Deceiving a Nation- The Chinese Cultural Revolution

The Chinese Cultural Revolution was launched by Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966. It was an attempt to rid China of so-called “capitalist roaders” and to restore Mao’s power within the party. In the end, the Revolution intended to save the country ultimately destroyed it. The Cultural Revolution eliminated the freedom of people all over China for a time span of over 10 years and greatly injured the country both economically and culturally; from this we can learn that stifling a group’s free will can have negative effects on the stability of the entire country.

During the Cultural Revolution many pieces of art and historically significant artifacts were destroyed; this was a severe blow to China’s culture. One of the first victims of the Cultural Revolution was a play. “Hai Rui Dismissed from Office” depicted a man who criticized the emperor as a hero. When the Cultural Revolution began, this play was seen as an attack on Mao and its author was imprisoned. In 1966, Mao called on the Red Guards, Mao’s followers, to destroy “Four Olds” (previous Chinese objects, customs, habits, and ideas). Priceless historical objects were now dangerous items of a dangerous past. Homes and shops of those thought to be counterrevolutionary were raided and “anything that was suspected of being feudal or bourgeois was [destroyed]” (Buckley). From this destruction, the Revolution hoped to establish a new culture. “New names, new customs and new habits glittering with the proletarian revolutionary spirit, have added boundless glory to our great capital, the centre of the proletarian revolution” (“It's Fine”) stated a Chinese newspaper at the time. The same paper goes on to praise this destruction: “The proletarian revolutionary rebel spirit of the ‘Red Guards’ is very good indeed!” (“It's Fine”) The Chinese government’s con job swindled an entire nation into supporting the destruction of its very own culture as well as the persecution of its finest artists under the guise of progress.

The Cultural Revolution was a dagger in the heart of China’s economy. One major goal of the revolution was to correct the economic problems created by the Great Leap Forward Movement. Instead, these problems were worsened. Like a stubborn child, China denounced basic and universally accepted economic theory of production. It claimed “‘if the people just do revolution, production will be better naturally’” (Galduroz). In addition to halted production, China also ended its birth control program. This caused China’s population to rapidly increase. With more mouths to feed and less goods to go around, quality of life severely decreased. Survival became a full-time job. The conditions faced by the people in China during the Cultural Revolution are not all that different from those in sub-Saharan Africa today. While China’s economy was destroyed by a revolution, sub-Saharan Africa’s war and disease. As a result, “‘everyone has to look out for themselves’” (qtd in Maharaj) and their family. Another large expense during the Cultural Revolution was the use of transportation to carry Red Guards throughout the country. Scientists were forced to work in farms. Writers were forced to work in factories. All over China, intellectuals abandoned their work and were transported to areas in which they performed manual labor. Even more economic problems were caused by the stagnation of imports due to a strong xenophobia. The Cultural Revolution halted production, used unnecessary expense to sustain Red Guard camps, and stopped importation of goods under the pretense of creating a better society. These attempts at stifling individual economic freedom hurt the entire country.

China’s youth was the group most drastically injured by the Cultural Revolution which denied them an education and left them with physical and psychological damage. The revolution had a strong contempt for knowledge and education. As a result schools across the country began to close. When children became old enough they were sent away to the countryside to do manual labor. There they encountered much mental and physical hardship. Author of the autobiography Red Sorrow Nanchu Li experienced the Cultural Revolution firsthand. In her novel she describes the selfless attitude she and her peers were forced to take: “We were supposed to forget about ourselves and fight selflessly until our last breaths” (Li 87). In the countryside through years of backbreaking labor many young men and women were conditioned to put the government before themselves. Some would sacrifice their lives if it meant even the slightest benefit for the Cultural Revolution. The result of all this was a generation of inadequately educated individuals often with physical and psychological damage. Young men and women still fall victim to their cultures in many societies. Muslim girls today are forced to abide by cultural practices such as being forced into marriage and wearing a veil. A few have risked their own lives in describing their “everyday life of oppression, isolation, imprisonment and brutal corporal punishment” (Schneider). As the revolution continued “differences between the educational levels of China and that of the world grew” (Galduroz); by denying youth the right to an education and sentencing them to harsh manual labor China hurt its future. The Cultural Revolution’s effects on youth can still be seen today and will inhibit China from fulfilling its potential for years to come.

Prior to the Communist takeover, China was extremely prosperous. It produced great works of art, literature, and philosophy and its scientists and craftsmen invented many items long before the rest of the world. The Cultural Revolution acted like a virus. It took advantage of China’s temporary weakness and destroyed its internal foundation. Because of the Cultural Revolution the China of today is nothing compared to its younger self. China destroyed its culture. China destroyed its economy. China destroyed the lives of its young. Eventually by taking away the freedom of its own citizens, China destroyed its self. We should take China as an example of the consequences denying people their natural rights can have on an entire nation.

Works Cited

Buckley, Paricia. “Cultural Revolution.” A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization (16 Nov. 2001). 14 Nov. 2007 .

“It's Fine.” Renmin Ribao 23 Aug. 1966. Morning Sun. Long Bow Group, Inc. .

Galduroz, Michael. “The Cultural Revolution.” Discovering China. ThinkQuest. 14 Nov. 2007 .

Li, Nanchu. Red Sorrow. New York, NY: Arcade Publishing, 2001.

Maharaj, Davan. “When the push for survival is a full-time job.” Los Angeles Times 11 Jul. 2004: A1. Third World. Ed. Eleanor Goldstein. Boca Raton: SIRS, 2005. Art. 77.

Schneider, Peter. “The New Berlin Wall.” New York Times Magazine 4 Dec. 2005: 66-71. Environment. Ed. Brandy Wade. Boca Raton: SIRS, 2007. Art. 6.