Sixth Blog Post

Dear Readers,

As I approach my retirement, I find it crucial to explore one last story, the story of the Cultural Revolution. China has been faced with an enormous set of challenges over the past few decades, from successfully reworking class within the countryside, to rooting out intellectual Rightists, China has overcome many hardships. During the final years of Chairman Mao’s rule, he unleashed his last and most important campaign: the Cultural Revolution.

The Chairman has passed away, and with party support to discuss the Cultural Revolution’s effects freely, I feel for the first time I can share my thoughts on the Cultural Revolution’s shortcomings. The gap between the countryside and urban centers persists, the youth have been disenfranchised by Party antics, and now we must evaluate the success of the Chairman’s goal to create a communist nation and inspire the youth to carry on China’s revolutionary processes.

The importance of peasants and rural life as the beating heart of China’s revolution dates to Mao’s experience during the Shanghai massacre in 1927. Once taking power, the Chairman has consistently advocated for the peasants, from Land Reform, to sending intellectuals down to the countryside during anti-Rightist campaign, through his latest attempt at empowering China’s youth in the Cultural Revolution. I have had the privilege of receiving an advanced copy of Liang Heng’s manuscript Son of the Revolution, which has provided an invaluable insight into the life of someone growing up during this turbulent period. Liang was the son of intellectuals, his father was a reporter for the Hunan Daily, and his mother was a local bureaucrat. During the Cultural Revolution, his family was swept up in the high tide of violent revolutionary activity from the Red Guards, eventually being sent to the countryside in Mao’s attempt to curb the violence. Liang felt the Cultural Revolution was turned inside out disenfranchising many young intellectuals, they signed up for work in the countryside because “they were exhausted, they had unhappy lives at home, and they had nothing to do at school.” It is evident through Liang’s account, the motivation to engage in rural work was not because of feeling inspired by Chairman Mao, but because they had no other choice, as they looked for a more stable life within the countryside. This mindset turned out to be misguided, Liang was struck by the poverty so many peasants faced, the lack of abundant food reserves and the means to purchase fertilizers for everyday life. Upon arrival the peasants remarked that “We’ve got to give you food, find you a place to work. What kind of help is that?” Peasants felt burdened by the untrained workers that were sent down to the countryside, they were already struggling to get by, and the requisitioning campaigns added to the burdens so many peasants faced. Consequently, this reveals the gap between urban centers and the rural countryside remained prevalent socially and economically. Peasants had no extra food to give, nor did they have the time to adequately train the unskilled intellectuals.

Youth became disenfranchised by the Cultural Revolution as they were given a central role by our great Chairman, but he pulled the rug out from underneath their feet once the revolution started to become excessively violent. At first, youth enthusiastically responded to the Chairman’s policies of rooting out intellectuals as they were following what Mao’s directives over radio broadcasts. China’s youth during this period were the first generation to grow up after the revolution, by giving them the opportunity to participate in revolution, Mao unleashed a charged and extremely enthusiastic group of people that ended with disastrous consequences. Factional violence and civil war among different youth groups with different interpretations of the Chairman’s policies brutally ripped China apart. Schools closed, people were struggled against, and many died. One Red Guard even enjoyed beating people of interest, revealing the gap between the empowered youth and their target groups. Liang Heng remembers feeling immense “disappointment,” when Chairman Mao called for a stop to the fighting and for the Red Guards “to go up to the mountains and down to the countryside.” His sisters and family felt incredible despair and anguish at the thought of spending the remainder of their lives in the countryside. Many peasants disliked the Party’s program to send the Red Guards to the countryside, because they had to Liang’s father, a stout supporter of the Party, had trouble defending Communist Party directives to confiscate livestock and grain upon understanding the scale of poverty within the countryside when compared to the relative prosperity found within urban centers. With Chairman Mao’s passing, the question becomes how the new regime will bridge the gap between urban centers and the countryside and empower the youth to become enthusiastic and productive members of society.