Cultural Revolution in China

Effects of the Cultural Revolution on China’s education system
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Effect of the Cultural Revolution on China’s education system
Introduction
Cultural Revolution of China was typified by mass mobilization of young Chinese citizens. It was launched by Mao Zedong as he strived to stop the development of a bureaucratized Communism similar to the one in the Soviet Union. He closed educational institutions and urged pupils to join Red Guard groups, which tortured and denunciated intellectuals and educators; facilitated extensive relocations; put in force Zedong’s cult of personality; and engaged in far-reaching burnings of books (Ge, 2015). This research paper delves into the subject of Cultural Revolution in China and seeks to gain an understanding of the impacts of the Cultural Revolution on China. Specifically, this research paper is focused on how this revolution affected students and educational institutions in China. The research question is: What was the effect of the Cultural Revolution on China’s education system?
Overview of the Cultural Revolution of China
The Cultural Revolution was basically a mayhem that Mao Zedong launched in his final 10 years in power from the year 1966 to the year 1976 for the purpose of renewing the spirit of the Chinese Revolution. Mao Zedong feared that his country would develop and become like the Soviet Union, and was disturbed and apprehensive about his own place in history (Lynn, 2014). He therefore threw the cities of China into chaos and mayhem in a colossal effort to reverse the historical processes in progress. In essence, the Communist leader of China, Mao Zedong, instigated what came to be referred to as the Cultural Revolution so that he can reassert his authority over the Government of China (Zhu, 2014). Mao believed that the then Communist leaders in China were taking the country as well as the Communist Party itself in the wrong direction. Therefore, he called on Chinese youth to remove or cleanse the tainted elements of the Chinese society and revitalize the spirit of revolution which had led to victory during the civil war 200 years before and the formation of the Chinese nation (Aihe, 2014). It is worth mentioning that the Cultural Revolution went on in different stages until the year 1976 when Mao Zedong died, and its brutal and tormented legacy would continue resonating in the society and politics of China for several decades to come. The Cultural Revolution can as well be described as the point in time when Red Guards – young Chinese citizens – fought against the democratic society. A lot of rewards and much respect were given to the Red Guards. As such, Mao Zedong was able to gather scores of student volunteers (MacFarquhar & Schoenhals, 2009).
School and college students were advised to go back to the fundamental ideology and values of the revolutionary movement. In addition, the youth of China were encouraged to criticize the liberals in the Communist Party of China as well as those that were influenced by the Soviet Union leader Nikita Khruschev. Universities, schools, and colleges were seen as being very academic, and thus, very exclusive and limited (Yiching, 2014). Mao Zedong maintained that China’s progress since the year 1949 had resulted in a privileged class developing, which included professionals such as factory managers, scientists, engineers among others. Moreover, he claimed that these individuals were obtaining a lot of power at his expense. He was worried that a new class of Chinese people was beginning to emerge which knew nothing about the way of life of the typical Chinese citizen (Wu, 2012). Red Guards –groupings of young people who ganged themselves together – encouraged young people in the country to criticize the people who Zedong considered as being untrustworthy regarding the direction that he wanted the country to take. Nobody was safe from Mao’s disparagement: economists, writers, and people who associated themselves with Liu Shao-chi, Mao Zedong’s chief rival were all criticized (Yiching, 2014).
Mao Zedong intentionally embarked on establishing a cult for himself and to purge the Communist Party of anybody that did not support him totally. The selling point of Mao Zedong was a desire to form a nation with educated persons, workers, and peasants all working together; nobody was better than other people and every person working for the good of the country – a society that was classless (Yunchao, 2014). Nonetheless, the Red Guard’s enthusiasm almost pushed the country into social mayhem and chaos. Colleges and schools were closed and the country’s economy began suffering. Factions of Red Guards clashed with other factions of Red Guards given that each faction of the Red Guard thought that it knew best how the nation has to move forward. There were areas in which the Red Guard factions got unruly and wild, turning their fury on foreigners and attacking foreign embassies. They set on fire the British Embassy (Yunchao, 2014).
Impact of the Cultural Revolution
The revolution brought about economic disruption as industrial production declined by 12 percent from the year 1966 to the year 1968 (Su, 2011). The Cultural Revolution, as Su (2011) pointed out, encouraged the Red Army to challenge the viewpoints of people to make sure that the people of China were true Maoists who believed in Mao’s ideology. This was mostly done in aggressive and brutal ways considering that various factions wanted to make themselves appear as the right representatives of the vision that Mao Zedong exemplify. As a result, scores of people were both physically abused and verbally challenged. The physical abuse resulted in many deaths (Schoenhals, 2015). The short-term effects of the Cultural Revolution might have been felt mostly in Chinese cities. Its long-term effects, however, would impact the whole of China for decades to come. Mao Zedong’s sweeping attack on the Community Party and the system he had created in the end produced an outcome that he did not intend, which led many Chinese people to lose faith in the Chinese government in general (Schoenhals, 2015).
During the Cultural Revolution’s initial phases, there were far-reaching changes in the leadership of the Communist Party. Yiching (2014) noted that throughout Communist Party, together with the Politburo, party representatives who did not support the vision of Mao Zedong were taken out and those who were more in line with his vision replaced them. The use of armed forces to support the launch of this revolution in China increased tensions between leaders of Chinese military. Rather than uniting the people of China behind a vision, it resulted in turmoil and conflict in several regions across China. In essence, these divisions, as Wu (2012) reported, went right up to the top officials of the Government and the Military. After the initial alters to the politburo, Lin Biao, who was Mao’s newly named successor, started to make moves to affirm his position and authority. Lin Biao’s moves made Mao Zedong to be suspicious and distrustful of an individual who seemed to seek power prior to his time (Wu, 2012). A struggle for power arose within the Politburo that actually led to the killing of Lin Biao as he tried to run away to the Soviet Union after a failed assassination attempt on Mao Zedong’s life. After this, the leadership of the military was removed.
Moreover, the Cultural Revolution included a Cult of Personality that revered and adored Mao Zedong. This had an extensive and wide-ranging impact on cities and towns across China with developments being launched that actually idolized him (Yiching, 2014). This cost a substantial amount of money and redirected money from Industrial development, bringing about a decline in the country’s industrial output. Even though the Cultural Revolution of China for the most part bypassed most of the people who resided in the countryside, it had very significant outcomes for the Chinese system in general. Over the short-term, the zigzags in economic policy and the political instability resulted in slower economic growth of China as well as a decline in the government’s ability to deliver services and goods (Zhu, 2014). Officials at every level of the Chinese political system understood that future policy changes would put at risk those people who had insistently executed earlier policy. The consequence was bureaucratic timidity. Additionally, with Mao’s death and the conclusion of the Cultural Revolution, about 3 million members of the Chinese Communist Party in addition to other citizens awaited to be reinstated after they had been purged wrongfully (Aihe, 2014).
There was an increase in corruption within the Chinese government and the Communist Party itself considering that the fear as well as the associated scarcities had in fact compelled individuals to turn to personal relationships and on extortion for them to get things done (MacFarquhar & Schoenhals, 2009). Moreover, the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party as well as the system itself experienced a loss of legitimacy and authority when millions of people in towns and cities in China became disappointed by the apparent power plays which occurred for the sake of political principle during the early ‘70s and mid ‘70s (Su, 2011). In addition, there was widespread bitter factionalism as affiliates of rival Cultural Revolution groups shared similar work unit and each faction was still trying to find ways of undermining the power of the other faction (Su, 2011).
Effects on education, schools, and students
An important facet of this revolution was the change in policies pertaining to education. MacFarquhar and Schoenhals (2009) noted that the greatest impact of the Cultural Revolution was that all educationa...