In Liang Heng’s, Son of the Revolution, he notes the horrors of growing up in Maoist China. Liang grew up in a period known as “The Cultural Revolution,” a time of political and social turmoil in which purges were common and mob justice ran rampant. The goal of the cultural revolution was to purge any remnants of capitalism and establish communism throughout all aspects of Chinese society. These purges reached to the highest echelons of the Communist hierarchy without regard for their influence, such as in the case of Liu Shaoqi. Liang Heng no doubt felt the effects of the Cultural Revolution when he was forced to work in the countryside, a very typical punishment for families that needed re-education. However, Liang Heng experience was also …show more content…
Mao wanted to regain control over the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and enlisted the youth to help him. In doing so, he ignited a mini-Civil War between the youth of the nation as to which faction was the most “red” in order to qualify for the most revolutionary experiences. Most of these “Red Guards” threw away all traditional Chinese values, such as respect for elders and teachers, and went on a feverous rampage, accusing and beating those they deemed “rightist,” The people were criticizing an old monk, and I was very curious because I had never seen a monk before… “I have tricked the people, I should be punished,” and “Buddhism is a lie, only Marxism-Leninism-Chairman Mao thought is the truth.” ” However, Liang Heng was always a bystander in these altercations. He was not the traditional Chinese teenager during the Cultural Revolution due to his father’s circumstances. He was rejected by the revolutionary youth and felt no need to criticize those that went against the party. During his time in the countryside, Liang Heng saw first hand the punishment inflicted by the hooligans; however, he never seemed to join in on the cruelty of the Red Guards. Later on in his times as a city dweller, Liang Heng was recognized …show more content…
Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in an attempt to purge all aspects of capitalism that still remained in Chinese society. To do this, Mao enlisted the aid of the youth of China and encouraged them to abandon school and embark on revolutionary journeys across the nation. Liang Heng was no exception to this expectation – he was forced to go on a two day journey to the countryside in which he engaged in hard labor. However, the countryside was not prepared for an overwhelming mass of hooligans and the CCP was forced to evacuate them. During the Cultural Revolution, purging capitalism meant forcing the accused “rightists” and their families to engage in hard labor in order to re-educate themselves. Liang Heng was part of one of the millions of families that were sentenced to re-education in the countryside. The sheer amount of people that were forced to the countryside put an unnecessary burden on the already emaciated farmers of rural China. It was extremely common for a child to suffer due to their family’s mistakes and Liang Heng was very typical in this
Liang's main interests consist of movies, stories, tap-dancing, and imitating Shirley Temple. Wong-Suk buys her expensive, beautiful ribbon one day for her second hand tap shoes and Poh-Poh helps her tie them into fancy flowers. -- This is where we learn a bunch about Poh-Poh's childhood. She was born in China and so it was already too bad that she had be born a girl child. But further more she was sort of disfigured. Her forehead was sloppy and mis-shapen and immediately everyone told her mother she was the ugliest baby ever. Her mother sold her to a wealthy family; where she was a servant. The concubine would beat her and their other servants with a rod-- as if they were oxen. Poh-Poh had to learn to do things quickly and flawlessly or she would be beaten. Her fingers would bleed because she was practicing tying these intricet(abc?) patterns. She of course grew out of her 'deformity' and was quite a pretty lady.
The main problem for the Liang family was that they had been scattered. Father and Mother divorced, Liang off at college, and the two girls (although they later lived near Liang Shan) were off for a long time in the country. This separation made hard times even harder.
The Cultural Revolution in China was led by Mao Zedong, due to this Liang and many others faced overwhelming obstacles in many aspects of their life such as work, family and everyday encounters, if affected everyone’s families life and education, Liang lets us experience his everyday struggles during this era, where the government determined almost every aspect of life.
Shi Huangdi now able to unite the warring states, explored ways to establish a stable, and long lasting dynasty. The improvements he made to a now unified China, changed they way the world looked upon the country.
Rae Yang’s Memoir “Spider Eaters” is a poignant personal story of a girl growing up amidst the political upheaval during the establishment of People’s Republic of China under Mao Zedong’s Communist leadership. Yang describes the fascinating journey of her life from her early years as the daughter of Chinese diplomats in Switzerland to a student in an elite middle school then a fanatic Red-guard and eventually a laborer in a pig farm. Her experiences through the revolution serve as an eye-opener and lead to her eventual disillusionment of the Communist revolution in China. There are many factors that contributed to her growing discontent with communism such as the anti-rightist movement which was an effort to rule out any criticism against the government, corruption and violence of the party leaders who abused their power and continued to exploit the peasants, the false claim of proletariat dictatorship used merely to eradicate bourgeoisie and further the interests of party members.
While in school, the young kids would rehearse the Young Pioneer anthem that went, in part, as follows, “We are Young Pioneers, successors to Communism. Our red scarves flutter on our chests” (Jiang, 3). Mao began his reign teaching those that were of the working class that they were not being treated fairly and that he would work with them to better incorporate Communism into the country. Those that had owned property or had been wealthy were looked at in a negative light, namely that of the bourgeoisie. In order for Moa to accomplish his goal of doing away with the bourgeoisie, he and his team would work to destroy the Four Olds, “Old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits” (Jiang, 277). By making this decision, Mao simply reversed the roles of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat so that those who were of the higher class would become the proletariat and those of the lower class would become the
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...
Qian begins the account of Li Si by describing his rise from the minor position of clerk to his eventual high rank. Qian makes note of the strengths that Li displays to put himself in such a position. Qian even quotes Li as saying that a man's status "simply depends on where one locates oneself." (Qian 25) Li Si's initial step up in society took place on his interest in others' welfare as opposed to his own. This is a virtue which Confucius summed up by saying, "he who acts out of self interest arouses much resentment." (Confucius 16) When serving under the King of Qin, Li Si looked to the betterment of China as a whole. He saw that a unified China would be a stronger China and therefore chose to support the King of Qin, who he felt had "one opportunity in 10,000 generations." (Qian 26) Through his support of who he thought was the best man to lead China, Li portrayed another Confucian virtue; "'What should I do to win the hearts of the people?
Chinese Revolution is about making the entire country into Communists and killing each and one the people who hates Mao Tse-Tung. Mao Tse-Tung is the leader of China at this time who believes in equality and everyone should have the same rights. The Red Guards is a military group in which includes a group of children that eliminates the Chinese population due to hatred for Mao. If any of these events happen to our generation, most youth are smart enough to know that Mao is a bad leader and killing innocent people by the case of bitterness for Mao is wrong. The Chinese youth got swept up in the Cultural Revolution by Mao because the youth were easy to persuade into doing something. To expand this idea further, the Chinese youth weren’t old enough, not on this specific age, to realize whether Mao’s actions were virtuous or inaccurate. On the other hand, they thought that working for Mao and joining the Red Guards will help their country out, but they never knew the truth behind Mao’s plans. The truth about the Cultural Revolution was to kill anybody that gets in the way of Mao’s plans and destroying all the old buildings so that it would be replaced with new buildings or reconstruct the old buildings to become brand new again. In addition, the Chinese youth had no idea that joining the Red Guards will give a highly chance of getting killed. In other words, the adults were smarter than the youth because joining the Red Guards means the opposite of helping the country out. Mao just made them think that joining will help their country, even though it was the other way around like someone apologizing to their neighbor in which manipulating their minds that they’re now cool, but they were still rude to them afterwards. To repeat this, t...
While providing vivid background information, the narrator explains that he “had not enjoyed the privilege of studying at an institution for advanced education. When we were sent off to the mountains as young intellectuals we had only the statutory three years of lower middle school (7)”. During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the Communist Party and People’s Republic of China created “re-educated camps”, which were ‘prisons’ where civilians with jobs (mostly teachers, doctors, and writers) were forced into other labor—their views were seen as “counter-revolutionary” and denounced by members of the Red Guard, a group supporting the People’s Republic of China (“China’s Re-Education Camps”). The camps decreased China’s literacy rate substantially, as people lost access to education and freedom of speech and thought. In addition, the narrator encounters his friend’s mother and describes his discovery of Western books.
The Jiang family are not the only people affected by the Cultural Revolution, Ji Li’s best friend An Yi suffered some serious consequences. An Yi had been living with her
...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.
Moreover, it questions the definition of followers of Tong to bestow individualism by thinking differently than the Maoism movement hindering democracy an essential part to valuing everyone
When Mao was young, his relationship with his father was rough, observers think this relationship had to do with Mao’s life “as a rebel and iconoclast” (Klein 272). In addition, Mao was also seen as a “natural rebel” since young. As he grew older, he became a soldier in the Chinese Revolution in 1911. After Mao graduated from school and went to college, he became a teacher and this stage