Cultural Revolution IRL, November 10, 2010

URL; http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/cultural_revolution.htm

According to this link, the Cultural Revolution, which lasted from 1966 to 1976, was Mao's attempt to reassert his authority and ideas in China where he was feeling competition from others and worried that he would lose his influence. A specific quote that shows this, is the following; "it was an attempt by Mao to re-impose his authority over the party and therefore the country."

This is significant to what we have been learning in class because much of what we have learned, particularly that of the famine and the fact that those that Mao appointed to helping fix the famine started to become more popular and influential, is context for the Cultural Revolution and puts it in perspective, at least from my viewpoint as a history student. Mao decided to reimpose his ideas at first by way of a speech given by Lin Piao that inspired Chinese youths to criticize the ideas of liberals in the Chinese Communist Party as well as those people whose ideas were influenced by Khrushchev from the USSR.

This goes along with what we learned in class, that there came to be a rejection of old ideas and customs and that Mao was trying to do away with these customs because they would lead people astray from the messages he wanted to convey and could potentially challenge his power. I find it remarkable (although not in a good way) that so many people could be turned against their own culture or that Mao himself would want to reject anything old given that he himself was old. It becomes clear to me the more I read, that Mao was simply power-hungry and did everything he could to maintain his control even though it resulted in extreme changes in China that have had a lasting impression today (customs, language etc.) and that he was able to manipulate others with his (irrational) ideas. The main limitation of this source is that it does not specifically outline the ways in which Mao went about the Cultural Revolution except for the influence he had over students and education, but it does not outline exactly what impact this had.