Caitlin Lent
17 May 2014
Global Studies II
Mr. Bernardi
Long Live Chairman Mao?
Mao Zedong’s Failures as a Chinese Communist Leader
When Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong first rose to power at the start of the Chinese Civil War, major change was on the horizon for Nationalist China. With rising inflation and civil instability at the hands of corrupt government leaders, the time had come for the Communists to take the helm in China. Mao branded this as a chance to use communist ideals to promote economic development. He believed that he could bring China to an economic level on par with its industrialized neighbors at a rapid pace, gaining him a huge following. Unfortunately for the Communist party, support for Mao hemorrhaged following the profound failures of the Great Leap Forward, an economic program he spearheaded. Mao’s plan managed to leave the agricultural industry in ruins and destroy the working population in China. Not accepting failure, once Mao had faded into near obsoleteness, he plunged back into the public eye. He claimed China was on the cusp of a dangerous return to capitalism. He called for a rebellion. Newfound support was especially common among Chinese youth, who searched for something to believe in in a relatively stagnant China. Mao’s Cultural Revolution, enabled by the rebellious youths, left the nation in a catastrophic state. It wreaked havoc on the Chinese social structure, forging class divides and resulting in a breakdown of law and order. Therefore, Chairman Mao Zedong's efforts to improve China to his own standards—the botched Great Leap Forward and the Chinese Cultural Revolution, accomplished exactly opposite of what they desired to achieve, leaving the Chinese economy and social struc...
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... to the end of the social structure he desired to achieve.
Communism provided a perfect front for Mao to perpetuate his damaging political agenda. By claiming he would deliver a stable financial situation for a struggling China, Mao instead rushed into a major overhaul that resulted in lasting damage to the Chinese economy. Just as his country had begun to recover, Mao returned to create chaos. By urging China to convert to a militant form of communism, fraught with violence and class division, Mao again allowed his country to fall into turmoil. Thus, Chairman Mao Zedong's attempts to shape China to his own deeply damaged ideology through the disorderly Great Leap Forward and the Chinese Cultural Revolution, achieved precisely the contrary of what they strived to accomplish, effectively devastating both the Chinese economy and social structure.
Mao Zedong was born December 26, 1893 and lived until September 9 in 1976 when he died in Beijing China. Mao Zedong died from the Motor neuron disease. Mao Zedong was born into a peasant family in the place Shoshanna near Hunan. During the years of 1928 throughout 1931. Mao Zedong and others that worked with Mao Zedong established armies in the hinterlands and created the Red Army which was known as the most feared “army” in china during the time of the revolution.
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...
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.
Most films captivate the audience’s interest through the main character. This film did just that. Through the main character Li Cunxin, I was able to notice the amount of hard work and dedication which lead Li to become a famous ballet dancer known worldwide. The film based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin, “Mao’s Last Dancer” directed by Bruce Beresford is about a Chinese boy named Li Cunxin who was born into a large family of 6 boys. At the age of eleven, Li was selected from a poor Chinese village by Madam Mao’s cultural representatives to leave his family and study ballet in Beijing. The film focussed on his eventual departure from China to U.S.A after being selected by a world leading choreographer, Ben Stevenson and the consequences that followed.
In the outstanding book Mao’s Last Dancer, it tells a life story about a peasant boy named Li Cunxin who’s fate is laid out for him being a labourer in the fields just like his whole family but his determination helps him to escape his destiny. Li was chosen to go to the Beijing Dance Academy to study ballet. He moved away from his home and family to pursue ballet and make his family proud. Li got the chance to go over to America to discover the Western World of ballet. Through hard work, perseverance and dedication, Li was able to escape from his so-called destiny.
Most films captivate the audience’s interest through the main character. This film did just that. Through the main character Li Cunxin, I was able to notice the amount of hard work and dedication which lead Li to become a famous ballet dancer known worldwide. The film, based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin, “Mao’s Last Dancer” directed by Bruce Beresford is about a Chinese boy named Li Cunxin who’s born into a large family of 6 boys. At the age of eleven, Li got chosen from a poverty-stricken Chinese village by Madam Mao’s cultural representatives to leave his family and study ballet in Beijing. This film focussed on his eventual departure from China to U.S.A after being selected by a world leading choreographer, Ben Stevenson including the
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
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
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.
...how the Soviets they were successful. Motivated by this reasoning, Mao choose to do nothing about the famine, claiming that his plan could never go wrong, that the Chinese Communist way was the only correct way. The inflexible Mao and his policies caused a decline in Chinas morality, that is apart of the continued cycle for each generation of the Chinese people. Each time the Chinese go into a major famine, we can see the change in government, this decline in a dynasty, that we have seen repeat itself throughout Chinas history. With Mao's death and the rise of western ideals in China, we can see that China has moved away from its Maoist ideals and moved towards a western model of government. No matter how long it takes the Chinese, I don't think they will ever forget these events in this history, always encouraging the new generation for change of a corrupt system.
The spread of Communism and its ideals significantly increased during the final stages of the Chinese Civil War which intensified after the Second World War and resulted in a victory to the Communists in October 1949. At this time, the majority of the provinces in China were led by either the GMD or the CCP. However, the civilians in the GMD-ruled cities were suffering rapid inflation, strikes, violence and riots which led to a collapse of public order. Adding to this instability, corruption was rife within the Nationalist party’s leadership.... ... middle of paper ...
“Mao’s Last Dancer” is a book about the life of Li Cunxin. Li Cunxin was born into poverty in China under the rule of Mao Ze dung. The book was first published in 2003 and since then has won several awards including the book of the year award. Throughout the novel the composer chronologically cites the life of Li Cunxin and how he felt and where he belonged at certain points in his life.
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.
people on to the side of the CCP. The CCP’s victory was also down to