CHINA & THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION

Following an era of hereditary dynasties exhibiting increasingly weak leadership over China, the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 overthrew the Qing Dynasty and established the People's Republic of China. This shift in leadership had the intended effect of returning political power to citizens; but ultimately succumbed to insufficient leadership at the hands of warlords who gained power during the uprising. Soon after in 1919, student protesters headed the May Fourth Movement in response to the government’s weak response to division of land after the Paris Peace Conference and Treaty of Versailles which ended up allocating land to Japan instead of China after World War I. Leading up to the May Fourth Movement, Chinese radicals abandoned Western liberalism for Marxism and Leninism in a political and cultural shift which led to the formation of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921. Around this time, Mao Zedong rose in the ranks of the CCP and began to take notice of the peasant uprisings in Shaoshan, acknowledging potential within the people to rise up against their government. The Chinese Civil War broke out after the Autumn Harvest Uprising in 1927 and lasted until 1950, during which time Mao Zedong founded the Chinese Workers & Peasants Red Army and continued to rise ranks and gain power.
As the chairman of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 Mao enforced a policy of collectivism and social and technical transformation. He made attempts to win over the elite population, and launched the Hundred Flowers Campaign in which citizens were encouraged to voice their opinions on the leadership. When Mao realized the threat posed to his power he turned on the people who contributed their thoughts, sending them off to work on the countryside if they did not appear communist enough. It was shortly after that Mao began the Great Leap Forward in 1958. This initiative sought to take the Chinese society from agrarian to socialist, but was widely regarded as a failure which was succeeded by a famine credited with the deaths of 20 to 45 million people.
Marginalized by his party and hated by his people, Mao Zedong felt his power was threatened once again which led to the Cultural Revolution which lasted from 1966 until Mao’s death in 1976. The Cultural Revolution targeted intellectuals, and specifically anyone exhibiting behavior or creating work which was deemed impure to traditional Chinese values. Citizens were tortured, imprisoned, sent to reeducation camps, or killed. Even writing in secret was a risk that could cost one’s life and much creative work during this time was destroyed to prevent discovery. An estimated 1.5 million people were killed during the Cultural Revolution, millions suffered humiliation and ridicule, and the Chinese population lost faith in their government altogether.