Chinese History the Cultural Revolution

¶ … Chinese History

The Cultural Revolution experienced by the Chinese state during the era of Mao Zedong was an important moment in the history of the state especially from the point-of-view of the changes this era sought in the Chinese society.

The Cultural Revolution however was a crucial step in the way in which the state transformed along the communist lines and the way it evolved up to the status of the late 1980s when the Tiananmen Square events took place. The phenomenon of the Cultural Revolution had as main purpose to shift the focus from a bourgeois and intellectual way of thinking to that based on the common thinking of the masses. The spirit of the communist ideology focused on the power of the masses; however, the educated population was seen by the communist party to represent a potential threat to the cadres of the Communist rule and therefore a need for isolation and "re-education" was essential in the approach of the Communist Party. This is in effect the basis for the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.

The Cultural Revolution had serious consequences for the Chinese population but mostly these consequences were associated with those of the Communist rule itself during the Mao regime. These changes implied important acts of violence largely because the regime had to ensure the total and complete control over the Chinese population. The fact that China is a very populous country, control could not have been exercised without strict measures to be taken in the provinces and in the large cities of the country. Also, the Communist Party experienced strong opposition from the high class that was in place before and after the Second World War and therefore the Party had to ensure that such subversive forces would be defeated. Therefore, action had to be taken to enable the Communist concepts to be adopted at all the levels of the society and in all walks of life.

The Cultural Revolution represented a step taken to ensure a strict control over the potential modernization of the state after the 1960s onward. It was a new means of defining a control over the cultural aspects of the society. Mao had envisaged a cultural background that would rise from the middle class, the social level on which the Communist Party based its electoral and strength. Given the tight control exercised by the communist party through all its regional, local, and national mechanisms, a new sense of fear and submission affected the society. This however represented a traditional means through which all communist parties ensured their control over the population. Through different institutions at the disposal of the state, the population was soon "re-educated." This in turn determined an annihilation of any potential dissidents or opposition that would at one point challenge the rule of the Communist party.

After severe limitations and terror moments, the population was entrenched in a different mentality that had been inoculated by the Communist party. This is one of the reasons for which family members often went against one another. As Chinese writer Jung Chang points out in one of her books, "Wild Swans" when discussing the issue of the death of Mao, "People had been acting for so long they confused it with their true feelings. I wondered how many of the tears were genuine" (Chang, )