The Cultural Revolution was a political frenzy that lasted for many years, and ended for many with the death of Chairman Mao. Some Chinese and westerners see this time period in Chinese history as one of the biggest blemishes of the Chinese historical record. This is the conclusion we came to in the first half of this course, but we learned in the second half of the semester that there is a significant group of people who see the Cultural Revolution as their golden years. This essay will focus on how this group of Chinese people rationalizes their desire for things in China to go back to the way they were during the Cultural Revolution. This obsession with the Maoist era is not something that came about for no reason. This is what Chairman
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In the passage from Mao’s Children in the New China it says, “I’d previously loved in a shell that protected me from the sexual confusion felt by normal adolescents” (Jiang, P.16). This shell of the Cultural Revolution not only protected the Chinese people from sexual confusion, but also protected them from the evils that capitalism brought with it. When this shell was broken a wave of capitalist ideals flooded the Chinese people who had never experienced anything like it. Jiang goes on to say in a later chapter, “It’s not easy doing business today. Everyone wants to make money fast. If the Cultural Revolution was a period of political frenzy, now we’re living through a period of money frenzy” (Jiang, P.24). This new era that glorifies capitalists consists of money-crazed individuals is a stark contrast as to what individuals who lived through the cultural revolution expected the world to be like after Mao. The Cultural Revolution is a time period that should not be imitated, but did have some nostalgic qualities to it that many have remembered fondly. For the people who lived through the Cultural Revolution and still adhere to Maoist beliefs the new China that we see today can be seen as the wrong vision for the country. This is a byproduct of the Chairman Mao’s genius cult of personality, memories of the “golden years”, and the stubbornness that humans exhibit when change is forced upon
In the passage from Mao’s Children in the New China it says, “I’d previously loved in a shell that protected me from the sexual confusion felt by normal adolescents” (Jiang, P.16). This shell of the Cultural Revolution not only protected the Chinese people from sexual confusion, but also protected them from the evils that capitalism brought with it. When this shell was broken a wave of capitalist ideals flooded the Chinese people who had never experienced anything like it. Jiang goes on to say in a later chapter, “It’s not easy doing business today. Everyone wants to make money fast. If the Cultural Revolution was a period of political frenzy, now we’re living through a period of money frenzy” (Jiang, P.24). This new era that glorifies capitalists consists of money-crazed individuals is a stark contrast as to what individuals who lived through the cultural revolution expected the world to be like after Mao. The Cultural Revolution is a time period that should not be imitated, but did have some nostalgic qualities to it that many have remembered fondly. For the people who lived through the Cultural Revolution and still adhere to Maoist beliefs the new China that we see today can be seen as the wrong vision for the country. This is a byproduct of the Chairman Mao’s genius cult of personality, memories of the “golden years”, and the stubbornness that humans exhibit when change is forced upon