China’s Cultural RevolutionBy: Vanessa Fung, Christie Fong,

Christina Kang, Se Yoon Jang

• Born to a Hunanese family in 26th December 1893

• He was the founder of the “people’s republic” • He led the Communist Party of China to

victory against the nationalists “Kuomintang” after more than 20 years of civil war

• He died in 9th September 1976

Mao Ze Dong – Chairman Mao

• Mao was greatly influenced by Marxism, a political idea formed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel. They also developed communist theory

• A book written by Karl Marx, called “The Communist

Manifesto” strongly influenced Mao’s political ideas. The book is about how proletarians should rebel against bourgeoisies to bring about a “classless” society.

• Karl Marx feels that the bourgeoisies are exploiting the proletarians. He says that “Religion is the opiate of the people” because the proletarians are just accepting their situation and are not taking action against the injustice of being exploited and having to endure their suffering

Maoism – His revolutionary ideas

• Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.• People, not weapons, are decisive in waging

war.• The proletariat must forge military strategy and

tactics which can bring into play its particular advantages, by unleashing and relying upon the initiative and enthusiasm of the revolutionary masses.

• He insisted on the need to lead the masses in carrying out revolutionary transformations and to develop these politically, economically and culturally in the service of advancing revolutionary warfare.

What Mao taught…

• Re-education was demanded to intellectuals; who finished high school education or even lower school education.

• They were usually sent to country side where they were educated to live as peasants or low class people.

Re-education

• Any books including Chinese, western or any Asian books that weren't about the communism and Mao Zedong

• Nor any items that was linked or related to western culture.

Banned Items

The Little Red Book (1)

• The Little Red Book also known as Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong (毛主席语录 ) has been published by the government of the People’s Republic of China since 1964.

• It is a collection of quotations excerpted from Mao Zedong's past speeches and publications.

• 900 million copies of The Little Red Book has been sold, second only to the bible which has been around much longer.

• It was essentially an unofficial requirement for every Chinese citizen to own, to read, and to carry it at all times during the Cultural Revolution. The punishment for failing to produce the book upon being asked would range from being beaten by Red Guards to being given years of hard-labor imprisonment.

• Studying the book was required in schools, as well as at workplaces. Workplaces have specified reading sessions during working hours for workers to study the book.

• During the 1960s, the book was the most visible icon in mainland China. In posters and pictures created by CPC‘s propaganda artists, nearly every person, except Mao himself, either smiling or looking determined, was always seen with a copy of The Little Red Book.

• After the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 the importance of the book decreased considerably.

• The book’s topics mainly deal with Mao's ideology, known in the West as Maoism.

• Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong is composed of 427 quotations, divided into 33 chapters. The quotations range in length from a sentence to a few short paragraphs, and originate from two dozen documents in the four volumes of Mao's Selected Works. Usually the quotations are arranged logically, to deal with one to three themes in the development of a chapter.

The Little Red Book (2)

• The first group of people to call themselves "Red Guards" in China were a group of students at the high school attached to Tsinghua University, led by Zhang Chengzhi; they used the name to sign two big-character posters issued on 29 May and 2 June 1966.

• According to Zhang, the group of students originally wrote the posters as a constructive criticism towards the university administration, which was accused of harboring "intellectual elitism”.

• The group chose the name "The Red Guards" to create an image of a mass student movement.

• Soon afterwards, the news of the movements reached Mao Zedong, which organized "work teams" across schools and replaced school administrations.

• Zhang's group soon put up more posters calling for radical revolution, which was approved by Mao and published on the People's Daily.

• Soon afterwards, students all over Beijing were calling themselves "Red Guards".

• Many rival Red Guard groups were formed.

Red Guards (1)

• During the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards traveled throughout China, going to schools, universities, and institutions, spreading the teachings of Mao.

• Many were violent and oppressive to those who went against the teachings of Mao or criticized him.

• The role of Red Guard was mainly to attack the "Four Olds" of society, old ideas, cultures, manners, and customs of China at the time.

• Red Guards in had taken to the streets from their schools. They made posters, speeches, and committed violent acts in the name of the Cultural Revolution.

• The Red Guards ransacked museums and destroyed old books and works of art throughout China. Many famous temples, shrines, and other heritage sites were destroyed. In total, 4,922 out of 6,843 were destroyed.

Red Guards (2)

Public Humiliation Trials

• Pull hair• Force to drink water/ other liquids• Kneel in broken shards of glass• Have your alleged “crimes” called out to

while kneeling in front of an audience• Public beating• Stoning• Hanging

Cultural Revolution Propaganda

Beat our common enemy -reformer like Liu Shao qi!

Mao is great and he says revolutionary committee is good!

Mao was seen like a god

• The posters show political adversaries crushed by giant workers. The smiling image of Mao overshadows all, hovering above crowds carrying red flags and Little Red Books.

• Hundreds of thousands of copies of posters were distributed.

http://www.iisg.nl/~landsberger/sheji/sj-lec.html

• Before 1949 Oct.1st : Grandpa – Lawyer established own law firm in Guangzhou.

• Realized that the communists were gaining a lot of power since KMT & Jiang jieshe went to Taiwan.

• Escaped from Guangzhou to HK for a year.• HK law is different to law in China• Started doing business- very unsuccessfully.• Went to Macau- had peace for a while.• Started teaching in schools and later on,

opened tuition centre in home.

Personal Anecdote

Anecdote continued…

• The CPC (communist party of China) had been busy getting rid of traces of history and destroyed historic relics as Mao was obsessed with people looking up to him as the only leader. Mao did not like people to know about history and about Kings and royalties as he should be the only one in control.

• Cultural revolution affected Macau with the 1967 Dec 3rd Macau riot.

Dai Sijie

• Dai Sijie was born in China in 1954.

• He came from an educated middle-class family

• Maoist government sent him to a re-education camp in rural Sichuan from 1971 to 1974 during the Cultural Revolution.

• After his return, he was able to complete high school and university, where he studied art history.

• In 1984, he left China for France on a scholarship.

‘Ma’, Luo’s friend in “Balzac and Little Chinese Seamstress” portrays Dai himself.

He still keeps in touch with two of his "re-education" colleagues.