“During the Cultural Revolution Teacher Wu became a target and had to endure not only her own public denouncement and humiliation but those of her son, who was ‘sent down’ to the countryside for nearly a decade.”(pg. 20)
What is the Chinese Cultural Revolution and how did it affect the development of China?
According to the the History Channel, or history.com, the Chinese Cultural Revolution started in 1966 due to China’s communist leader at the time Mao Zedong. He did so to try and assert his authority over the Chinese government fearing that it was turning in the wrong directions. His cultural revolution worked until his death in 1976. He used the help of his wife and the defense minister to attack the leadership at the time. The revolution grew quickly. The nations schools were closed. The students formed military groups called the Red Guard. As we read in the this section the Red Guard reeked havoc on households and people who Mao believed had a superior educations. This was because he feared they were acquiring to much power at his expense. Mao wanted everyone to be united in working together no matter whether they were peasants, workers, or educated people. China's economy began to suffer as the Red Guards got out of hand and began to attack foreign embassies, as well as other troupes of Red Guards. The Cultural Revolution quickly became out of control. Eventually the army was sent in and the Red Guards were forced to end their destruction. The revolution ended with 1.5 million dead and millions of others were either imprisoned, socially humiliated, were victim to property seizure and much more. The revolution actually had the opposite impact on china than Mao had hoped for, the Chinese began to question their government and lose faith in it all together. Eventually a new leader was elected helping to bring order back to China.
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