Download 8B-(10) Mao`s Cultural Revolution

Warm up & Recap #11
A) Who was Mao Zedong?
B) What was his “Great Leap Forward”?
C) Did it succeed?
(grab an IPad)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h
oc_09s_p08
….yeah….as we all know from the lessons…it
was a disaster…killing millions
So would Mao loose the respect of his
people and lose power in China after
this economic failure and millions
dead?
Actually…he will rule China until his
death in 1976
Mao’s Cultural Revolution
After the failure of the Great Leap Forward from 1958-60, Mao’s
position in government had gone down and to make it worse, an
economic crisis followed.
Mao knew…he needed to act quickly to get people back on his side….
In 1966, Mao Zedong launched what became known as a Cultural
Revolution in China. He did this to help him reassert his authority over
the Chinese government.
And…just like Hitler, guess who he called on for revolutionary spirit?
Mao called on the nation’s youth to help him purge the “impure”
elements of Chinese society and revive the revolutionary spirit that had
led to his and communist victory in the civil war 20 decades earlier and
the formation of the
People’s Republic of China.
Mao Zedong’s Cultural
Revolution at a glance
visually
(start at :27)
https://app.discoveryeduc
ation.com/learn/videos/f1
13a5f5-f1c0-439e-996514ea750177e8?hasLocalH
ost=false
In the video…you see this cult like devotion to Mao…just like Hitler
created within Germany….
He even shut down schools and called on the youth of China to help
pressure the adults to “change” and become “pure communists”
once again.
In time, the students of China formed paramilitary groups called the
Red Guards and attacked and harassed members of China’s elderly
and intellectual population.
Mao took the attention off of him and the failure of
economy he created…and had the Chinese point to
people to blame for the impure communism that was
springing up in China that had to be stopped
(Just like Hitler…having someone to blame for the
issues of China and getting your people to believe it)
To encourage the personality cult that sprang
up around Mao Zedong during the first phase
of the Cultural Revolution, Mao had something
created and distributed by the millions
throughout China.
(What do you notice in all the pictures?)
History now calls it “The Little Red
Book”
The Little Red Book
• The Little Red Book, really named, “Quotations
from Chairman Mao Zedong” , became an icon
of China and communism as well as a work of
propaganda. More than a billion copies have
been published, making the book, one of the
most widely produced books of all time. During
China's Cultural Revolution it became virtually
mandatory to own and carry one.
• There are 33 “units” to his pamphlet and 267
“statements” on topics from understanding
communism, to unity, discipline, youth, women,
culture & art, and what is important to study.
• Originally produced in 1964, by 1966, it became
a key feature of the Mao’s personality cult.
• A copy was given to every Chinese citizen
….Mao himself reportedly liked its resemblance
to books of quotations by early philosophers of
China such as Confucius and Lao Tzu (Taoism)
• In time, having the “little red book”
became forced on the people of China
• The "Red Guards" mobilized by Mao
to purify Communism in China, started
checking to see if people were
carrying it or whether they could
quote from it when asked.
• It became mandatory for people to
have a copy on them at all times and it
was to be memorized as well.
******************************
• What’s crazy? millions of copies were
published in translation and sold
abroad. It was taken up by Western
radicals such as the Black Panthers
even in America, and passed around
the Iron Curtain Eastern European
countries that Stalin had made sure
became Communist after WWII.
And…let’s just say in Britain….left-wing
bookshops have sold out of
it…again….here recently!
The Book becomes
necessity….
Throughout this school year…you have learned about
many types of governments…from good to bad….
From Hitler’s Fascist Nazism to FDR’s American
Democracy….
You’ve learned about many types of religions &
philosophies…From Hinduism, to Buddhism to
Christianity
You have learned
the importance of
law …
from the first eye for
an eye laws of
Hammurabi…to the
first laws to create
equality in Rome
through the Twelve
Tables
So…if you could choose the best type of philosophy, religion,
law or government….what would you choose?
**************
Mao chose no religion but him…no economic freedoms,
except the economy he created…he chose to force people to
farm…to memorize his “little red book” as life…
***********
If given then chance….
What would you do?
Creative Project Assignment
So if you could create your own “little red book” for
“your” country, what would it look like? What would
it say? What would be important for you and the
people of your country to believe? To follow?
(Pass out Rubric)