Understand Red China through Wanli’s Personal Experience

Session 5

Timeline of Mao’s Red China

• The Korean War from 1950-1953

• Suppress Counterrevolutionaries Campaign 1950-1951

• Land Reform from 1950-1952

• Hundred Flowers Campaign in 1957

• Anti-Rightest Campaign in 1957

• The Great Leap Forward in 1958

• The Cultural Revolution from 1966-1976

• Deng Xiaoping’s Economic Reform from 1978

I-1. Mao’s Red China and Class Struggle• The People’s Republic of China in 1949

• Class Division– Leaders:

• Chinese Communist Party Officials

– Relying groups: • Workers

• Poor and Lower-Middle Peasants

– Neutral group: Middle-ranking peasants– Enemies:

• Rich Peasants

• Landlords/Capitalists

I-2. The Anti-Rightist Campaign in 1957反右斗争

• Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization in 1956– Anti-communist uprisings in Hungary and

Poland in 1956

• Mao’s Response– Hundreds Flowers Campaign

• "Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend 百花齐放，百家争鸣 . "

– The Anti-Rightist Movement• 500,000 rightists

• Killed democracy in society

I-3. The Great Leap Forward 1958 - 1961

• It was an economic and social campaign which aimed to use China's vast population to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a modern communist society through the process of rapid industrialization and collectivization.– Catch up the US and surpass the Great Britain – The People’s Commune

• A big Famine from 1959-61 and led to the death of from 20 million to 40 million people

People’s Communes

• At the Politburo meetings in August 1958, it was decided that these people's communes would become the new form of economic and political organization throughout rural China. By the end of the year approximately 25,000 communes had been set up, with an average of 5,000 households each. The communes were relatively self-sufficient co-operatives where wages and money were replaced by work points.

I-4. Mao purged Peng Dehuai in 1959

• Peng Dehuai, Minister of Defense, criticized Mao for his Great Leap Forward Movement

• Consequence– Peng lost his position – No more democracy/

criticism against Mao

in the Chinese Communist

Party any more

I-5. The Cultural Revolution from 1966-76

• Goals of the movement– Power struggle (Mao stepped down in 1959)

– Maintain the momentum of the Chinese Revolution and keep China on the road of socialism

• The Red Guards

• Political purge and the Revolution Committee replaced existing government administration at all levels

• Lin Biao’s death

• Mao lost the Mandate of Heaven– The Tiananman Square demonstration in April 1976

– Tiangshan earthquake in 1976

– Mao’s death in 1976

Consequences of the Cultural Revolution

• Paralyzed the existing government in all the levels

• Staganated economic development

• Liu Shaoqi and a group of top leaders either died or lost power

• Old tradition lost and no new ideology was established

• Whole society was in chaos

• Realization of the danger of personal cult and life-rule

II-1. My Family

• A generation who were born in Red China and grew up under Red Flag (生在新中国，长在红旗下）

• A family of three generations with 9 members (Grandma, parents, six brothers and sisters)

• My grandfather’s fate

II-2. My Wife’s Family• Father-in-law: First Mayor of Suzhou City in 1949• Mother-in-law: a CCP member and head of the Union• My wife and her younger brother and sister• My wife’s uncle, a high-ranking KMT official

– Head of Suzhou Library– Put into jail, then was executed

• My wife-in-law’s fate– Lost his position of mayor and became a principal of

vocational school– Vice President of Shaanxi Industrial University– Rightest in the Party in 1959

II-3. My Memory in 1950s

• Anti-Rightest Campaign

• My neighbor’s fate

• My father-in-law’s fate

My Life in the Countryside in 1968& in a Factory in 1970s

• Mao’s instruction– Settle down in the countryside to receive education

from poor peasants and lower-middle peasants.

– Work in a factory

– The Tiananmen Square Protest in 1976

– Premier Zhou’s will event

– My wife’s bad luck

II-4. My Life at Shaanxi Normal University from 1978 to 1989

Deng Xiaoping’s Economic Reform

Resumed the College Entrance Examination in 1978

My life at Shaanxi Normal University

My experience during the Tiananmen Square Incident in 1989

The Fate of the First Generation of Red China

• Hunger in the Famine from 1959-61

• No more education from the Cultural Revolution

• Late marriage

• One-Child Policy

• Early retirement when China adopted the market system

Discussion• What are Mao's achievements?

• What is Mao's legacy and how to evaluate his legacy?

• Why did Mao want to be an ally with the Soviet Union in 1949 and why did he split with the Soviet Union?

• Why did Mao launch the Cultural Revolution and how to evaluate the Cultural Revolution?

• What motivates Mao and Nixon to approach each other?

• Why did Mao claim that he was another first Qin Emperor?

• Why did George Washington quit his president position while Mao held the power to his death?

• Do you have different impression/opinion of Mao before and after watching the movies?