Mao---the one whose mistakes, shot contributions down
After the validation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Mao Zedong as the Chairman of PRC and the Communist Party held most political power in China. By using his tremendous influence in China, Mao conducted a series of nationwide movements in order to rapidly reform China’s politics, economy and culture. However, instead of leading China to a more hopeful future, Mao pushed China into a period of darkness. Many historical evidences showed that Mao had brought more pain than happiness to Chinese people. No matter how many great things Mao did in his earlier years, the mistakes that Mao made in the 100 Flower Campaign, the Great Leap Forward, ad the Cultural Revolution, can neither
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The Great Leap Forward started in 1956 was another great example to interpret Mao’s irritable personality. After the 100 Flower Campaign, the Great Leap Forward was launched to accelerate the industrialization in China. Without much assistance from economic experts because of the “rightist” curse, Mao again conducted another national farce: all Chinese peasant men were inspired by Mao to make steels day and night, even in their backyards; and women were responsible for the field works. (481) Even though some bridges, railways, and power stations were built throughout the country during the Great Leap Forward, the qualities of many steels were too low to use for industrialization, and the movement caused countless waste without the specific instructions from specialists. (481). In the article “Two perspective on Mao Zedong”, Jiang Yihua describes Mao as a political leader whose “understanding of modern industrial civilization was not as deep as his understanding of agricultural civilization.” I agree with the part of this statement. The failure of the Great Leap Forward was not only because of Mao’s limited knowledge about industrialization, but also because of Mao’s selfish thought. If Mao was a dependable leader who really cares about China’s industrial development and care less about his personal reputation or achievement, he would have given much more …show more content…
Mao never gives up to seize power even he was around seventy years old. (484) During the first phase of the Culture Revolution, Mao encouraged Chinese youths to join “Red Guard” activities, and caused the closure of many Universities and schools. Like many innocent people who were punished during the 100 Flower Campaign, many victims were “forced to stand with their head down and their arms raised behind them in the ‘airplane’ position and to listen to former friends and colleagues jeer at and curse them” (484) Liu Shaoqi, another Communist leader who promoted the idea of revising China, was labeled “chief capitalist roader” and seized by Red Guard in1967. (484) Mao removed foreign things from the stores in the second phase of the Culture Revolution from 1968-1976 to reduce the effect from foreign countries on Chinese people. (487) If Mao loves his people, he won’t let the Red Guards mistreat and beat many people to death. If Mao was not egoistic, he won’t ruthless hurt his Party fellows.
Mao could have done better for the country. Mao’s contributions to China were significant, yet his mistakes could also shoot down many of his contributions. Mao in his late years already lost his ability to rationally manage the country. It’s sad to admit that Mao’s spoil for dominating the country eternally kept him away from loving his people
After Chairman Mao’s death, Ji-Li and the rest of China realize that he was never the right leader for China and instead of improving China’s society, he actually prevented it. In the end, Ji-Li knows she was brainwashed by Mao’s actions. The Communist Party told them what to wear, read, think, and how to act. They never let China be free to be who they are. It was not until Mao's death that Ji-li began questioning what they were told. “It was only after Mao’s death in 1976 that people woke up. We finally learned that the whole Cultural Revolution had been part of a power struggle at the highest levels of the Party. Our leader had taken advantage of our trust and loyalty to manipulate the whole country.” (Jiang, Chapter 18). Now, as an adult, Ji-li tries to bridge the gap between China and America. She loves the freedom she enjoys in America, especially that she does not have to worry about what she says or thinks, but she does not hate China. People can not use political corruption and injustice to get what they want out of society. Promoting equality and opportunities for all is key to improving society. We can not get behind beating people up or imprisoning them because they did not abide by society’s
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
This essay will concentrate on the comparison and analysis of two communist figures: Mao Zedong, leader of the Communist Party in China, and Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union. The main focus of this paper will be to explore each figure’s world view in depth and then compare and contrast by showing their differences and similarities. Joseph Stalin was a realist dictator of the early 20th century in Russia. Before he rose to power and became the leader of the Soviet Union, he joined the Bolsheviks and was part of many illegal activities that got him convicted and he was sent to Siberia (Wood, 5, 10). In the late 1920s, Stalin was determined to take over the Soviet Union (Wiener & Arnold, 1999).
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.
Ever since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the legitimacy of the revolution of which it was built upon has perennially been in question. For example, in a 1999 issue of the International Herald Tribune, a prestigious scholar claimed that all of China’s tragedies are ‘sustained by a mistaken belief in the correctness of the 1949 revolution’ and that the future progress of China depends on the recognition that the revolution was a failure. However, the CCP government was certainly not perfect and its most significant failures were its political failures such as the Anti-rightist movement and the Cultural Revolution and also economic failures such as the great leap forward. Millions of peoples were 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.
Mao Zedong was a very influential man in history. He forever changed the face of Chinese politics and life as a whole. His communist views and efforts to modernize China still resonate in the country today. Jonathan Spence’s book titled Mao Zedong is a biography of the great Chinese leader. Spence aims to show how Mao evolved from a poor child in a small rural village, to the leader of a communist nation. The biography is an amazing story of a person’s self determination and the predictability of human nature. The book depicts how a persuasive voice can shape the minds of millions and of people. It also shows the power and strength that a movement in history can make. This biography tells an important part of world history-the communist takeover of China.
Mohandas Gandhi and Mao Zedong were two great leaders who succeeded in many ways by their actions and decisions. Gandhi was an Indian leader and Mao a Chinese leader. However, their approach to success, peace, and ultimately, a revolution, was very different. Mao favored peace through violence, and Gandhi favored peace through non-cooperation and standing up for what is right. He also believed that these changes will be accomplished by “conscious suffering”, was the way he put it. However, despite their differences, these two leaders were similar too. They were both very charismatic leaders who successfully made it through their revolutions. Mao’s revolution led to change in class structure while Gandhi’s revolution involved India as a country, and he wanted people to realize that working together is a great way to gain independence. While Mao and Gandhi both believed that each of their countries have the need of independence, their views differed when it came to the use of violence, development towards the revolution, and their thoughts on a caste system.
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.
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
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.
Jung Chang, who wrote Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China was the first of her 3 generations to be raised under the Communist regime. Her parents worked for the Communist party and throughout her childhood she had to follow a set of rules that forced her respect orders under Mao’s rule. Like most Chinese people, she indeed followed Mao’s words and perspective, but in the end she knew that it was Mao that was responsible for China’s suffering. Her views are very biased because she hated Communists, and primarily wrote about the bad that Communism brought to China. She watched her family suffer for years, hating the Communist regime.
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 lead...
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 rebellion Mao claims to have manifested might have distanced Mao physically from his family but, traditional Chinese values were deeply ingrained, shaping his political and personal persona. His father's harshness with dealing with opposition, his cunning, his demand for reverence from subordinates, and his ambition were to be seen in how Mao demanded harmony, order, and reverence as a ruthless dictator. Yet, Mao, was also the kindly father figure for the people of China, as manifested in characteristic qualities of Mao's mother: kindness, benevolence, and patriarchal indulgence.
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?