Why did the Chinese youth want to destroy China's traditional culture during the Cultural Revolution?
Didn't they like the ethos of filial piety, obedience to authority, fraternity, male superiority, male philopatry and agnatic solidarity that is at the heart of Chinese culture?
I think all of that is very beautiful.
>>1361353
Communism is a project to persecute any other faith and philosophy, so temple smashing was going to happen just as church demolitions happened in Russia.
Mao and his thugs were interested in Legalism:
http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/China/Mao%20on%20Shang%20Yang.htm
People had to prove to others how much they loved Mao, otherwise they could be called reactionaries.
Given that the cultural revolution was first and foremost an attempt by Mao to consolidate and shore up power, i don't think was any coordinated intention to destroy traditional culture like that. Rather, Mao encouraged and incited student movements to remove supposed bourgeois values that were still subverting the communist party, in any way they deemed fit. Traditional culture just happened to be collateral damage in Mao's play to retain ultimate control of the communist party.
If you're asking what were the student's individual motivations, your guess is as good as mine. Probably revolutionary fervor, a loss of faith in traditional culture (which given the way the Chinese were treated by the British and other Western forces, was understandable), and the feeling of emancipation from talking smack about your elders (which obviously they weren't allowed to previously).
>>1361353
considering the qin and the song dynasty somebody like mao coming into power isn't all that strange
>>1361353
I guess the Chinese saw it as decadence and a big reason for their failure in the modern age.
Serious question, how much is there that we don't know about the Cultural Revolution? Everything seems to be shrouded in mystery, from the number of people dead (I've read anywhere from a couple thousand to one percent of the population) to what people who lived through it really thought. I realize the CCP carefully guards its historiography and that they say the event was an example of Mao's excesses, but not sure if we'll ever get more information (like state archives or something).
mao gave them free reign to express their teenage rebellious and edgy nature
Because ancient Chinese culture sucks as John Stuart Mill rightly pointed out.
No one wants to act like a giant square all day, every day for their entire lives.
>>1361353
When will this fucking meme end? A small broken domestic policy doesn't kill thousands of years of culture
Chinese people still celebrate their new year and the respective festivities to be taken during each day
The Confucian family unit of trickle up support still strongly exists, although it is being curtailed in its functionality by the two child policy. Chinese leaders since Map except Deng have all operated the same way old 'mandarin' officials did - tacitly, backhandedly, and putting on a genial public face. Traditional painting, dance, acting and the like are all taught and comprise billion dollar industries
The concept of 'Zhonghua' still exists in that unlike most developing countries, the Chinese largely believe their own inherent superiority and their divine designation
>>1361353
The generation of the Cultural Revolution was basically the same worthless spoiled cunts in France who caused the '68 revolution and the counter-culture hippies in the USA.
One good thing about the Cultural Revolution was that the young intellectual city-dwelling fuckers who drove it got sent out to the countryside where they had their backs broken and the women raped by peasants. Served them right.
>>1361353
If you study the Cultural Revolution and current Chinese society in depth, you'll find that the Cultural Revolution did not destroy 4000 years of Chinese culture.
But they did leave a large scar on Chinese society.
>>1361353
>filial piety, obedience to authority, fraternity, male superiority, male philopatry and agnatic solidarity
Sounds comfy as fuck t.bh
