Red Guards and the Little Red Book

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR) was said to have partially resulted from Mao's insecurity after putting his successor Liu Shaoqi in power. Mao, having kept close tabs on the Russian USSR, was afraid of Liu repeating what Khrushchev did to Stalin after he assumed power, and abandon Mao. It was perceived by Lin Biao, who was then very close to Mao himself, that Mao did try to regain his control over the party, but failed. Hence at the party meeting on January 25, 1965, Mao decided that Liu should be taken down and the party had to be reconstructed from scratch.

Mao's main goal for the GPCR was to re-establish his authority and his policy for the party, by using the masses, especially the young. He wanted to purge China of the old customs, old habits, old culture, and old thinking. Criticisms were not tolerated. To carry out his plans, Mao, with the aid of Lin Biao, created the Red Army to help him win this fight. The Red Army mostly consisted of the 'next generation', young graduates and workers, who were eager to please Mao. They destroyed anything that had to do with the four 'olds' that Mao was so against.

Boy among Red Guards relaying speech from script prepared by others

Buddha classics burnt outside Johkang Temple

Tibetian women 'revolutionalised'

Eventually, Mao was successful in his plans and managed to bring his rivals down. The Maoists claimed that the GPCR was a great victory as it brought Mao and his ideology back, and these were considered important for China to progress. However, not everyone felt the same of the GPCR.

For others, it was considered a major catastrophe. During the GPCR, literally almost everyone was affected. The economy was disrupted while people had to be preoccupied with revolutionary activities, and even the railway was thrown into uproar. Meanwhile, countless artefacts were destroyed and lost in the chaos, buildings were torn down, and many were killed. The education system was stalled as schools and teachers were attacked by the Red Army. There was a period of illiteracy as education was targeted, exams were suspended, and anyone considered slightly better educated than the average were brought down. The young were forced to move to the countryside, abandoning standard education and learning from the propaganda of the Party instead.

Historians who have studied China commented that the artefacts destroyed during the GPCR were probably worth thousands of years of history. There were no official records, hence it is unclear exactly how much damage there was to the history of China during the purge of the GPCR.

During the Cultural Revolution, human rights and civilisation were trampled upon. People were maltreated, tortured even, and many innocents were killed. Others, who could not withstand the cruelty they were facing, lost all hope and commuted suicide. Some, like Deng Xiaoping's son, attempted suicide but failed, resulting in permanent injury. The true death toll was never reported as police and authorities all tried to cover up as much as they could.

Was the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution a campaign really for the greater good of China, or was it just an opportunity for Mao to rid himself of his opponents in the Party and secure his authority?

Regardless, in my opinion, the GPCR has stalled the development of China. What China is now could have been achieved much earlier had there been more considerations to the consequences of this revolution. A generation of young people was ‘lost’ too as they fought to survive in the streets instead of receiving proper schooling. They had no childhood to speak of, and had no more family. The GPCR had a negative impact on their lives. Was restoring ‘Mao’s thought’ really worth sacrificing this much? I believe Mao was too rash in his decision to start such a movement, and although making use of the youths was beneficial to his cause, it was not fair to manipulate them before they were fully matured and were able to consider their own futures. It might have been argued that it was the army of Red Guards from the GPCR who formed the ‘backbone of Chinese society’, there could have been a less violent method to introduce independent thinking to the younger generations.


Author: Chua Yi Chian

Credits:
Cultural Revolution - The End
Picture Source 1
Picture Source 2
Modern Nations of the World: China by Robert Green
The Rise of Modern China by Immanuel C. Y. Hsu
Modern China - An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Nationalism by Wang Ke-wen (GPCR Article by Craig Dietrich)
A Concise History of China by J. A. G. Roberts