POLITICAL INJUSTICES CULTURAL REVOLUTION IN MAO S CHINA
POLITICAL INJUSTICES – CULTURAL REVOLUTION IN MAO’S CHINA Freedom of thought, freedom of expression, freedom to be oneself. These are all things that people in the United States take for granted on a daily basis; however, in China, during the Cultural Revolution, these things were stripped away from the people and mass suffering resulted. The mindless attempt at revolutionizing the nation in the Cultural Revolution resulted in the manipulation of the minds of the bourgeoisie, or working class, through mechanical propaganda support as well as a brainwashing of China’s youth. The story of Yu Hua’s The Past and the Punishments reflects the permanent mental taxation that the proletarian Cultural Revolution brought upon the people of Communist China from 1966-1976 through its use of many literary devices and techniques. Mao Zedong’s idealistic attempt at revolutionary reform in the Cultural Revolution resulted in the manipulation of the minds of China’s working class. The domestic turmoil from 1966-1976, which was one of the most wrenching and complex mass movements in history, is the basic definition of the great proletarian Cultural Revolution (Train 1). Mao’s ideal nation, full communism amongst all citizens, required all of its citizens to be revolutionaries, and this shows how the movement really lacked any sense of realism (“Mao” 3). Therefore, due to the fact that Mao set out to create an entire nation of revolutionaries, he set out to change the minds of the bourgeoisie, and this resulted in a great struggle within the people (“Mao” 4). ... The wishes of Mao at the outset of the revolution were to transform the entire population of China through very specific cultural purification and reform of thought (Train 2). This was to be achieved by brainwashing the Chinese people to strive to become the mythical ‘New Socialist Man’, a person who adhered to all values of Mao and to conform to the wishes of Mao’s society (Train 4).