- Westernized culture banned
- Destroyed everything pre-revolution
- New art glorified China and its people
Change in Culture
- Worked to destroy the Four Olds: Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Ideas, Old Habits
- Replaced with the Four News
The Revolution Begins!
- Launched in August 1966 @ a meeting of the Plenum of the Central Committee
- May 16, 1966 - Chinese Communist Party (CCP) notice announces the start of the revolution
The Great Proletarian
Cultural Revolution
- increasing privileged middle class
- Economic Failure
- Launched by Mao
- Aimed to modernize agrarian economy through rapid industrialization
- Caused the Great Chinese Famine
Causes
- "Great Leap Forward" (1958-1963)
When & Where
- People's Republic of China
Red Guards
- paramilitary groups formed by students
- supported reorganization in Communist party
- radical teenage activists
The End
- Sept. 9, 1976 - Mao Zedong dies signaling the near end of the Cultural Revolution
- Oct. 6, 1976 - Arrest of the Gang of Four marks the end
- Deng Xiaoping becomes new leader
- Extreme policies replaced
- China heads towards capitalism and greater economic freedom
- Stronger links to outside world
- price of cotton fabrics and clothes increased
Effect on
Economy
- economy was severely setback
- industrial production dropped
What happened?
- Intellectuals and the elderly are attacked
- Capitalists are terrorized
- The Little Red Book - book of Mao's quotations - is distributed
- Those in opposition to Mao are removed from the ruling party
- Revive the revolutionary spirit
- Purge the Communist party
- Remove bourgeois influence
What was it?
It was a social-political movement that aimed to ...
Important Figures
Gang of Four
- Jiang Qing - Mao's fourth wife,
- Zhang Chunqiao - Shanghai Proganda Department Official
- Yao Wenyuan - Literary critic and politician
- Wang Hongwen - Chinese labor activist and politician
- Held the power in the Communist party
- Controlled the Cultural Revolution
Lin Biao
- Chinese Communist military leader
- Minister of National Defense
- Vice Chairman and Vice Premier
- designated Mao's successor
- Survived the Cultural Revolution by being passive
Effect on Education
- Mao encouraged students to turn against teachers
- Schools shut down by Red Guards
- Graduates sent to the countryside to be re-educated by farmers and peasants
- 16 million students sent to work on farmland
- Those ages 15-25 during this period referred to as the "lost generation"
Mao Zedong
- Founder of the People's Republic of China
- Chinese Communist revolutionary
- A Founder of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
- launched the "Great Leap Forward"