Mao Cultural Revolution
A. Plan of Investigation
In 1966, Mao mobilized the Chinese youth to initiate the "Cultural Revolution", a violent process
eliminating old Chinese culture, customs, thoughts and habits, purging "counter–revolutionary"
party members, and heightening Mao's personality cult. I will summarize evidence collected from
textbooks, official documents, biographies and eyewitness reports about the events between 1959
and 1966. I will describe the failure of the Great Leap Forward, Mao's resignation as president, his
power struggle with Liu Shoaqi and Deng Xiaoping and the propagating of his personality cult.
Then I will identify how these events may have given Mao reasons for launching the Cultural
Revolution, and whether his motives were of ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
The people's faith in the government was partially restored; Liu's and Deng's popularity grew.
Furthermore, at the Conference of 7000 in 1964, instead of supporting Mao, Liu gave a speech
suggesting that the CCP was to blame for the economic failures and forced Mao into some" half–
hearted self–criticism" In October 1964, Khrushchev was sacked. In Nov 1964, the Russian defence
minister said to a Chinese delegation "We got rid of our fool, Khrushchev, now you get rid of yours,
Mao."
2. Establishment of the personality cult
Mao's lack of public appearances after 1958 had damaged his image and his authority. Since 1963,
the "Little Red book" ("Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse–tung"), compiling Mao's statements on
his views and ideology, had been a standard Chinese text, and his personality cult was
systematically fostered by Lin Biao , his faithful Minister of Defence, using various forms of
propaganda and giving him popular titles such as "The red sun rising in the East" . Mao re–entered
public life on 16 July 1966 with an appearance of him swimming in the Yangtze River, to promote
his strength. He frenzied the admiration of the Chinese youth, which he was hoping to mobilize for
revolutionary purposes.
3. The launch and effects of the Cultural Revolution
On May 16, 1966, the CCP announced the start of the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" which
called for a destruction of the old, bourgeois Chinese culture,
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