The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. 50 years ago the Chinese youth went absolutely insane. But what was it all about, in the end?
Was it just a way for Mao to purge his political enemies inside the Communist Party. Was it actually a popular movement that got out of control.
How does the people of China see the whole thing? I'd guess that, no matter how much the government condemns it, most people probably miss their days of carefree roaming around the countryside doing revolution, subjecting teachers and other figures of authority to "struggle sessions", joining Red Guard groups with your friends.
It seemed to be a great time to be alive. It's basically what everyone in the whole countercultural movement across the Western world wanted during the 1960s, but only the Chinese got it.
>>1117617
Why would the Chinese willingly kill their own culture?
>>1117651
because it was a shit culture
>>1117653
Bullshit, the culture was fine. The fact that they willingly killed it is disgraceful. At least the women are cute, most of the time, on the occasion.
>>1117651
Virtue signalling. If you weren't destroying the "Four Olds", you were a reactionary capitalist-roading fascist, and you didn't want to be seen as a reactionary capitalist-roading fascist at the height of the Cultural Revolution.
The same logic made the people worship mangoes because Mao had touched them. I mean, if you love the Chairman Mao but you don't worship mangoes that he touched, it means you don't love Chairman Mao as much as the one who worship mangoes that he touched loves, and he can bring that against you during a struggle session or self-criticism.
Yep, the whole thing was that crazy.
>Was it just a way for Mao to purge his political enemies inside the Communist Party. Was it actually a popular movement that got out of control.
The narrative I've heard the most is that Mao believed he was losing power and needed to do something, so he started making random statements on radio and the young people kind of overreacted and formed a crazy class of fanatics. Which he kind of knew would happen, but he didn't know how much it would happen. These youth movements gave him political inertia to get rid of undesirables.
>How does the people of China see the whole thing?
It depends on who you ask. Many Chinese won't talk about it, but those who do are typically apologists. No one would go on record and say that the Cultural Revolution was the best thing since pork dumplings, but some will say varying degrees of "it wasn't that bad."
>>1117617
>that garbage anatomy
>>1117671
Another thing to remember is that 'their' culture was highly stratified. Most of the peasants were locked out of it, and had been for centuries.
>Great
>Proletarian
>Cultural
>Revolution
>>1117617
i'd let her seize my means of production anytime
yugoslavia>USSR>albania>maoist china>north korea
>>1117919
DDR>yugoslavia>USSR>albania>maoist china>north korea
ftfy
>>1117791
>Many Chinese won't talk about it, but those who do are typically apologists
i bet you are right but some people are not apologists, like , the popular chinese novel 3 body problem opens with a heart wrenching tale of cruelty during that time. i remember the english translator said on reddit that it's not taboo to criticize the savagery that went down back then.
>>1117937
>DDR
what you mean the soviet union's bitch ?
stay mad revisionist
>>1117957
Well at least there weren't any Serbs in East Germany.
>>1117617
It was about Mao doing a purge using the bottom up method rather than Stalin's top down approach. His cult of personality was about to crumble and he needed a boost. Almost everyone in China hated it; the party itself has nothing good to say about it. However a lot of people who participated did it not out of any political zeal but because they could finally be a sanctioned (not by the state mind you, but by Mao) to be a thug and get away with it.
I would argue against that people avoid talking about it, in fact many do. This is also the reason why the party has so much support now - the people are sick and tired of mob rule and oligarchy and hardcore economic growth is a welcome change.
>>1117617
Material conditions
But yeah, it was retarded, and I'm Chinese-American, and this is why I don't like the PRC. The gommies, the famines, that stuff I could forgive. Ruining culture, fucking Mao.
>>1117937
>DDR
Dance Dance Revolution is the best Revolution
>>1118899
>Whites on /pol: Chinese culture is shit and deserve to be destroyed, white and jap culture much superior. Gommunism dindu nuffin
>Hong Kong and Taiwan cucks: communism destroyed Chinese culture we wuz emperors n sheit
Which is it /his
>>1117617
>Was it just a way for Mao to purge his political enemies inside the Communist Party.
Indirectly. Mao wanted to get the power back, wether it is because he truly wanted to make things better for the people or because he was simply power crazy is a a question historians are still fighting about.
>Was it actually a popular movement that got out of control.
In the end, that's what happened. Mao encouraged the Red Guard to act as they'd see fit, but they grew crazy. Some were true communist extremist, others just liked the violence but most just ended up being fooled and many ex guards are today's most virulent advocate for a better transparency about the numbers of the victims.
If you watch Game of Thrones, you could say Cercei is like Mao and the septon and his religious nuts are the red guards.
>How does the people of China see the whole thing?
That's a complicated question. Many suffered from it and not only the so called intellectuals. There's a whole litterature movement called the litterature of scars, it is made of people who were sent to the countryside and lost their youth scrapping dirt.
What you described really just concerned a minority.
>It seemed to be a great time to be alive.
Fuck no. The country's GDP shrunk by 40%, the cultural production went to the ground (no movies were produced between 76 and 78, only 2 in 79, many books were prohibited ...)all universities were closed and not to mention everybody was pissed poor and scared to death about the guards crashing your place and bashing your face in.
>>1117617
>why dont people talk about it?
Hundred flowers campaign
Yes, China used to have neato culture. In modern times, everything up to the revolution is fair game for TV now because China wants to restore some national pride.
>>1118614
Except it didn't 'ruin culture'. Mao's an absolute idiot for thinking that you could root out culture that easily. Chinese culture is still what it was for thousands of years, just ever slightly different now that it can't assert the archetypal narcissistic self-image of being 'heaven on earth' as America is a greater economic powerhouse, but Confucianism and Han Chauvinism is very much present. Both of them made a pretty large resurgence slowly after Mao's death and the ideological void left by that.
>>1118925
People from Hong Kong and Taiwan are absolutely fucking insufferable in the way they're condescending and think they are somehow proprietors of Chinese culture when they've just been WHITED to a painfully pensive and self-hating extent
>>1119025
The Hundred flowers happened before the Cultural Revolution, I don't see what your point is.
