Han Dongping's account of accomplishments during China's Cultural Revolution

Unknown Cultural Revolution

In most of the literature, China's Cultural Revolution gets a bad rap. It is considered a time of social turmoil that eventually led to an economic disaster for the country. There are accounts of intellectuals being persecuted as well as violence in many communities. However, the author, Dongping Han, gives a different account of this period. In many cases, history is written by the winners. Therefore, the capitalistic model that eventually won the debate undoubtedly discredited the communist roots of the Cultural Revolution. In this sense, Han points out many of the accomplishments that China was able to produce during this period. As a product of the Cultural Revolution himself, Han is able to give many personal stories of the movement's success.

The fact that Han has actually lived through this experience gives his stories a great deal of credibility. He speaks of the period favorably and gives lots of personal accounts of how the Cultural Revolution not only affected him personally, but also his family and the local community. His family believed strongly in Communism and his father was very loyal to the factory he worked for. Under this type of social organization, many of the workers felt a sense of ownership for the factories. His father for example, would go work at the factory even during times of holiday because he would be worried about the production levels or some other factor. He did such things not because he got paid any extra, just because he felt a sense of loyalty to the factory and its management. This type of sentiment was common in the movement and although it is mostly viewed as negative, the rural communities were empowered in many ways.

Background

The Cultural Revolution was the greatest revolutions that took place in the last hundred years and it took place from 1966 to 1976. Mao Zedong was the communist leader of the Cultural Revolution. His objective in promoting the Cultural Revolution was to form a more affective bureaucracy and make the country more egalitarian. During the Cultural Revolution the "Red Guards" fought against the democratic ideal that was promoted. The guards attacked a concept that was called the "4 olds." The "4 olds" were old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits.

Many of the supporters of the Cultural Revolution would fight against any Western influences. Shopkeepers wouldn't sell Western clothes and people would not wear Western style haircuts. Some people would burn books that offer perspectives that were against the views of communism that Mao Zedong promoted. The workers and the common people were the focus of the revolution. Traditional things that were reserved for the upper-class were shunned by the majority of society. Things like using cabs, private cars, and trains were looked down upon because it symbolized a life of upper class citizens.

The Red Guard groups popped up all around the country. The movement spread into the military, urban workers, and the Communist Party leadership itself. It resulted in widespread factional struggles in all walks of life. Many of these groups took matters into their own hands despite the actual beliefs of Mao. There were many personality cults that grew to powerful sizes. Many of these groups committed horrendous acts and as a result the Cultural Revolution has been treated officially as a negative phenomenon point in history since the end of the movement.

Conclusion

This book provides an eye opening account of a different perspective in a significant cultural event. Although most of the literature that studies this period considers it to be a negative period in history, that perspective does not tell the whole story. Though Han is obviously biased by his beliefs, he also supports his beliefs with many personal stories that provide many insights to how this movement affects rural communities. Although Han undoubtedly had a positive experience during this period, it is also likely that many other communities did not have the same experience. It would be interesting to continue studying this perspective on a broader and more comprehensive basis. Despite his potential bias, I believe Han makes a very good case for how the Cultural Revolution may not of been as bad as most of the history books like to tell the story. History is often written by the winners, and historians that write about the period from a capitalist perspective are highly likely to be biased themselves.