Saturday, August 23, 2014

Risk-Taking Researcher Round 1 - Alexandre

Section Read: Prologue + Chapters 1-2

Just like all of the literature circle books, Red Scarf Girl by Ji Li Jiang takes place in a critical time in history. In this book's case, the story takes place in The People's Republic of China during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.

Many say that the ideas behind the Cultural Revolution came up when Mao Ze-Dong led the Communist Party to power in the year 1949. The Cultural Revolution was a social-political movement that lasted 10 years (1966-1976). Mao Ze-Dong launched the Cultural Revolution as a way to maintain and secure his authority over the Communist Party and Chinese government. This need arose after the widespread failure (and subsequent economic crisis) of his Great Leap Forward plans to change China from an agricultural into a modern, industrial society. In order for the Cultural Revolution to work, Mao appealed directly to his supporters and the nation's youth, such as Ji-Li, to help him "clean" China of many Western and money-oriented components of society that he considered "impure". Mao sought out to destroy anything related to the "Four Olds" which were defined as old customs, old habits, old cultures and old ideas.


Chinese Propaganda Poster: "Destroy the Old World; Forge the New World".
Source

Cultural Revolution Red Guards
Source
The Revolution was officially launched during a meeting of the Plenum of the Central Committee. By shutting down many of the country's schools, Mao deployed most of the country's youth into a "battle" against the society they lived in. The movement quickly gained momentum and violence as students came together to organize and create army-like groups called Red Guards who attacked and persecuted anyone and anything that could be associated with China's pre-revolutionary past and capitalist values.

The initial  targets included the vandalism and destruction of Buddhist temples, mosques and churches, the burning of holy texts, Confucian writings, and any artwork. The Red Guards also terrorized people who were unfairly accused of being "anti-revolutionary" and thinking capitalist thoughts. Basically, China's entire intellectual and elderly  society was at risk for attacks, and a feverish personality cult was built around Mao Ze-Dong and his extremists.

Nearly 2,000 people were killed in the first two months of the revolution in Beijing. The movement only grew larger and more violent. By 1967, China was in a state of chaos and near-anarchy as Red Guard groups began to fight amongst themselves in all out wars and raid the People's Liberation Army for weaponry. At the end of 1968, Mao began scattering Red Guards across China as a way to tone down the brutal violence and destruction. The last seven years of the Cultural Revolution were focused around a struggle for power between China's leaders.

In 1976, the creator of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Mao Ze-Dong, died and his death indicated the end of the revolution. Mao Ze-Dong left his country years of destruction, violence and near-anarchy and the destruction of priceless pieces of artwork and history. In addition, he left an entire generation education-less by closing schools for the duration of the revolution. In the end, over one and a half million people were killed and many more were tortured, persecuted and humiliated.

Bibliography:

History.com Staff. "Cultural Revolution." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 23 Aug. 2014. <http://www.history.com/topics/cultural-revolution>.

Szczepanski, Kallie. "What Happened During China's Cultural Revolution?"About.com Asian History. About.com, 2014. Web. 23 Aug. 2014. <http://asianhistory.about.com/od/modernchina/f/What-Was-The-Cultural-Revolution.htm>.

Red Guards (with "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung" in Hand) on the Cover of an Elementary School Textbook from Guangxi 1971. N.d.Wikipedia Encyclopedia. Web. 23 Aug. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Guards_(China)>.

Chinese Propaganda Poster: "Destroy the Old World; Forge the New World." A Red Guard Crushes the Crucifix, Buddha, and Classical Chinese Texts with His Hammer; 1967. N.d. Wikipedia Encyclopedia. Web. 23 Aug. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution>.

2 comments:

  1. Alexandre,

    You have an amazingly thorough post! I connect your post to Ties That Bind, Ties That Break, because both books were based around the same time historically. Some of the things they talked about that occurred in the government I remembered happened in the other book too. I think that it is interesting that all of the children in China idolize Mao so much. However, after reading your post, I realized how bad of a person he was. You added great detail, and had many ideas. It is good that you have a bibliography. Great job on the post, and thank you for enhancing my thinking!

    Mary

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  2. WOW, There are few words to describe how awesome this post is, honestly i really enjoyed how you stated so much information about the chinese revolution, unlikely a lot of people you helped the reader understand what was the chinese revolution. I also thought I could think deeply on your post mainly because you put so much detail on it, it also helped me deeply understand it more and help my own reading, Awesome post keep up the good work.

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