The era of Communist China and the Cultural Revolution (1949-1976) marked a significant period in the history of China. Ongoing conflict between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Nationalist Party, Kuomintang (KMT), led to the Chinese Civil War (1945-1949). In 1949, the CPC, who allied closely with the Soviet Union, defeated the Nationalist Party and took control of mainland China. CPC’s leader Mao Zedong established the People’s Republic of China which is also commonly known today as Communist China (“History of China”).
Mao Zedong and the CPC supported socialism and Marxism-Leninist theories. Mao realized the need for social reconstruction and adopted the Soviet model for development. Despite the technical and economic problems China faced, Mao was aware of the cultural and political difficulties of the country’s development. “He believed that only through controlled conflict could China sustain social change” (Solomon 250).
After multiple failed attempts throughout the 1950s and early 1960s to enforce communism, including the Great Leap Forward which caused the Great Chinese Famine and killed tens of millions of people, Mao set into motion a social-political movement known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (“Cultural Revolution”). The Revolution was launched in 1966 in fears of a new elite coming through and in an attempt to reassert his authority. Mao ordered the purge of anyone who did not fully support him and threatened his socialist framework. He sought “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” (Trueman). As a result, Mao focused on enforcing a purification of the C...
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... as “Rightists” who tried to portray anticommunist ideals. This process was called the “Anti-Rightist Campaign” (Zhang 207).
The loosening of screenplay production regulations allowed for the expansion and development of genres and styles throughout socialist cinema. As well as the already established genres of drama, comedy and thriller, biography, children’s film, myth, musical, opera movie and docu-drama were experimented with during this phase. However, it is important to note that the stylistic nature of films came secondary. Throughout social cinema filmmakers were hindered due to “a direct service to politics, a lack of psychological depth, and a distance from the artistic achievements of foreign films” (Zhang 212).This was all due to the significant power of Mao and the CPC.
The third phase, the Cultural Revolution (1966-78), suspended all feature production
Following the Chinese Revolution of 1949, China’s economy was in ruin. The new leader, Mao Zedong, was responsible for pulling the economy out of the economic depression. The problems he faced included the low gross domestic product, high inflation, high unemployment, and high prices on goods. In order to solve these issues, Mao sought to follow a more Marxist model, similar to that of the Soviet Union. This was to use government intervention to develop industry in China. In Jan Wong’s Red China Blues, discusses Maoism and how Mao’s policies changed China’s economy for the worse. While some of Mao’s early domestic policies had some positive effects on China’s economy, many of his later policies caused China’s economy to regress.
After millions of years under imperial rule in China, nationalist rebellions made the government unstable eventually making way for communist ideas. For over twenty years the nationalist struggled to keep democratic power in the country. The Xinhai revolution was a civil war between the nationalists and the communists. The Communists were led by Mao Zedong and they emerged victoriously. In September 1949, two good things happened. It was the celebration of the communist victory and the unveiling of the communist regime that would subsequently rule over China. Mao and his communist supporters had been fighting against a corrupt and abandoned Nationalist government in China. Mao denounced that those who opposed the communist government are imperialistic and domestic reactionaries. Mao also declared that communi...
Millions of peoples was falsely accused and persecuted during the political movements of the Mao period as the CCP focused on class struggle instead of economic development during the period and tens of Millions of peoples died due to starvation as there were widespread food shortages during the great leap forward movement. This raises the problem, does the cost of the revolution outweighs the benefit and if so, can the revolution still be considered a success. This is a very difficult question as the value of human lives cannot be quantified and therefore the comparison of cost and benefit automatically creates a very excruciating dilemma. However, one study done by Barrington Moore in his classic Social origins of Dictatorship and Democracy demonstrated the experience of India during the same period of time. India shares many similarities with China in terms of population, land size and geographic proximity and therefore the two countries’ economy is highly comparable. India, which did not go through a socialist reform, nor a land reform, thus a weak industrial base and low economic growth is currently in an economic situation where half of the country is ‘slowly starving to death’, that is, more than half a billion people are chronically malnourished and will die prematurely . Comparing China with India, it can be argued that the revolution brought more benefit than cost to China and its people and therefore is a success, although the misconducts and terrors created during the Mao era were indefensible and it can be contended that the socialist reform can still occur without the persecutions and famines, however, it should be kept in mind that history cannot be assumed and thus one may only analyze what has already
According to Growing up in the People's Republic, one of Mao’s many goals was land reform. He initiated this plan by giving some land over to the peasants from the landlords. Throughout this time, it was essential for the abundant amount of peasants to be awarded this land or even be recruited as new authorities because it made them give up their independence and they believed they had this power. As a result, the CPC was able to successfully convince the peasants to switch from one policy to another which made it easier for the government to control policy. One of the other goals of Mao was to promote uniformity. From Growing Up in the Republic, according to Ye and Ma in 1950, they finally received equal rights including the right to own property and equal rights in marriage and divorce. This was a major shift in China’s policies and laws aiming towards a new and improved China. The third goal of Mao was aimed at the economy and the practices of institutions. Overall, Mao believed that the Revolution wasn’t over therefore, he continued to call for rapid industrialization plus increased agricultural production thus leading to a Great and Powerful China once
Mao's period of communal reform and the establishment of the Communist party from 1949-1976 was needed in order for Deng's individual oriented, capitalist society to thrive. Mao's period encompassed the structure of a true dictatorial communist government. It strove to concentrate on unifying communities to create a strong political backbone while being economically self-sufficient and socially literate and educated in Maoist propaganda. Under Mao's leadership individual wealth was seen as a hindrance to community goals in meeting production quotas and was crushed by such policies as collectivization, land reformation, and movements such as The Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. Under his rule, modeled under the Stalinist USSR archetype, China raised its masses from poverty and starvation to a standard of living that was considered a substantial upgrade.
In 1949 China became a Communist nation the leader Mao Zedong had idea on how he wanted China to be runned. Mao Zedong liked the idea of having a big nation . Zedong wanted a big population because that meant he would how more young workers than old retired people in his nation. Zedong told all the couples to have lots of babies to make the population grow but once he had seen how fast it was growing he want to go back and never said what he said. After he already had a big population he had to think of how he was going to provide clothes and food for everyone . He came up with this policy to try to fix his problem.
The Cultural Revolution was a movement started in 1966 by Chairman Mao (Mao Zedong). “It’s stated goal was to preserve true communist ideology in the country by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from
Which in order to accelerate his plan he had to turn China into a modern sized industrialized state. Because of this Mao decided to launch what was known as the "Great Leap Forward". “Which began the mass mobilization of the people into collectives and many communities were assigned production of a single “commodity steel”” (Keynes 46). He wanted to increase agriculture by this and only made it worse with bad weather, chaos, and exports of food necessary to secure hard currency (Keynes 32). This resulted in the Great Chinese Famine which made food short and production fell dramatically. This caused the deaths of millions which didn 't make Mao so popular and some began to hate him as a ruler. In 1959, Mao resigned as the State Chairman and this was continued by Liu Shaoqi (Keynes
Impeccably true to its definition, the Chinese characters for “revolution” literally mean “elimination of life”, proved by China’s catastrophic cultural revolution. Communist leader Mao Zedong sought to eliminate the past and push for a resurrection only to land China miserably behind. By wiping away years of scientific and literary advancements, China renounced its grandiose history and way of life.
More murderous than Hitler, more powerful than Stalin, in the battle of the Communist leaders Mao Zedong trumps all. Born into a comfortable peasant family, Mao would rise up to become China’s great leader. After leading the communists away from Kuomintang rule, he set out to modernize China, but the results of this audacious move were horrific. He rebounded from his failures time and again, and used his influence to eliminate his enemies and to purge China of its old ways. Mao saw a brighter future for China, but it was not within his grasp; his Cultural Revolution was not as successful as he had wanted it to be. Liberator, oppressor, revolutionary, Mao Zedong was the greatest emancipator in China’s history, as his reforms and actions changed the history of China and of the wider world.
The declaration of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 by the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong signified a revolution in China that brought an end to the costliest civil war in Chinese history between the Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that had lasted a period of 22 years from 1927 to 1949. The Chinese revolution of 1949 signified the beginning of an era of Communist Chinese rule ushered in by the popular Chinese Communist Party at the expense of the Nationalist Party. According to historian Michael Lestz, the Communist victory was an inevitability that was aided by the actions of the preceding Nationalist government (Lestz, 2010). Lestz states that the weakness and administration ineptitude displayed by the Nationalist Party in economic, military and civil affairs created an environment that was conducive for the Communist Party to prosper. Author John King elaborates that the Nationalist party did more to lose the peasants’ support than the Communist party did to gain the peasants’ favor (King, 2006). Therefore, this paper will focus on the failures of the Nationalist Party in the Civil War and World War II coupled with the consequences. It will compound the various issues that harbored the Nationalist Party such as corruption and the failure of the government to accommodate or abate Communist dissent. The paper will also cover the failed efforts by Nationalist Party to integrate Western policies into China.
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, beginning as a campaign targeted at removing Chairman Mao Zedong's political opponents, was a time when practically every aspect of Chinese society was in pandemonium. From 1966 through 1969, Mao encouraged revolutionary committees, including the red guards, to take power from the Chinese Communist party authorities of the state. The Red Guards, the majority being young adults, rose up against their teachers, parents, and neighbors. Following Mao and his ideas, The Red Guard's main goal was to eliminate all remnants of the old culture in China. They were the 'frontline implementers' who produced havoc, used bloody force, punished supposed 'counter revolutionists', and overthrew government officials, all in order to support their 'beloved leader'.
As it’s known around the world, Chinese political system is Communism. Some may say that communism is good and bad. Well it all began when Mao Zedong came into power, his ideas influenced Chinese people and how the true way of living is. The introduction of communism into China changed how people perceived each other. One of his first ideas was “The Great Leap Forward,” which a lot of historians considered as a failure because its initial goals were never met. The Chinese society was losing faith in Mao, and not loyal to him. In desperate needs, Mao came up with the “Cultural Revolution” or also known was “The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”. Mao main goal was to turn all people to follow the idea of communism, but not in the way like Russia did. Even though a huge amount of people died and harmed the future image of China. Mao did whatever it took to make people to follow his ideas, he didn’t matter what the consequences were, and he was willing to kill anybody who was a “counter revolutionary.” Well, was his idea successful? it mostly depends on your point of view. According to Dictionary.com, successful mean achieving or having success. This revolution has impacted everybody, with witnessed accounts during the Mao’s rule. At last, did it work? In the following essay, Mao’s ideas how people view communism as a form of a government than the abuse of power.
This essay has critically analysed and examined the effect of Communism on the Chinese Society during the period of 1946-1964. The overall conclusion that can be drawn is that the Chinese Communist Party managed to defeat the Kuomintang (Nationalist) Party and achieve victory in the Civil War, in spite of alienation by the Soviet Union and opposition from the U.S. This was primarily because of the superior military strategy employed by the Communists and the economic and political reforms introduced by this party which brought more equality to the peasants in the form of land ownership and better public services. This increased China’s production and manufacturing which not only boosted the country’s economy but also provided a more sustainable supply of food, goods and services for the Chinese people.
In 1966, Mao mobilized the Chinese youth to initiate the “Cultural Revolution”, a violent process eliminating old Chinese culture, customs, thoughts and habits, purging “counter-revolutionary” party members, and heightening Mao’s personality cult. I will summarize evidence collected from textbooks, official documents, biographies and eyewitness reports about the events between 1959 and 1966. I will describe the failure of the Great Leap Forward, Mao’s resignation as president, his power struggle with Liu Shoaqi and Deng Xiaoping and the propagating of his personality cult. Then I will identify how these events may have given Mao reasons for launching the Cultural Revolution, and whether his motives were of an ideological or selfish nature. After carrying out a Source Evaluation of the “16 Point Directive on the Cultural Revolution” and Jung Chang’s “Mao: The Unknown Story” and analysing my evidence, my essay will answer the question: To what extent were Mao’s motives for starting the Cultural Revolution ideological?