When Mao declared the People’s Republic of China in 1949, it marked the beginning of a rapid modernization and destruction of 5000 years of Chinese culture. He was almost seen as a God, a figure the citizens, especially by the peasants that Mao favored. However, through all his campaigns and movements, respect and trust within a family were also impaired. During Mao’s regime, the citizen’s idolization of Mao demolished filial piety and familial relationships that were essential in maintaining unity within a family, which eventually undermined Mao’s vision. The worshipping of Mao caused his supporters to undermine the traditional belief in respecting one’s elders, which destroyed harmony in the community. In the quote, “...He was angry enough …show more content…
to beat his uncle to death and he was strong enough to do it” (Doc. 4), it states that even relatives will not experience generosity nor forgiveness, and should be punished by death. The young man was not hesitant in exercising his strength; moreover, he did not allow his uncle a chance to even explain. This portrayed the new mindset of the peasants- having reverence towards seniors is trivial when he has committed a crime that hinder the progress of Chairman Mao’s utopian vision. From ‘The Little Red Book’, “...We must conduct rectification movement both now and in the future, and constantly rid ourselves of whatever is wrong” (Doc. 9), Mao was not showing mercy to the “rightists”- he was implying that only by clearing the wrong can his vision of equality be achieved. This idea prompted peasants to act in a similar way- disregarding to traditional values in a family in order to attain the “perfect society” in Mao’s plan. Nonetheless, the people were ignorant of the significance of the values shared in families- it maintains the unity between kinships, a moral in Mao’s vision that they were supposedly endeavoring for. Essentially, blindly devoting to Mao ruined the ties between the young and the old, which destroyed the “unity” aspect of the utopian plan, and the same problem was reflected in marriages as well. Similarly, this determined faith in Mao allowed the people to damage family connections, which driven them away from bringing Mao’s vision into reality.
In the accounts of a professor during the Cultural Revolution, “...Her husband’s voice declaring with icy piety that he could never live with her again... that she is no longer the mother of their three children” (Doc. 11), she voiced that the husband was more dedicated to the country’s cause, and chose to abandon his wife for a “correct” life. The unity in this situation was disrupted, for a marriage was based on dedication and harmony, but those aspects were ignored when the husband denounced her while she was being tortured by the students who caught her commenting negatively on the Chinese Communist Party. This placed the wife and the husband on different levels and equality was ruined, for she was beaten while her husband could walk away by divorcing her, which further supports that a faultless community cannot be established. Equally important, quoting Mao, “Always and everywhere he should adhere to principle and wage a tireless struggle against all incorrect ideas and actions” (Doc. 9). This thought explains the decisions of the husband; for Mao clearly expressed that the citizens should be “against all incorrect ideas and actions”. However, he did not elucidate the consequence of completely cleansing the population of tradition and rightist ideas, which was disruption of unity, and the values in his utopian vision were not emphasized; therefore, the people primarily focused on eliminating those who were against Mao, unconscious that this action led them further from the “ideal Communist society”. Fundamentally, Mao encouraged the people to purge the “wrong”, while being oblivious, or so he pretended, of leading them away from the society in his
vision. The land redistribution process and Cultural Revolution allowed Mao to urge people to completely annihilate anyone against the party and falsely feed the population that they were doing so to achieve the perfect society of equality and unity. Nevertheless, Mao genuinely believed that his plan would bring positive advancement to the country; it would only seem normal to direct the peasants into abusing those who are “rightists”. But whether his ideals were truly intended for good, or if he were oblivious in leading the population away from the ideal country, the peasants’ worshipping of Mao interfered with the unity in familial connections, which in actuality resulted in the failure of Mao’s vision.
Who doesn’t love celebrations? When we celebrate something it’s usually because the event influenced or impacted history in some way. In the case of Zheng He, I do believe we should commemorate his voyages. Zheng he did experience a bad child-hood; as he was involved in many devastating events like the death of his father, becoming a prisoner by the Ming dynasty and being forced to work for a royal family. Zheng didn’t let that bring him down and eventually became a trusted advisor and earned power and wealth. These actions lead to his first of 7 voyages. His voyages had successful outcomes and they also showed that great leadership skills were needed to complete these voyages. Therefore, I do believe we should memorialize the voyages of Zheng
The Sun of the Revolution by Liang Heng, is intriguing and vivid, and gives us a complex and compelling perspective on Chinese culture during a confusing time period. We get the opportunity to learn the story of a young man with a promising future, but an unpleasant childhood. Liang Heng was exposed to every aspect of the Cultural Revolution in China, and shares his experiences with us, since the book is written from Liang perspective, we do not have a biased opinion from an elite member of the Chinese society nor the poor, we get an honest opinion from the People’s Republic of China. Liang only had the fortunate opportunity of expressing these events due his relationship with his wife, an American woman whom helps him write the book. When Liang Heng and Judy Shapiro fell in love in China during 1979, they weren’t just a rarity; they were both pioneers at a time when the idea of marriages between foreigners and Chinese were still unacceptable in society.
All these experiences shattered Yang's dream and made her realize that the path of communism would not lead to the establishment of a New China where everyone would be free and equal. She was able see beyond the lies and propaganda of the leaders. The Communist party only served to further the interests of it officials and had little to no concern with the well being of the poor peasants and ordinary Chinese people. The class struggle continued to prevail and was inevitable. Yang says “I agree with Chairman Mao that class struggle continues to exist in China under socialist conditions. It goes on between Communist Party officials and the ordinary Chinese people!”( Yang, p.263).
William Hinton, a US born member of a Chinese Communist land reform task force in 1948, noted that the peasants were challenging the landlords and money lenders in regards to overcharges and restoration of lands and property seized in default of debts (Doc 4). This was due to the newly found confidence in themselves through the defeat of the Japanese. Although Hinton was born into the communist party, his recount of the actions he saw concerning the peasants was simply from a look from the outside in. He personally did not experience this sudden upsurge of challenges, which gives the public a view of what the communist party thought of what looked like a move towards social equality. Although Hinton’s recount may not have been thoroughly verified, the communist party did indeed aid in fueling what was known as a struggle meeting, where Chinese peasants humiliated and tortured landlords, as seen in the picture, organized by the Communist Party as part of the land reform process, of a group of peasants at a meeting where in the center a woman is with her former landlord (Doc 7). Alongside the destruction of the landowning infrastructure that was previously followed, the Communist party also aided the peasants in a form of social reform. One important law that granted specifically women more freedom in their social life was the creation of the Marriage Law of the People’s Republic of China in 1950, where it states that the “supremacy of man over woman, and in disregard of the interest of the children, is abolished” (Doc 5). The newly introduced concepts of free choice in partners, abortion, and monogamy that derived from this law changed the societal position on women and peasants which greatly expresses the amount of new social mobility
There is no better way to learn about China's communist revolution than to live it through the eyes of an innocent child whose experiences were based on the author's first-hand experience. Readers learn how every aspect of an individual's life was changed, mostly for the worst during this time. You will also learn why and how Chairman Mao launched the revolution initially, to maintain the communist system he worked hard to create in the 1950's. As the story of Ling unfolded, I realized how it boiled down to people's struggle for existence and survival during Mao's reign, and how lucky we are to have freedom and justice in the United States; values no one should ever take for
Jonathan Spence tells his readers of how Mao Zedong was a remarkable man to say the very least. He grew up a poor farm boy from a small rural town in Shaoshan, China. Mao was originally fated to be a farmer just as his father was. It was by chance that his young wife passed away and he was permitted to continue his education which he valued so greatly. Mao matured in a China that was undergoing a threat from foreign businesses and an unruly class of young people who wanted modernization. Throughout his school years and beyond Mao watched as the nation he lived in continued to change with the immense number of youth who began to westernize. Yet in classes he learned classical Chinese literature, poems, and history. Mao also attained a thorough knowledge of the modern and Western world. This great struggle between modern and classical Chinese is what can be attributed to most of the unrest in China during this time period. His education, determination and infectious personalit...
Ji-Li Jiang was not the only citizen deceived by the Communist Party and Chairman Mao. Once most Nationalists, dissidents of Communism, immigrated to Taiwan in 1949, the only people remaining in China were Communist; thus, the common people supported Chairman Mao. He took advantage of the people’s trust and manipulated the entire country. In the hope of spreading enthusiasm about Communism, Chairman Mao used propaganda wisely. New and modern technologies were conducive to the development of Chairman Mao’s personality cult, a group of supporters that follow him for his personality rather than his ideas. Through secular religion, the abolishing of all faiths, Chairman Mao replaced God, Allah, or any other deities with himself. Seeing that religion was the central force in everyone’s life, Chairman Mao was worshiped throughout the nation. The Chinese citizens’ devotion towards Chairman Mao was so great that despite being prosecuted and humiliated themselves, "[they] believed that the Cultural Revolution was necessary to prevent revisionism and capitalism from taking over China… [For instance, when questioned whether or not she hated Chairman Mao, An Yi’s mother replied] ‘if the country was better for the movement
In the 18th century, China was influenced by various teachings of philosophers and beliefs that the society had placed emphasis on. Filial piety (xiao) was a major practice around this period when it was strongly carried inside and outside the household. Filial piety is not only the guiding principle of Chinese ethics but it also played an affirmative role in determining the Chinese lifestyle; it was practiced daily in the family and in other areas such as education, religion and government. It was the central root of Chinese morals and the society was constructed upon the principles of xiao, which certainly became the premises of Chinese culture and the society. In Confucianism, the approach of respect, fidelity, and care toward one’s parents and elder family members is the origin of individual ethical behaviour and social agreement. One must put the needs of parents and family elders over self, spouse, and children (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2011). Many philosophers and rulers such as Mencius and Chu Hsi also focused on filial piety, applying the virtue to marital life, family, death, and politics. Filial piety was demonstrate in various literatures such as “Dream of the Red Chamber”, “Six Records of a Floating Life”, and “The Classic of Filial Piety” which demonstrated the roles of individuals in Chinese society including politics.
One of Mao Zedong’s motivations for beginning the Cultural Revolution was his view that a cutting-edge bureaucratic ruling class had surfaced because of the centralized authoritarian nature of the political system, which had little hope for popular participation in the process of economic development (The Chinese Cultural Revolution revisited). The motivations of Fidel Castro, on the other hand, were different in that he wanted all people of all classes to be equal. The notion that the poverty-stricken could live a life equal to all other humans was an immense sense of happiness and alteration. In China, Mao Zedong developed many things to entice people.
The Red Guard strove to remove and destroy the Four Olds, foreign influence, enemies of the Party and the current societal structure by persecuting those who supposedly perpetuated them. All vestiges of outdated customs, habits, culture and ideas were to be destroyed, since the movement represented “a triumph of youth over age, of ‘the new’ over ‘the old.’” To do so, the Red Guard wrecked thousands of art collections and the contents of libraries, and changed “reactionary” street signs. They persecuted members of the public who attempted to stop them or refused to give up the Four Olds. Those who had foreign ties, like businessmen, missionaries, or who had western education were also persecuted to prevent backwards or rightist ideologies from spreading into the new Chinese society. Chinese intellectuals were also hounded for the same reason: to prevent free thought. The messages of the movement were “negative—against the established authority, against the Party, against the military” and the outdated structures of the older generation. To destroy the established order, the Red Guards attacked educational and political institutions that were enemies of Mao and the party, and created general havoc within China. The Red Guard targeted teachers, education policies, and universities to change the core of education and the qualities that it had extolled. Members of the general public and even party officials themselves were attacked, to remove the “capitalist roaders” with bourgeois tendencies from society. Mao hoped that in this chaos a new communist China would emerge.
It can also be argued that the political activities of Chairman Mao’s Communist China were more of a continuation of traditional Imperial China, based heavily in Confucian values, than a new type of Marxist-Leninist China, based on the Soviet Union as an archetype. While it is unquestionable that a Marxist-Leninist political structure was present in China during this time, Confucian values remained to be reinforced through rituals and were a fundamental part of the Chinese Communist ...
But one begins to detect a new theme emerging in society, especially amongst the Chinese reformers: the theme of individualism opposed to familialism. Today, would the Confucian family be more and more aware of abuse of women and children? Rituals and traditions can be seen as both positive and negative. The ways in which women suffered affirm that some rituals were abusive. There are multiple signs indeed that something has gone badly wrong with the Chinese family traditions that led to family instability.
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.
Dressed in the drab military uniform that symbolized the revolutionary government of Communist China, Mao Zedong's body still looked powerful, like an giant rock in a gushing river. An enormous red flag draped his coffin, like a red sail unfurled on a Chinese junk, illustrating the dualism of traditional China and the present Communist China that typified Mao. 1 A river of people flowed past while he lay in state during the second week of September 1976. Workers, peasants, soldiers and students, united in grief; brought together by Mao, the helmsman of modern China. 2 He had assembled a revolutionary government using traditional Chinese ideals of filial piety, harmony, and order. Mao's cult of personality, party purges, and political policies reflect Mao's esteem of these traditional Chinese ideals and history.
...ng the time of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, mayhem was a part of everyday life. Mao Zedong encouraged rebellious actions from the Red Guards, and rewarded those who shone as leaders. He also targeted his political rivals by provoking the Red Guards to follow his ideas, and annihilate all remnants of china?s old culture. After the revolution ended, the Red guards received the disciplinary actions they deserved, and the tortured victims finally inadvertently received the vengeance they deserved.