U3 Blast: Red Scarf Girl

Background

China’s Cultural Revolution was one of the darkest, most tumultuous and violent

times in Chinese history. Before 1949, China was in a state of chaos. When Mao Zedong
came into power and founded the People’s Republic of China, China became a
communist country, taking cues from its neighbor, the Soviet Union.

But by the mid 1960s, Mao Zedong felt that the country needed to “purify” its intent

toward communism. China was leaning toward capitalism again. People owned land
and profited from businesses. In 1966, he launched what is now called the Cultural
Revolution. It was an effort to bring back the patriotism and revolutionary spirit that had
permeated the country when the People’s Republic of China was first formed. The main
goal of the Cultural Revolution was to replace all art, culture, and intellectualism with
communist and socialist thought. Books and art were burned, and anyone who was
deemed an intellectual was mistrusted and often sent to labor camps to be brainwashed.

Background

Chairman Mao’s initiative was spearheaded by the nation’s youth. Mao called on

the younger generations to criticize the older members of society for their bourgeois
values and capitalist leanings. Many schools were closed in order to focus children’s
efforts on the Red Guard, a group of students who harassed the elderly and people with
intellectual leanings. Young people were sent to labor camps where they were
brainwashed into believing that their parents were a threat to the government. Children
from middle class families in the city were sent to live on farms. They worked instead of
going to school.

Soon, China devolved into chaos. Different factions of the Red Guard were vying for

power and the economy was failing due to the decline in industrial productivity. By the
mid 1970s, new officials were in power and they worked to stabilize the country. Still, the
effect on Chinese children who had grown up during the Cultural Revolution was huge.
Many children who had been trained to betray their parents, become members of the
Red Guard, or work on farms and camps suffered later in their lives.