- 文革 Cultural Revelution

文革 文革 (1966 - 1976) may be the darkest ten years in Chinese history; 文革 was a period of widespread social and political upheaval in the resulting in nation-wide chaos and economic disarray. It was launched by Mao Zedong who encouraged class struggle; (motivation?) Some scholars believe millions of people (or 1% of the whole population) died in Culture Revolution and more were tortured; Many very senior officials of the government, including Liu Shaoqi, the former president and Peng Dehuai, the most important general were tortured to death; All colleges stopped recruiting students during the ten years and people who grew up during文革 didn’t get proper education at all; The current Communism Party admits the Cultural Revolution was a horrible mistake that Mao made, but they argue that Mao’s contribution to this country was bigger than his mistakes;

文革 Some stories in the Cultural Revolution… (样板戏, 哺乳妇女跳楼,红宝书等) Believe it or not, some Chinese think the Cultural Revolution was a good thing; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SupyW6UKMOE

A Poster in Cultural Revolution

A Poster in Cultural Revolution

样板戏

江青(Jiang Qing)Mao’s Wife

文革的结束 Ending of the Cultural Revolution Zhou Enlai, the Prime Minister who was loved by people and tried his best to work for Mao and protect as many people as possible died in Jan. 1976. Millions of people came of mourn him at the Tiananmen Square and many of them were killed by Mao’s army. This is called the Tiananmen Square Event. Mao’s last wife, Jiang Qing was very active during the Cultural Revolution and she was the head of “Gang of Four (四人帮)”, a powerful and influential organization; Mao died in September, 1976 and the Gang of Four were arrested right after that. Deng Xiaoping and Ye Jianying were people who made it happen; The Cultural Revolution finally ended, but the influence of it is far-going, and it takes a long time for China to recover and people to alleviate the pain.

Tiananmen Square Event

文革的影响Influence of the Cultural Revolution Many families lost their members; Numerous people were illiterate because of it; Traditional values including Confucianism was abandoned; During People were encouraged to fight with each other, even with one’s family members which leads to the decline of moral standards among Chinese people; And many others...