Chinese History the Cultural Revolution Essay

It was a new means of defining a control over the cultural aspects of the society. Mao had envisaged a cultural background that would rise from the middle class, the social level on which the Communist Party based its electoral and strength. Given the tight control exercised by the communist party through all its regional, local, and national mechanisms, a new sense of fear and submission affected the society. This however represented a traditional means through which all communist parties ensured their control over the population. Through different institutions at the disposal of the state, the population was soon "re-educated." This in turn determined an annihilation of any potential dissidents or opposition that would at one point challenge the rule of the Communist party.

After severe limitations and terror moments, the population was entrenched in a different mentality that had been inoculated by the Communist party. This is one of the reasons for which family members often went against one another.As Chinese writer Jung Chang points out in one of her books, "Wild Swans" when discussing the issue of the death of Mao, "People had been acting for so long they confused it with their true feelings. I wondered how many of the tears were genuine" (Chang, )

The Cultural Revolution as promoted by Mao Zedong mutilated a nation in the sense that it appealed to the national traditions and cultural symbols of the Chinese nation but used them to ensure a more intense control over the population by inflicting a sense of terror and artificial commitment to the precepts of the Communist Party. However, the Cultural Revolution changed the way in which the Chinese society developed and affected tens of generations that still recall the Revolution and its outcome.

Bibliography

Chang, Jung. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. Simon and Schuster, London, 1991.

Heng, Liang. Son of the Revolution.….....