Mao Cultural Revolution

1850 Words4 Pages

A. Plan of Investigation

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?

B. Summary of Evidence

1. The Power Struggle

Mao resigned as president of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) in April 1959 , after the Great Leap Forward, planning for Chinese production to “overtake Britain in 15 years”, failed and caused a widespread famine in China, where 20-30 million people starved. President Liu and General Secretary Deng began to restore China , while Mao remained ceremonial head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Liu and Deng introduced many liberal and effective policies , which involved stepping back from communist ideals. Collectivisation and communal cafeterias were abandoned and peasants recommenced private, “capitalist” farming. They even rehabi...

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...ve ideological aims, such as the breaking down of bourgeois and counter-revolutionary ideals. The “16 Points” and Mao’s thoughts on revolution do suggest ideological motives behind the Cultural Revolution. However, he ensured that there was no actual “dictatorship of the proletariat”, but rather a proletariat acting on his dictatorial commands, helping Mao win the power struggle with Liu and Deng. This suggests that the Cultural Revolution was simultaneously, if not primarily, a tool to secure Mao’s power. Jung Chang advocates that Mao’s motives were purely selfish, but as her attitude is hard-line anti-Mao, this judgement may be biased, although similar views are expressed by other historians. It is very likely that that Mao was simply “killing two birds with one stone” and that he had both ideological and selfish motives when initiating the Cultural Revolution.

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