Chinese History- The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

Since I'm going to China this summer, I've been doing a lot of research about China and it's history. One thing that I encountered was the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Not many people know about it, but it's one of the most important events in Chinese history. Still, there is an uncertainty of why it happened.

The Cultural Revolution occurred from 1966 to 1976, and occurred mainly because Mao Zedong wanted to show everyone that he was the all-powerful leader. To do this, Mao repressed people who he thought rejected him and his ideas, and he killed innumerable amounts of innocent people who he thought to be a threat. One of Mao’s theories is that a privileged class had risen in China, and these consisted of educated people. Mao thought that the working class, the proletariat, should have some power and should control society. Thus, Mao told his followers to start brutally murdering and injuring teachers, scientists, economists, and other educated people. Mao wanted to create a classless society, a society in which no class had more benefits than another.

After Mao declared his desire, two main groups were organized. The first was the Red Guard, which consisted of a bunch of students and youths who fought against educated people, often killing their own teachers. By doing this, it often sparked a cascade of wrath in which people started killing others for no good reason. Although the main function of the Red Guards was to teach people about Mao’s ideas, they became especially brutal to those who opposed Mao. Those students who opposed Mao in the end were not educated and China lost much of educated people through the Cultural Revolution.

One story during the Cultural Revolution deals with a little boy, and he describes China as turning from “black to white.” He said everything became chaotic. His father was sent away to the countryside to work, and the boy had to fend for himself. He explained that he grew up quite quickly because he had to understand what was going on to survive. However, stories of Chinese people during this time aren’t very numerous because the Chinese government does not encourage talk about this time period. Many Chinese do not want to remember.

The Cause of the Depression

No depression or recession was as severe as the Great Depression of the 1930s. The U.S. didn't recover from the depression until the onset of World War II when lots of products were needed for the war effort. It began slowly. Consumer spending declined after 1927 and housing construction slowed- inventories piled up. Economy in recession by 1929. The stock market was the symbol of American wealt and business culture. However, only 10% of nation's homes owned stock (4 million people) in 1929. Stock prices rose steadily since 1921, and then increased quickly in '28 and '29. Margin buying occurred (small down payment and finance the rest with loan).

Black Thursday and Black Tuesday: 28 million shares changed hands in trading. Stock values fell from $87 billion to $55 billion. As a result, banks started to close. Great Crash was certainly a cause, but there were other causes. Farmers had never recovered from 1920 and 1921 recession. Also, there was an uneven distribution of the nation's wealth, in part due to Mellon's tax policies. In 1929, the poorest 40% of population made up 12.5% of aggregate family income, while the richest 5% received 30%.

After it began, the Depression was self perpetuating. One bank closure caused another and so forth. These are just the basics of how the Depression began. This simply touches the surface.

The Holocaust- no reason needed

At the same exhibit I was talking about earlier, the presenters were saying how we used to remember it so that it wouldn't happen again. But that the thing is, it happened again and again. It happened in Cambodia. It happened in the Balkans. It's happening in Darfur, Sudan. Some may say that there is no longer a reason to remember because the world is going to hate no matter what. People are going to hate and discriminate no matter what. Maybe that is true, but the Holocaust is remembered so that maybe someone that hates doesn't hate. Maybe it does change someone. I know that the Holocaust has changed me- in so many ways. There doesn't need to be a reason why people educate others about what happened during the Holocaust. It's an event that changed the world and will only continue to change people if it is known. People need to know about it, and they shouldn't have an excuse why not.