The Great Proletarian Revolution
Transcript of The Great Proletarian Revolution
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Cultural Revolution: China
By: Helen Zhu 8-‐‑6
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Everyone, soldiers, peasants, all alike had a copy of the liAle red book
Holding up the liAle red book like the bible during a prayer
January 20th, 1964 The Great Leap Forward was a failure; Mao Zedong failed to do what he promised. He told the peasants that there would be a beAer world if they worked harder and gave more to the government. But in doing so, Mao caused one of the most tragic and horrifying events in Chinese History. The peasants starved, I heard stories of the gruesome cannibalism that people resorted to. Because of the shame of causing that, Mao left the country in ruins. But following his leave, Lui Shao Qi came into power, he made everything beAer, he was mending the broken country left in Mao'ʹs wake. We were developing, we were industrializing, and we were changing for the beAer. Lui Shao Qi helped us grow; we were slowly catching up to the West, slowly but none the less catching up! Most of the people still believed that Mao’s plan would work and Mao was brilliant. If only they would open their eyes and see Lui Shao Qi was fulfilling the promises that Mao made. But just when we thought that China was great, Mao published the Li3le Red Book. He came back into power, once again won over the people of China. He used a cult of personality to redeem himself, to reclaim the power and control he once had. Students, children, and adults, were given a copy of the liAle red book, it was as if it was their bible and Mao was their god. Everyone was quoting him, his face on every poster, every wall, and every corner. Everywhere you went he was watching, observing, waiting for you to make a mistake. It surprises me to no end, how these people who starved and died because of Mao, still treat and act as if he was a gift, sent by god himself. Do you peasants not see that he was the cause of your starvation and devastation? He caused those deaths, the blood of innocent people are on his hands. He is not doing any good; I feel that we will once again go into tragedy and chaos. And whom do we have to blame? The infamous Mao, cause once again he has the people blinding following his orders. Why can’t they just wake and realise that we the intellectuals are right? I guarantee that with Mao back in charge, China will not improve; we will once again fall into the hands of destruction. Mao will destroy our destiny, he will destroy the world we have tried so hard to mend and wreck the future. All those empty promises and broken dreams, our future holds nothing but the mistakes of the past.
Journal Entry 1
People puAing up DaziBao’s
People admiring the revolutionary DaziBao’s
May 25th, 1966 How dare she? That women’s heart is as cold as ice. Nie YuanZi made a DaZiBao with names of people, colleges, she thought that were anti-‐‑revolutionaries. Sure, maybe one or two of them were, but they trusted her, and she betrayed their trust. I can'ʹt believe her; I'ʹm just lucky that she doesn'ʹt suspect me. The revolutionaries are, uh... How do I put it nicely, unkind? They have targeted the people named on the Da ZiBao. I fear this is just the beginning of the chaos, for with the Da ZiBao the revolutionaries will believe that almost everyone are bourgeois anti-‐‑revolutionaries. These signs are weapons created by Mao, to harm and target those he thinks are doing wrong. Why would he do that, he loved us, he told us that he would do anything for the country, and yet here he is breaking us apart, making us turn against our families. Its barbaric what’s happening, it’s like the great leap forward all over again. All of the students in the courtyard were excited; they were revolutionaries, soldiers trained to obey. I remember it vividly, standing out in the courtyard with all the other students; we were told that Nie YuanZi had a special announcement. She proudly walks out of the building, everyone is silent, its so quite you could hear a pin drop. She slowly puts the poster up; the minuets feel like hours, suddenly its up for the whole school to see. Oh my, it was poster with the names of the colleges she had thought were bourgeois anti-‐‑revolutionaries. The courtyard buzzes with whispers. "ʺWhat does she thinks she’s doing"ʺ "ʺthat a great idea! Why didn'ʹt I think of it?"ʺ All around me I hear people whispering about how brilliant it is, and all I can think is why? I couldn'ʹt even process how heart breaking it was to see her sell out her own friends. I look over at a fellow professor, another friend of Nie YuanZi, he looks at me, I can see his heart breaking, the betrayal in his eyes, and we share a look of acknowledgment. It pains me to the core, Nie YuanZi a friend, helped Mao create one of his revolutionary weapons the DaZiBao.
Journal Entry 2
Students humiliating their teachers Red Guards beating up a anti-‐‑revolutionist
January 5th, 1967 Caught in a whirlwind of chaos and violence, nothing seemed fair. I was recently imprisoned, but I got the beAer end of the deal than most. A fellow professor is also here, we talk of the chaos and how things were beAer before, nostalgia. The chaos created by Mao, china'ʹs "ʺgreatest leader"ʺ was unimaginable, I thought the famine was rock boAom for us, but it seems I was wrong. He ordered the peasants to overthrow the political party; he claims it is for the communism and the country. While we intellectuals suspect it is because he is a wolf craving for more power. He has created so much chaos, that it wouldn'ʹt be a surprise if he left again. The violence is geAing crazy; people are humiliating their professors and teachers by making them kneel in the town with a heavy board hung on their neck like a pendant of shame. I remember being there for one of them; tears were streaming down my face as I watched one of my friends being humiliated. The steel wire that acted as a necklace for the shameful board was cuAing into his neck. "ʺStop! Please I beg you to save him!"ʺ I wanted to yell, fearing the same fate. I held my tongue, furiously wiping the tears away, my lip bleeding from biting down preventing me from yell out. I turn away just as his head rolls off. I can'ʹt bear it anymore. If it had been another time, and in a different situation, I would have thought it was quite ironic, his favourite book Alice in Wonderland, off with his head, I might have even laughed. I carefully sneak back into the shadows hoping no one noticed me, it was all we did nowadays, hiding in the shadows, cowering away from people, like ghosts drifting past looking for their way. Now in this cell, I can hear the sounds of children mourning for their parents, parents crying for their children. I cry at night for the children who are drafted to fight this imaginary war, I cry for the people who didn'ʹt get to live, I cry for those who didn'ʹt have a chance, but most of all I cry for those who will never experience anything but sorrow, loss, and death.
Journal Entry 3
People going down to the countryside
Propaganda poster of the red guards going down to the countryside
"December 20th, 1968 "I don’t know how long I’ve been in here; it could be days, weeks, maybe even years. I can’t remember the last time I felt the warmth of the sun, the blue of the sky, the laughter of children. But most importantly I can’t remember the last time I felt happiness and hope. " "Outside the cold dark walls that imprisoned our souls, the chaos is ending; the military that guards our hearts and happiness tell us stories of what’s going on. The Red Guards are being sent back, the forces of evil are retreating back into the shadows. Finally, Mao realised the mistake he made, unable to maintain order and control over china while the Red Guards running around, like rabid dogs attacking innocent people. He was sending them to the countryside to get education, most of them children who didn’t go to school. Before the Cultural Revolution they were children, happy, full of hope, now their just shells of their past, full of hatred, and violence. 小红,my guard was currently telling me about how her sister was sent down, but she was needed here so she was told not to go. Most of these students lost years of their lives and education for a war, puppets on a string, and Mao the puppet master. Doing things with out even thinking, soldiers trained since the day they were born to believe in Mao, I pray for the souls of those children. I pray that his nightmare ends. She told me that most of the children are dying there, from malnutrition, diseases and exhaustion. " "There wasn’t enough food to feed all the Red Guard, the children had to work incredibly hard just for some food. Most of them died from malnutrition or exhaustion. Cause of that, some people take their lives, wanting to die on their own terms and not in pain. The Cultural Revolution has left China in a terrible state, we are way behind the west, the dreams and hopes of industrializing and becoming a developed country were now just dreams. "
Journal Entry 4
Lin Biao Mao’s right hand man Plane crash where Lin Biao died
September 13th, 1972 The sounds I didn’t know I had missed, the chirping of the birds, the buzzing of the bees. The leaves crunching beneath my feet, the wind caressing my hair, my torn raAy dress billows out around me. I’m never going back, it’s as if all those years I was a ghost, walking in between the world of the living and the dead. Everything’s hazy as if I was looking through a glass, into the crazy chaotic country China. I recently just found out that Mao murdered Lin Biao. They said that Lin Biao had been conspiring against Mao, stabbing in the back quite literally so, he made an aAempt on Mao’s life. Mao was growing more and more furious as time went on, his own right hand man tried to kill him. Just like in the past Mao eliminated anyone that was a threat to him, his power, or his throne. This time was no different. Lin Biao was escaping with his family to Mongolia, Mao sabotaging the plane making it crash miles before it reached its destination. The word spread quickly about what happened, traveling from person to person like bees in a hive. Lin Biao who once helped develop and make china a beAer place was now labelled as a traitor. The people were beyond confused, why was he labelled as a traitor, they started questioning the political part. They didn’t announce his death until a year later, honestly a lot of my friends and I figured it out already, Mao didn’t talk about Lin Biao anymore, he wasn’t seen anymore. It’s as if he just disappeared. Now with Mao Ze Dong back in power, I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen. Some of the greatest things that have happened are because of him and some of the worst are also because of him. All those years of the Cultural Revolution, feels like a dream that you just can’t remember. A memory you remember, but only bits and pieces.
Journal Entry 5
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Works Cited