Short reading response for a Chinese history class.
The Chinese Cultural Revolution: What happened to the students?
Mao’s theory, called Maoism, was to destroy everything old -- to begin on a clean slate --and after everything old is destroyed can the new China be rebuilt. He was anti-capitalism and anti-social stratification; he believed in even distribution of wealth and property amongst the people. To spread his idealism, he created policies that forced Maoism to be a part of curriculum in schools. The Red Guards were students who completely supported Mao’s ideology and fought against capitalist, any one who they considered ‘overly educated’ and old ideas and ideologies that could be found in places such as temples. The Red Guard was supported enthusiastically by Mao, but over time grew out of control. They took Mao’s already somewhat radical ideology and went to the extremes, ransacking buildings and temples, and harassing people and sometimes even killing. The people of China grew to fear the Red Guard as Mao began to lose control over them. What is hard to remember is that the Red Guards were students, and if they spent all this time upholding Maoism, and if Maoism was pressured into school curriculum, how much were the students learning? In my opinion, Mao seemed to place importance on agriculture instead of learning; of creating a China that is self sufficient and could create everything it needed itself without foreign trade. It seems after the Cultural Revolution as the factions Red Guards began to fall off, what happened to these students? They no longer had any educational skills. Also, what happened to the curriculum afterwards in Chinese schools? The Chinese Cultural Revolution, before we began to read and discuss it, sounded like a it could have been a the Chinese equivalent to the Renaissance, but turned out to be more akin to the Dark Ages where cultural artifacts and knowledge was destroyed, and people attacked and accused of being too cultured or learned.
© Caroline Alicia Harris
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