With the worst of the street violence over, the cultural revolution in the following six or seven years revolved primarily around struggles for power in the upper echelons of the chinese communist party. The cost of the cultural revolution, fifty years later. What were the effects of the chinese cultural revolution on. Postmao, however, the situation is highly ambiguous. Cultural monuments and sites have historical and personal significance for nations. The cultural revolution was the brainchild of chinas great helmsman, chairman mao zedong. By 1971, mao and his secondincommand, lin biao, were trading assassination attempts against one another. Culture books fifty years after the madness sparked by maos cultural revolution, a book uncovers horror of mass murder spree. Book burning is the ritual destruction by fire of books or other written materials, usually carried out in a public context. In some cases, the destroyed works are irreplaceable and their burning constitutes a severe loss to cultural heritage. Book burnings, especially of foreign texts, were common during the early years of the cultural revolution.
I think if there are any casualty figures for the ancient purges, the stats would be even more unreliable than the cultural. May 10, 2016 at the height of the cultural revolution, little red book reading sessions were held on public buses and even in the skies above china, as air hostesses preached maos words of wisdom to their. Opinion a scar on the chinese soul the new york times. The world is yours, as well as ours, but in the last analysis, it is yours. Commentary on july 31, the new york state board of regents initiated a cultural revolution.
Chinas library officials are burning books that diverge from. By the time the cultural revolution sputtered to a. The world was turned upside down, with fanatic red guards, armed with little red book filled chinas cultural revolution represents one of the craziest moments in history of mankind, all caused by one man, namely mao zedong. Most online commenters didnt refer directly to the cultural revolutiona topic that. Traditionally, only males names are recorded in the books. Mao comes across as a deep thinker, as a dogmatic person and, as a callous statesman. A brief history of book burning, from the printing press. My uncle was a red guard in chinas cultural revolution.
One might say it was a wonder that the forbidden city escaped the mass chaos. Just look at one of the most famous examples of burning, the destruction of the library of alexandria. Extremist violence and cultural destruction, knuth documents how extremists of all. Book burning by chinese county library sparks fury. Launched by mao zedong, the chairman of the communist party of china cpc, its stated goal was to preserve chinese communism by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from chinese society, and to reimpose mao. He also ordered that all the books that carried the collective memory, all the history and traditions of his new subjects, should be burnt. List of books and articles about cultural revolution. Anything outside these boundaries was met with severe consequences. A lot of ancient book burning was a function of conquest, knuth says. The cultural revolution was a big political and sociological experiment that caused turmoil, chaos, hardship and, untold suffering to the chinese. A brief history of book burning, from the printing press to. Not even deng xiaoping, the highranking leader best remembered for his postmao capitalist reforms in china in the 1980s, was safe from the revolutions purges. From ordinary peasants to highranking party members, nobody in china was truly safe during the cultural revolution. The cultural revolution in practical terms 24 million died nationwide as a direct result.
Book banning and censorship in china fair observer. The cultural revolution is the name given to maos attempt to reassert his beliefs in china. The cultural revolution featured violent literary inquisitions in addition to harrowing criticisms and struggle sessions to. Holocaust survivor herbert zipper recalls the burning of jewish books. Chinas destruction of cultural sites during the cultural. Dec 11, 2019 book burnings, especially of foreign texts, were common during the early years of the cultural revolution. Dec 09, 2019 book burning by chinese county library sparks fury. Today i will answer this question from my own point of view and from official historical materials of vietnamese government. Evan osnos on the fiftieth anniversary of the cultural revolution, and the parallels.
Torture and suicide became common, and it is estimated that a million died in the ensuing purges and related incidents. Chile, 1973 after their violent overthrow of chiles elected. Cultural revolution, 196676, mass mobilization of urban chinese youth inaugurated by mao zedong in an attempt to prevent the development of a bureaucratized soviet style of communism. The movement, known as the cultural revolution, lasted for years and led to. It was launched under the direction of chinese communist party ccp chairman mao zedong, who wished to renew the spirit of the. Chinese library workers burn books seen as diverging from. Believing that current communist leaders were taking the party, and china itself, in the wrong direction, mao called on the nations youth to purge. This sculpture depicts two red army soldiers in the famous peking opera called red army detachment, one of the most promoted contemporary revolution operas during the cultural revolution.
The cultural revolution had a massive impact on china from 1965 to 1968. Frank dikotter, the author of a new book on the period, says mao hoped his. Egypt, iraq, jordan and algeria itself, after independence introduced stamps depicting either the burning of a book, or of the library itself. Book burning by chinese county library sparks fury world. Aug 31, 2017 a brief history of book burning, from the printing press to internet archives as long as there have been books, people have burned thembut over the years, the motivation has changed. A chinese librarys bookburning orgy echoes dark chapters in the countrys history. Though it was intended to renew the spirit of the chinese revolution, it instead had detrimental political, social, and economic consequences for china. Check out our top free essays on pros of cultural revolution to help you write your own essay. Libraries full of historical and foreign texts were destroyed.
If rural china was not much affected by the cultural revolution, why do you, the ccp and many of the elite intelligentsia keep repeating that the cultural revolution was a tenyear calamity for china. The book covers historical, political and sociological aspects of the cultural revolution. May 05, 2016 newly released documents detail traumas of chinas cultural revolution historian frank dikotter says newly opened archives offer fresh details about the chaos china experienced in the 1960s, when. The cultural revolution, formally the great proletarian cultural revolution, was a sociopolitical. When a new dynasty need to establish legitimacy, the best and most efficient thing and almost every early dynasty historians do this is to slander the previous dynasty rulers. As i gazed at maos face wearing what was intended as a benign expression but was in fact a smirk of selfsatisfaction, i wondered how one single person could have caused the extent of misery that was prevailing in china. During mao zedongs cultural revolution, they even went after their own communist leaders as impure. The cultural revolution also caused economic disruption.
In 1967, a twomonth orgy of violence and hysteria swept a rural. A chinese librarys bookburning orgy echoes dark chapters in the. In the cultural revolution of 196679, mao zedong ordered that old ideas, old customs, old habits, and old books should be burned. Dec 09, 2019 a chinese librarys bookburning orgy echoes dark chapters in the countrys history. All aspects of arts and culture were to promote the peoples revolution and aid the state. Book censorship in the peoples republic of china prc is implemented or mandated by the. When we suppressed counterrevolutionaries, didnt we also kill some counter revolutionary intellectuals. Earlier this year, bao pu, a book publisher raised in beijing and now. For centuries, the brutal and tyrannical reign of qin shihuangdi, first emperor of china, was summed up by a fourcharacter phrase, fenshu kengru, he burned the books and buried the confucian scholars alive. A brief history of book burning, from the printing press to internet archives as long as there have been books, people have burned thembut over the years, the motivation has changed. Aug 26, 2018 according to the book maos last revolution, by the end of the cultural revolution, 4,922 of the 6,843 officially designated historical interest sites in beijing had been destroyed.
One of many quotations in the little red book maos quotations that the red guards would later follow as a guide, provided by mao, was the. In the 1960s and 1970s, especially during the period of the cultural revolution, the books which were allowed to be. The burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or political opposition to the materials in question. Chinas library officials are burning books that diverge. Newly released documents detail traumas of chinas cultural. List of books and articles about cultural revolution online.
Mao had been less than a dynamic leader from the late 1950s on, and feared others in the party might be taking on a leading role that weakened his power within the party and the country. The burning of the university library sent shock waves, especially across the arab world. Examples include the burning of books and burying of scholars under chinas qin dynasty, the obl. A library in gansu, china burned religious books quartz. Maos little red book maos little red book is a collection of mao tsetungs quotations that were used as a source of inspiration and guidance for members of the red guard during the cultural revolution. In 1966, chinas communist leader mao zedong launched what became known as the cultural revolution in order to reassert his authority over the chinese government. This photo triggered chinas cultural revolution duration. Dec 28, 2017 generally, it is complicated to express the real effects of chinese cultural revolution on north vietnam. The cost of the cultural revolution, fifty years later the.
Dec 10, 2019 chinese city holds book burning to destroy religious materials. May 20, 2016 the flames of the cultural revolution were fuelled by maos little red book, which was filled with slogans to inspire communist party members, such as. Religious, anticommunist and genealogy books in the cultural revolution it is the chinese tradition to record family members in a book, including every male born in the family, who they are married to, etc. Mar 27, 2020 the cultural revolution was the upheaval launched by mao zedong during his last decade in power 196676. A brief overview of chinas cultural revolution britannica. Mao closed schools and encouraged students to join red guard units, which denounced and persecuted chinese teachers, intellectuals, writers. At the height of the cultural revolution, little red book reading sessions were held on public buses and even in the skies above china, as air hostesses preached maos. The great proletarian cultural revolution was a decadelong period of. The horror of chairman maos cultural revolution 50 years on.
The book tells the littleknown story of how chinese. Chinas cultural revolution, explained the new york times. The cost of the cultural revolution, fifty years later the new yorker. The cultural revolution in full, the great proletarian cultural revolution took place from 1966 to 1976 in china. A radical group may target such sites to demonstrate a blatant and intentional disregard for a cultures history and to display the scope of the groups power over a population. The cultural revolution had roots in the 195861 great leap forward, the collectivization of agricultural and industrial output that precipitated a. Books were burned in china as part of mao zedongs cultural revolution, while about seven million people died during those years. During chinas cultural revolution of 1966 to 1976, when at the command. Chinese city holds book burning to destroy religious materials. The cultural revolution, formally the great proletarian cultural revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the peoples republic of china from 1966 until 1976. Aug 15, 2014 during the great leap forward and the cultural revolution, cultural restrictions were black and white. The cultural revolution, which started in the mid1960s and lasted a decade, was an attempt to purge chinese communist society of the.
May, 2014 inspired by reading mobo gaos new book the battle for chinas past. The bookburning incident, with all its dark historical precedents from this country and naziera germany, has heightened alarm at a time when chinese intellectuals see their society tipping. In china, library officials burn books that diverge from communist. The effect on other countries in the region can be seen through commemorative stamps. Now, the spirit of fascistic book burning has entered the american system. May 15, 2016 the cultural revolution had roots in the 195861 great leap forward, the collectivization of agricultural and industrial output that precipitated a famine that left as many as 45 million dead. The benignsounding moniker belies the destruction it unleashed upon the countrys population. The red guards piled the books and paintings and burned them. This was late in 1967, a year after the start of chairman maos cultural revolution which would last a decade and which would attempt to impose a pure communist ideology across china, wiping out anything deemed capitalist, traditionalist, or bourgeois. Seventeen years after his troops seized power, mao saw his latest political campaign as a way of reinvigorating the communist revolution by strengthening ideology and weeding out opponents. All these books had to be burned in order to avoid having a negative impact on the next generations thoughts.
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