China 3 - the cultural revolution and its aftermath

Question 1

Mao’s Reasons to launch the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 1

• remove opponents eg. pragmatists
• reach permanent revolution
• attack bureaucracy
• aid his supporters

Question 2

When were the mass student rallies held?

Answer 2

August 1966, students were invited by Chen Boda and Mao

Question 3

What were the ‘four olds’?

Answer 3

ideas
culture
customs
habits

Question 4

What were the bourgeois young people in the red guards known as and what did they do?

Answer 4

‘black elements’ would be extremely violent to prove they were revilutionaries deep down

Question 5

What government official was heavily tortured and eventually died due to the Cultural Revolution in 1968?

Answer 5

Liu Shaoqi

Question 6

What happened to Deng Xiaoping during the cultural revolution?

Answer 6

He was removed from his positions in government leadership

Question 7

How many Politburo members survived the purge of the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 7

9 out of 23

Question 8

What term was used to criticise anyone who was suspected of not being committed to Communism during the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 8

‘capitalist roader’

Question 9

What campaign was used to disband the Red Guards?

Answer 9

‘up to the mountains and down to the villages’

Question 10

How many young Red Guards were sent to the countryside in 1968?

Answer 10

18 million

Question 11

When did Deng Xiaoping regain his post as CCP secretary? What was he subsequently blamed for?

Answer 11

1974, after being recalled by Mao from his rural exile to help recover from the Cultural Revolution

Question 12

Mao and Deng towards Mao’s death?

Answer 12

in 1976 he was blamed for the violent clashes with the police during the Qingming festival, as well as protests following Zhou’s death by the gang of four who convinced Mao to remove him from power again. After Mao’s death and the arrests of the gang of four he became the PRC’s most important leader

Question 13

Competition between red guards?

Answer 13

Red guards from different schools and colleges would compete to prove who was most ideologically worthy. Working class and middle class Red Guards fought - and some factories might have 2 factions of Red Guards

Question 14

Example of a temple ransacked?

Answer 14

The temple to Confucius in Shandong

Question 15

Cultural objects related to the four olds that were destroyed examples?

Answer 15

• libraries with western books or traditional literature burnt
• sculptures and statues and artefacts defaced or desecrated
• Buddhist relics attacked - all Buddhist culture in Tibet destroyed

Question 16

What did Zhou Enlai send the PLA to protect from the Red Guards?

Answer 16

The treasures of the Forbidden City

Question 17

When did the Red Guards attempt to seize power from the CCP and establish a government inspired by the Paris Commune 1871?

Answer 17

January 1967. ‘January storm’. Led Mao to use the CCP against the red guards

Question 18

When was the little red book published and by who?

Answer 18

1964 Lin Biao (head of PLA)

Question 19

Mao’s belief of permanent revolution?

Answer 19

Mao believed a Communist China would be created only through ongoing revolution. He knew before the Cultural Revolution that many including those in the party did not remember the struggles of the civil war. Therefore he felt another revolution was needed to mobilise the masses and create new revolutionaries

Question 20

Main 4 supporters of Mao in the Cultural Revolution (the CCRG)

Answer 20

Chen Boda - propaganda chief
Kang Sheng - secret police chief
Lin Biao - head of PLA
Jiang Qing - deputy director of the cultural revolutiono

Question 21

“get rid of the stale and take in the fresh”

Answer 21

part of Mao’s belief that the party should be constantly changing and his excuse for the cultural revolution

Question 22

Main opponents of the cultural revolution within the party (4)?

Answer 22

Liu Shaoqi
Deng Xiaoping
Chen Yun
Bo Yibo

Question 23

Which cultural hero from the 1800s was exhumed, cut into pieces and burnt by the Red Guards?

Answer 23

Wu Xun

Question 24

When was the 4 olds campaign introduced?

Answer 24

August 1966

Question 25

What was the February Adverse Current?

Answer 25

The attempt by conservative forces to stop the red guards causing anarchy and civil war (after Mao had used the PLA to stop the January Storm issue they continued to crush rebellions across China) - Mao coined this term and denounced this movement

Question 26

What was the cult of Lei Feng?

Answer 26

In 1963, the ‘learn from the PLA’ campaign was launched in which Lei Feng became an ideological role model.

He was shown on posters digging wells for peasants and helping old women cross roads.

After his death, his diary also showed his unselfish deeds like secretly mending his comrade’s clothing.

The myth of Lei Feng helped to create loyalty to Mao

Question 27

What fraction of the Central Committee were deposed in the cultural revolution?

Answer 27

2/3rds

Question 28

What percentage of party cadres at a regional and provisional level were purged?

Answer 28

70-80%

Question 29

What percentage of party cadres within central government were purged?

Answer 29

60-70%

Question 30

How many party cadres were executed as traitors in Yunnan?

Answer 30

14,000

Question 31

May Seventh Cadres Schools?

Answer 31

Where cadres were sent to perform hard labour and receive indoctrination after being purged in the cultural revolution.

Question 32

Number of bureaucrats and cadres sent to the May Seventh Cadres Schools?

Answer 32

3 million

Question 33

Minority who the red guards attacked?

Answer 33

Foreign dignitaries and embassies were attacked to varying degrees from imprisonment to public denouncements to protests. Total of 30 citizens from other countries were attacked or abused by the red guards

Question 34

How long were schools closed during the CR?

Answer 34

2 years

Question 35

When did Mao declare the purging of capitalist roaders to be ‘un-strategic’ ?

Answer 35

August 1967

Question 36

Wave of terror launched by the PLA towards the end of 1967?

Answer 36

‘cleansing of class ranks’

Question 37

How many people were arrested for being spies, bad elements, or newly emerged counter-revolutionaries in the ‘cleansing of class ranks’ campaign?

Answer 37

1.84 million people

Question 38

Consequence of the up to the mountains down to the villages campaign for the red guards? (4)

Answer 38

• shocked at peasant life
• peasants annoyed at having to share food
• those with connections could return to cities, this disillusioned those who didn’t have connections with Mao.
• urban unemployment was reduced