unit 10 lesson 5

• Mao Zedong was heavily criticized after the events of the Great Leap Forward
• Many of Mao's pragmatic colleagues believed his ideologically motivated actions were not a good idea due to the deaths of 15 million people due to starvation
• Liu Shaoqi (Mao's designated successor), and CCP general secretary Deng Xiaoping were removed from office

  1966
• Liu later died
• Conflict between two competing beliefs

  Mao and his supporters vs. more pragmatic approach
• Mao and his supporters' idea


  Uninterrupted revolution to defeat perceived intrusion of capitalist values and "feudalist" Confucian ideas to achieve utopian communism
• Pragmatic approach

  Building China as a nation and its economy instead of the institution of communist ideals everywhere
• Deng Xiaoping was a supporter of the pragmatic approach
• Deng Xiaoping: 'Black cat, white cat, does it matter as long as it catches the mice?'
• Mao and his supporters implemented the Cultural Revolution

  1966-1976
• Changes during the Cultural Revolution

  1. Education replaced with indoctrination

  2. Mao Zedong Thought as prevailing curriculum

  3. Advanced and specialized studies abolished

  4. Traditional education discouraged as vestige of capitalism

  5. Mao's Little Red Book became the Chinese version of the Bible
• Four olds targeted by Red Guards

  • Old thought
  • Old habits
  • Old culture
  • Old customs
• Changes to cultural locations

  • Temples and religious structures razed/taken down
  • Street signs replaced with revolutionary names
  • Traffic lights turned red instead of green in Shanghai
• The fervent revolution proved to be unsustainable
• Bureaucrats, urban professionals, and military officers did not appreciate the constant turmoil and potential threat of their livelihoods
• Red guards were not too happy when their families and friends were being targeted