mao”

Elena Songster & Jessica Stowell, OU

Mao Cult

The Little Red Book

Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong was published in 1964.

Every citizen was (unofficially) required to study and memorize quotes from it to be seen as a good citizen.

Little Red Book The force at the core leading our cause forward is the

Chinese Communist Party. The theoretical basis guiding our thinking is Marxism-Leninism. Opening address at the First Session of the First National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (September 15, 1954).

Without preparedness, superiority is not real superiority and there can be no initiative either. Having grasped this point, a force that is inferior but prepared can often defeat a superior enemy by surprise attack. "On Protracted War" (May 1938), Selected Works, Vol. II, pp. 165-66.

Thousands upon thousands of martyrs have heroically laid down their lives for the people; let us hold their banner high and march ahead along the path crimson with their blood! "On Coalition Government" (April 24, 1945), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 318.

The world is yours, as well as ours, but in the last analysis, it is yours. You young people, full of vigor and vitality, are in the bloom of life, like the sun at eight or nine in the morning. Our hope is placed on you. The world belongs to you. China's future belongs to you. Talk at a meeting with Chinese students and trainees in Moscow (November 17, 1957).

Little Red Book Everyone would carry around a

“Little Red Book”, and it was required to be read during school. The cover of the book says “Citacoes do presidente Mao Tse Tung” . Inside are some of Mao’s quotes and past speeches.

Mao’s Little Red Book The Chinese Communist Party is the core of

the Chinese revolution, and its principles are based on Marxism-Leninism. Party criticism should be carried out within the Party.

The revolution, and the recognition of class and class struggle, are necessary for peasants and the Chinese people to overcome both domestic and foreign enemy elements. This is not a simple, clean, or quick struggle.

War is a continuation of politics, and there are at least two types: just (progressive) and unjust wars, which only serve bourgeois interests. While no one likes war, we must remain ready to wage just wars against imperialist agitations.

Mao’s Little Red Book Fighting is unpleasant, and the people of China

would prefer not to do it at all. At the same time, they stand ready to wage a just struggle of self-preservation against reactionary elements, both foreign and domestic.

China's road to modernization will be built on the principles of diligence and frugality. Nor will it be legitimate to relax if, 50 years later, modernization is realized on a mass scale.

A communist must be selfless, with the interests of the masses at heart. He must also possess a largeness of mind, as well as a practical, far-sighted mindset.

Women represent a great productive force in China, and equality among the sexes is one of the goals of communism. The multiple burdens which women must shoulder are to be eased.

Maoist Propaganda“The People's Liberation Army represents the

great school of Mao Zedong Thought”

Maoist Propaganda“Criticize the old world and build a new one with Mao Zedong Thought as our

guide”

Monsters and Demons

• 'Monsters and Demons' ( 牛鬼蛇神 niugui sheshen) was the term used to vilify specialists, scholars, authorities and 'people who entrenched themselves in ideological and cultural positions' during the Cultural Revolution.

Monsters and Demons

• Once people were 'dragged out' as 'evil spirits', they were forced to wear caps, collars or placards identifying them as such. Being 'cow monsters', they were imprisoned in what was generally called a 'cowshed' ( 牛棚， niupeng). This did not have to be a genuine stable; it could be a classroom, storehouse, dark room or temple. In the absence of legal procedures, the length of stay in the 'cowshed' could be ten days or ten years.

Propaganda: Controlling the Arts and Media

The Arts, Media, & Propaganda

• When speaking about the Cultural Revolution (1966-1970), Mao said, “Our purpose is to ensure that literature and art fit well into the whole revolutionary machine as a component party, that they operate as powerful weapons for uniting and educating the people and for attacking and destroying the enemy, and that they help people fight the enemy with one heart and one mind”

• Students were to make “big-character posters” which would called for students to cut class and travel across the country to meet other young activists and propagate Mao Zedong’s ideas

Propaganda: Brainwashing and Controlling the Media

• The people would also put up propaganda posters.

• They played a major supporting role in the many campaigns that were designed to mobilize the people.

• Most of them showed people doing model behavior.

• The one below represents the concept of “ we must grasp revolution and increase production, work, and preparation and do an even better job”

The Arts, Media, & Propaganda

• During the Cultural Revolution:– Red Guards broke into people’s homes burned books,

cut up paintings, trampled records and broke musical instruments

– Films were censored by Mao’s wife– Writers wore large insulting wooden plaques hung from

thin wire around their necks– Many artists and other people were beaten and sent to

reeducation camps– There was a loss of cultural heritage

Madam Mao & Cultural Revolution

Jiang Qing Madam Mao• Her field was culture and her

background was an actress from Shanghai.

• Advisor of the Arts to the Army.• Attacks against artists who are

capitalists.• All western art is prohibited.

Revolutionary culture is good.• Madam Mao produces propaganda

for Chairman Mao through art & film, this acts as a pretext to the Cultural Revolution.

Madam Mao Propaganda Poster Art

Cultural Revolution• Jiang Qing, Mao's wife, dominated cultural

productions during this period. The ideas she espoused through eight "Model Operas" were applied to all areas of the arts. These operas were performed continuously, and attendance was mandatory.  Proletarian heroes and heroines were the main characters in each.

• To the right is an advertisement for the opera, "The Red Women's Army," a story about women from south China being organized to fight for a new and equal China. Note the use of ballet shoes and postures.

•  Jiang Qing emphasized "Three Stresses" as the guiding principle behind these operas. 

•  Based on the way that the figures are arranged, can you guess to what the "Three Stresses" refers?

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Controlling the media

• Power of art and literature• Art and literature political• Only character development was when all

traditional bases for friendship were abandoned and replaced by shared class consciousness

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Ideological Trainings

• Mass meetings held• In schools and colleges students discussed the

wisdom of Mao’s words and why he was always correct

• Mao’s role in the revolution became the subject of plays, films and novels

• Newspapers dedicated front pages to his sayings

Propaganda PostersThis poster says," The sunlight of Mao Zedong

Thought illuminates the road of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”

• Propaganda posters are the use of messages designed to influence public opinion.

• Discussion Question: Do you think this poster is

fact or opinion?

Art and PoliticsDuring the Cultural Revolution

• During the Cultural Revolution, under Madame Mao’s guidance, China re-defined art as a political tool.

• She reinvented the Beijing Opera and Ballet dance forms to include class struggle themes.

This ballet play poster depicts a scene from the Revolutionary Ballet, The Red Army Detachments. The headline of the poster says “Only by saving the entire human race can the proletarian class free itself.”

LiteratureDuring the Cultural Revolution,

almost all forms of creative literature were made illegal.

All western books were banned and destroyed, and no one was able to publish any literature unless it supported the Communist National Party.

Mao Tse-tung published many works himself, and almost everyone in China was forced to carry around a book of his quotations known as the “Little Red Book.”

MusicMusic, like all other forms of art, only existed in the form of propaganda.

Typical songs were titled “The East is Red,” “Long Live Chairman Mao,” and “I Love Beijing's Tiananmen.”

This song is entitled, “I am a Little Member of the Commune.”

I am a little member of the commune,with a little sickle in my hand,

and a bamboo basket on my shoulder.

I go to work after class, cutting weeds, collecting manure, and picking up the lost

wheat ears.

The more I work, the more I love it.

Ayh-hey-hey, Aye-hey-hey,Always keeping in mind the good character of

the poor-and-lower-middle peasants,Loving the collective and loving labor,I am a little member of the commune!

At one point in China calligraphy had been considered the greatest form of art above painting and dancing.

The Chinese language consists of 6000-7000 characters, each with an intricate design.

During the Cultural Revolution, all forms of art, calligraphy, painting, dancing, and singing, were reduced to those that supported the Communist National Party.

Art

“Let the new Socialist Performing Arts conquer every stage.”

The Three Main Rules of Discipline are as follows:

(1) Obey orders in all your actions.(2) Do not take a single needle piece of thread from the masses.(3) Turn in everything captured.

Etiquette

Mao lashed out at organized religion in China. He blamed religion for China’s problems and

under his rule many different types of temples and churches were burned to the ground or converted into government buildings.

However, some people began to worship Mao, and Mao worship evolved into a cult activity.

Religion

Emulation Campaign: Specific Focus of One Propaganda Campaign

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Emulation Campaigns

• 1962 Lei Feng appeared, orphaned by brutal landlords and Japanese aggression and saved by communist forces, had developed a profound love for his fellow proletarians

• Socialist heroes for the people to emulate

Cultural Revolution: Culture and Film

• Jiang Qing ( 江青 ) emerges through the cultural domain to assert herself politically

• Prescribed aesthetics promoted an extreme version of socialist realism dominated by the “two unities” (liang jiehe 两结合 ) and the “three prominences” (san tuchu 三突出 )

• Two unities: socialist realism and revolutionary romanticism

• Three prominences: give prominence to the positive characters, the heroes, and the principal hero

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Role of Lin Biao

Lin Biao• Was a Chinese Communist military leader who was instrumental in the communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, especially in Northeastern China•Was the General who led the People's Liberation Army into Beijing in 1949.•He abstained from becoming a major player in politics until he rose to prominence during the Cultural Revolution, climbing as high as second-in-charge and Mao Zedong's designated and constitutional successor and comrade-in-arms.•He died in a plane crash in September 1971 in Mongolia after what appeared to be a failed coup to oust Mao. After his death, he was officially condemned as a traitor, and is still recognized as one of the two "major Counter-revolutionary parties" during the Cultural Revolution– the other being Jiang Qing.

Phase II: Lin Biao (1969-71)

• the putative successor to Mao Zedong (tse-tung)

• In 1971 Lin allegedly tried but failed– to assassinate Mao– had to flee to Soviet Union

• His departure eroded the credibility of the entire leadership

• By the early 1970s, the Cultural Revolution had diminished, but while threats to Mao were absent, questions over his potential successor emerged

• Some began to cast doubt on Lin Biao, questioned his influence, and told him he must submit to self criticism

• Lin Biao became involved in a plot to assassinate Mao, and then tried to escape China, but his plane crashed killing him and his family (no, I am not making this up)

• Afterwards, Mao’s propaganda machine began to denounce Lin Biao, which led to great disillusionment among the Chinese people

• It also opened the door for the return of Deng Xiaoping and the enhancement of Zhou Enlai -more on that later!

• The Cultural Revolution had come full circle…

The Fall of Lin Biao, 1971

Deepen the criticism of Lin [Biao] and Confucius, energetically increase production, 1975

Role of the Gang of Four

127

Phase III: the “Gang of Four”

• 1972 – 1976• power struggle between

– the radical “Gang of Four”, led by Jiang Qing, Mao’s wife

– Goal continue Cultural revolution…failed when Mao dies and his power is gone…gang of 4 put on trial and convicted….Dang Xiaoping takes power

Gang of FourDuring China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), Zhang Chunqiao, Jiang Qing, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen, clockwise from top right, developed a series of radical political campaigns with the support of Communist Party leader Mao Zedong.

The campaigns caused ten years of chaos and violence.

After Mao’s death in 1976, the group was dubbed the Gang of Four, and each was tried and convicted of crimes associated with the Cultural Revolution.

Role of the Gang of Four• Later, the Gang of Four, especially

Jiang Qing considered everything as Capitalist; they condemned a basic theory that production power decided the relation of production to the character of the society as ‘Revisionism’; in a sense referring to looking back to the past.

• They agitated workers openly by saying ‘[not to] fear to stop production and work’.

• They disliked modernism; they referred the introduction of technological plants as ‘worshipping and toadying to foreign countries’.

• Most workers complained about the Four’s policies, and made an effort to produce. However, a decline in production was impossible, with their constant exposure to slogans created by Jiang's groups

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.

End of Radicalism: Post-Mao Government

Power StruggleModernist

sCommunist

Traditionalists

Zhou Enlai

“The Gang of Four”: Jiang Qin, Chen Boda, Wang Hongwen, Yao

Wenyuan

1976

End of Radicalism• The radical clique most closely

associated with Mao and the Cultural Revolution became vulnerable after Mao died, as Deng had been after Zhou Enlai's demise.

• In October, less than a month after Mao's death, Jiang Qing and her three principal associates--denounced as the Gang of Four--were arrested.

• Within days it was formally announced that Hua Guofeng had assumed the positions of party chairman, chairman of the party's Central Military Commission, and premier.

Reforms Begin• 1976, Mao died; his death followed by retreat from many of his policies• China began to end isolation from rest of world in early 1970s• 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon visited China, meeting with Mao• During last years of Mao’s life, much power wielded by group of four people

known as Gang of Four

• Gang of four included Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing—responsible for some of worst features of Cultural Revolution

• After Mao’s death, more moderate leaders imprisoned Gang of Four

Gang of Four• Deng Xiaoping eventually became

China’s leader, helped put in place far-reaching market reforms

• Deng’s reform plan, Four Modernizations, sought to modernize: agriculture, industry, science and technology, defense

Four Modernizations

China After Mao

Mao & The Gang of FourMao Zedong (1893-1976)

– He was the communist leader of China during the Cultural Revolution.

The Gang of Four – They were the four Chinese Communist Party Officials.

• Jiang Qing (1914-1991)– Mao's last wife and the leading figure of the group and her close associates

whose were: • Zhang Chunqiao (1917-2005)

– Sentenced to death, but sentence was changed to life imprisonment. • Yao Wenyuan (1931-2005)

– Arrested and sentenced to 20 life imprisonment.• Wang Hongwen (1936-1992)

– He was an important figure after Mao’s death. He was also arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The Gang of Four

• Pictured here are the original Gang of Four members.

Mao and Zhou Died in 1976• Turning point in China’s postwar era• “Gang of Four” were arrested• End of the Cultural Revolution

End of Radicalism• The death of Mao and the purge of the Gang of Four in 1976 marked the end

of the Cultural Revolution. • The Eleventh Party Congress officially ended the Cultural Revolution in

December of 1977. • Throughout the ten years, many people were left in poverty and for many,

educational opportunity was forever over. • The burden of the ten years known as Mao’s Bloody Years left a burden on

China that continued after the end of the Cultural Revolution. • The educational systems took many long years to repair. • The greatest impact of all was that all educational opportunities and

potential productive careers were denied to people who experienced the Cultural Revolution during their teens and early adulthood.

• For some people, their lives changed for the better as they were able to escape the hardships of the Cultural Revolution.

• As for most, the nightmares of the Cultural Revolution still linger and escaping that piece of reality is only hope, because the collapse of the economy and government had huge impacts on their lives which took years and years to restore.

Mao’s legacies

Deng Xiaoping (1905-1997)

Post Mao Reform

Deng Xiaoping reemerges:Becomes chairman of party,

head of the government and commander of the People’s Liberation Army“To get rich is glorious.”

• Deng institutes agricultural reforms• First, sales of garden vegetables OKed• Over-quota farm produce approved for open

market• Ag sector got wealthy

Deng Xiaoping’s reform

After agriculture sector, business sector gets market reforms

Businesses can sell over-quota items on open market

Cooperatives can buy business from government

Foreign investment soughtEffectively, China becomes a thriving, market-capitalist

economy, growing like mad

De-Maoization

► Agriculture

► Industry

► Science

► Defense

“The 4 Modernizations”

Progress in:

Class struggle was no longer the central focus!

Gap Between Rich & Poor

Deng: If you open a window, some flies naturally get in!

Post-Mao Propaganda (1979)Deng Xiaoping introduced "Four Basic Principles in March1979. They are:

1. We must keep to the socialist road

2. We must uphold the dictatorship of the proletariat

3. We must uphold the leadership of the Communist Party

4. We must uphold Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought

                          

         

                          

         

Post-Mao Propaganda (1986)“Do not spit freely. Spitting is neither hygienic nor civilized”

Post-Mao Propaganda (1988)“Less births, better births to develop China vigorously”