The Chinese Cultural Revolution

Paper Summary:

The late 1960s in China was known as the period of the Cultural Revolution and this was an attempt on the part of certain central Communist Party members to weed out dissent and to exert a tighter control. The paper discusses Jonathan Spence's "The Search for Modern China" which shows that the Cultural Revolution was a direct attack on all the old elements in Chinese society. The paper shows that what began as a push for the socialist purification of art would become pressure for the socialist purification of all aspects of society and life. The paper also examines "Chinese Awakenings" by James and Ann Tyson which documents the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution.

From the Paper:

"The structure of this book takes the reader from the peasant class upward through other levels of society to show how different individuals in different social classes are reacting to the new opportunities and the new economic forces. The idea of the entrepreneur is foreign to Communist China but is becoming more accepted. The question asked is, if it is desirable that some people become rich before others, then who should the people be, and what should be the extent of the income differences? The view taken now is that those who contribute most to the creation of society's wealth, and thereby set a good example for others, deserve to become rich first, and this group includes the entrepreneurs. This group came into existence in 1978 when the government decided to permit private individuals to engage in petty trades and services--areas in which the state sector had performed poorly--to help solve a growing unemployment problem. Because they provide much-needed services and are flexible in terms of business hours and locations, the business operators have prospered in general and have tended to earn more than state employees, and this in turn has caused some resentment."

More papers on The Chinese Cultural Revolution:

• Analytical Essay # 50244 : "Chinese Cultural Revolution"
• Book Review # 74796 : "The Great Cultural Revolution of China"
• Essay # 64619 : "The Cultural Revolution"

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