Cultural Revolution facts for kids
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (Simplified Chinese: 无产阶级文化大革命, Traditional Chinese: 無產階級文化大革命, Pinyin: Wúchǎn Jiējí Wénhuà Dà Gémìng, literally: Proletarian Cultural Great Revolution); shortened in Chinese as 文化大革命 or 文革, also known simply as the Cultural Revolution, was a time of large cultural change in China, started by Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Communist Party of China. It happened from 1966 to 1976.
The start of the Cultural Revolution followed the failure of the Great Leap Forward. Mao tried to remove capitalists from the Communist Party of China, the party in charge of China. To get rid of the capitalists, he started the Socialist Education Movement. It started in 1962 and ended in 1965. At the same time, a redoing of the school system made sure that students were able to also work in factories and communes. Mao slowly started to regain power in 1965, supported by Lin Biao, Jiang Qing, and Chen Boda.
The Communist Party was split between Mao's partners and Deng Xiaoping's partners. Deng Xiaoping was a rival of Mao. Mao then tried to get support from young people in China by creating the book Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong (also known as the Little Red Book), a collection of Mao's sayings. The Red Guard was also made popular. They were a group of young people in China that went around teaching Mao's sayings. They also beat people who disagreed with Mao and destroyed homes and museums. There were many fights breaking out, and China faced anarchy. During the revolution, several important people in China were forced to leave. These people included Liu Shaoqi, President of China, and Deng Xiaoping, the secretary-general of the Communist Party of China.
The Cultural Revolution began to slow down in 1967, and ended in 1969. The Ninth National Party Congress was a meeting where the end of the Cultural Revolution was announced.
Contents
Effects
The Cultural Revolution caused a lot of problems in China. Production in factories was lowered because of the workers' political activities. It was also lowered because the people put in charge of the factories did not know how to run them. Transportation was made worse because a lot of trains were being used to take Red Guards around the country. Many scientists and engineers were put in jail or sent to work on the farms, which meant that their knowledge was lost. Because of these changes, the industrial output of China was reduced by 14 percent.
The education of many Chinese people was also cut short. The education system was more disrupted in the cities than in the countryside. Universities and many schools were closed. A program called the "sent-down youth" program also disrupted education. In that program, children were sent from the cities to the countryside.
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Images for kids
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People in the countryside working at night to produce steel during the Great Leap Forward
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The purge of General Luo Ruiqing solidified the Army's loyalty to Mao.
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Mao waved to the "revolutionary masses" on the riverside before his "swim across the Yangtze"
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A struggle session of Wang Guangmei, the wife of Liu Shaoqi.
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Mao Zedong and Lin Biao surrounded by rallying Red Guards in Beijing. Source: China Pictorial
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Tiananmen Square on September 15, 1966, the occasion of Chairman Mao's third of eight mass rallies with Red Guards in 1966. Source: China Pictorial
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The Cemetery of Confucius was attacked by Red Guards in November 1966.
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Propaganda oil painting of Mao during the Cultural Revolution (1967)
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"Mangoes, The Precious Gift" (Cultural Revolution poster, 1968)
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Marshal Lin Biao was constitutionally confirmed as Mao's successor in 1969.
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Graffiti with Lin Biao's foreword to Mao's Little Red Book, Lin's name (lower right) was later scratched out, presumably after his death.
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Jiang Qing (left), who was the wife of Mao Zedong and a member of the Gang of Four, received the Red Guards in Beijing with Premier Zhou Enlai (center) and Kang Sheng. They were all holding the Little Red Book (Quotations from Mao) in their hands.
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Jiang Qing
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Deng Xiaoping became the paramount leader of China in 1978. He started "Boluan Fanzheng" that brought the country back to order, and initiated China's historic Reforms and Opening up.
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A struggle session of Xi Zhongxun, the father of Xi Jinping (September 1967). Xi Zhongxun was labelled as an "anti-Party element". However, since late 2012, Xi Jinping and his allies have attempted to play down the disaster of the Cultural Revolution and reversed many reforms since the Boluan Fanzheng period, sparking concerns of a new Cultural Revolution.
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The Tibetan Panchen Lama during a struggle session
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Struggle session of Sampho Tsewang Rigzin and his wife during the Cultural Revolution
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A 1968 map of Beijing showing streets and landmarks renamed during the Cultural Revolution. Andingmen Inner Street became "Great Leap Forward Road", Taijichang Street became the "Road for Eternal Revolution", Dongjiaominxiang was renamed "Anti-Imperialist Road", Beihai Park was renamed "Worker-Peasant-Soldier Park" and Jingshan Park became "Red Guard Park." Most of the Cultural Revolution-era name changes were later reversed.
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Yao Tongbin, one of China's foremost missile scientists, was beaten to death by a mob in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution (1968). This caused Zhou Enlai to order special protection for key technical experts.
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Remnants of a banner containing slogans from the Cultural Revolution in Anhui
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The ballet The Red Detachment of Women, one of the Model Dramas promoted during the Cultural Revolution
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Posters from the Cultural Revolution period
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Buddhist statues defaced during the Cultural Revolution
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The central section of this wall shows the faint remnant marks of a propaganda slogan that was added during the Cultural Revolution, but has since been removed. The slogan read "Boundless faith that in Chairman Mao."
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See also
In Spanish: Revolución Cultural para niños
