Cultural Revolution
No tale of China would be complete without at least mentioning the Cultural Revolution, which made it what it is today. I can write about this now, at home, but I felt that I couldn't or shouldn't when I was in China. When we spoke about the Revolution among ourselves in China, it was always with hesitancy on my part, and usually in a lowered voice.
The facts of the Revolution are these, but they don't begin to convey a sense of what actually happened: the revolution was initiated by Mao to take power from the Chinese Communist Party in the years 1966-1969 and lasted through 1976, ending with Mao's death. Events leading to the revolution began even earlier in the late 1950's with Mao's Great Leap Forward, which was intended to increase industrial (mainly steel)and agricultural production. The Great Leap Forward failed to increase agricultural production because the peasants were all engaged in steel production, and it led to economic disaster, severe food shortages, and famine in China during the early 1960's. In order to stem the damage from the Great Leap, Mao banded with Liu Shaoqui and Deng Xiaoping, who began reversing some of the economic policies established during the Great Leap (a move away from pure socialism). When they began to have too much success and power, Mao accused them of corruption and began the Social Education Movement, which turned into the Four Cleanups Movement to cleanse "politics, economics, ideas, and organization". In effect, he wanted to remove Liu and Deng from power and purge China of his political enemies, the "imperialists", and the intellectuals who supported their ideology.
The purging that followed was horrific. Universities were the first targets, and intellectuals suffered. Mao's "Red Guards" did the purging. Mass chaos ensued as Mao lost control of the country and the purging spread to include the destruction of religious people and institutions, ancient art and cultural relics, old buildings and books. Forced exile of people (mostly intellectuals and scientists) to the countryside and mass "reeducation" occurred. Deaths in the period between 1966 and 1969 are estimated from 500,000 to the low millions. You can read a more full account of the political struggles here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_revolution.
Although it is rarely spoken of in China, reminders of the Cultural Revolution are everywhere: in the scarcity of paper, the encroaching desert, the pollution of the cities, the undrinkable water. The revolution is also in the restaurant with the headless Buddhas, the long line of people in Tiananmen Square waiting for a glimpse of Mao's body every morning, the people singing revolutionary hymns at the Temple of Heaven (eerily beautiful), and in the picture postcard of the Main Lecture Hall at Nankai University, from which tower people threw themselves rather than be tortured.
Most of all, it is in the people who bear its scars. One of the ladies at our retired professors luncheon had her head half-shaved and was paraded through the streets during that time; her husband was "sent to the countryside" and never returned. Her daughters never saw their father again. One of the staff in the Foreign Affairs Office had a father who threw himself from the tower of the Main Lecture Hall. The survivors are still alive. This is still fresh.
It is almost impossible to conceive of what happened in the Revolution - the scale of it, the recency of it, and how it possibly could have happened. How could such insanity grip a country that large? Perhaps it was more like a powerful wave of envy which swept through the cities. It is easy to understand the sort of envy which motivates people to steal beautiful things; it is harder to understand the sort of envy which causes people to destroy them.
The revolution was not so much a rising up as a pulling down. It was equality at the cost of magnificence: beauty, intelligence, and skill were sought out and destroyed to make way for the average and the mediocre. This ideology is summarized chillingly in the following quote: "If one stalk of wheat grows taller than the others, we must cut off its head."
China is a country of broken beauty, lost art, and buried treasure. It is unbearable to think of what was lost. You can see an ancient magnificence in the Great Wall and feel it in the Temple of Heaven. You can catch glimpses of what once was treasured in the antique markets which sell relics from the revolution. You can see what was lost in what's missing - in the dress of the retired lady professors who wear no jewelry and unnoticeable colors.
The facts of the Revolution are these, but they don't begin to convey a sense of what actually happened: the revolution was initiated by Mao to take power from the Chinese Communist Party in the years 1966-1969 and lasted through 1976, ending with Mao's death. Events leading to the revolution began even earlier in the late 1950's with Mao's Great Leap Forward, which was intended to increase industrial (mainly steel)and agricultural production. The Great Leap Forward failed to increase agricultural production because the peasants were all engaged in steel production, and it led to economic disaster, severe food shortages, and famine in China during the early 1960's. In order to stem the damage from the Great Leap, Mao banded with Liu Shaoqui and Deng Xiaoping, who began reversing some of the economic policies established during the Great Leap (a move away from pure socialism). When they began to have too much success and power, Mao accused them of corruption and began the Social Education Movement, which turned into the Four Cleanups Movement to cleanse "politics, economics, ideas, and organization". In effect, he wanted to remove Liu and Deng from power and purge China of his political enemies, the "imperialists", and the intellectuals who supported their ideology.
The purging that followed was horrific. Universities were the first targets, and intellectuals suffered. Mao's "Red Guards" did the purging. Mass chaos ensued as Mao lost control of the country and the purging spread to include the destruction of religious people and institutions, ancient art and cultural relics, old buildings and books. Forced exile of people (mostly intellectuals and scientists) to the countryside and mass "reeducation" occurred. Deaths in the period between 1966 and 1969 are estimated from 500,000 to the low millions. You can read a more full account of the political struggles here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_revolution.
Although it is rarely spoken of in China, reminders of the Cultural Revolution are everywhere: in the scarcity of paper, the encroaching desert, the pollution of the cities, the undrinkable water. The revolution is also in the restaurant with the headless Buddhas, the long line of people in Tiananmen Square waiting for a glimpse of Mao's body every morning, the people singing revolutionary hymns at the Temple of Heaven (eerily beautiful), and in the picture postcard of the Main Lecture Hall at Nankai University, from which tower people threw themselves rather than be tortured.
Most of all, it is in the people who bear its scars. One of the ladies at our retired professors luncheon had her head half-shaved and was paraded through the streets during that time; her husband was "sent to the countryside" and never returned. Her daughters never saw their father again. One of the staff in the Foreign Affairs Office had a father who threw himself from the tower of the Main Lecture Hall. The survivors are still alive. This is still fresh.
It is almost impossible to conceive of what happened in the Revolution - the scale of it, the recency of it, and how it possibly could have happened. How could such insanity grip a country that large? Perhaps it was more like a powerful wave of envy which swept through the cities. It is easy to understand the sort of envy which motivates people to steal beautiful things; it is harder to understand the sort of envy which causes people to destroy them.
The revolution was not so much a rising up as a pulling down. It was equality at the cost of magnificence: beauty, intelligence, and skill were sought out and destroyed to make way for the average and the mediocre. This ideology is summarized chillingly in the following quote: "If one stalk of wheat grows taller than the others, we must cut off its head."
China is a country of broken beauty, lost art, and buried treasure. It is unbearable to think of what was lost. You can see an ancient magnificence in the Great Wall and feel it in the Temple of Heaven. You can catch glimpses of what once was treasured in the antique markets which sell relics from the revolution. You can see what was lost in what's missing - in the dress of the retired lady professors who wear no jewelry and unnoticeable colors.
posted by jessica rabbit at 4:23 AM
2 Comments:
Here is a very disturbing book about the great leap forward. "Hungry Ghosts" http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0805056688/qid=1117567253/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-4052215-2896938?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
I taught ESL in Beijing for a year. One of my students found my copy in my stuff and told me that his father had made him read it. Apparently, as disturbing as it all is, it’s all true. 33 million died to fuel one man's vanity.
I think that what scares me most is that it was all very simple. And, I think that its happening here on a smaller scale. We are failing to support the core of our civilization - middle class, education, environment, job creation... while the super rich fringe cash in.
The arguments the communists used to separate the classes are similar to those currently being used here in the US to fuel the false nationalism. As an example: anyone who questions the bushies for lying is supposedly not supportive of our troops. This is a very common refrain from the administration and its supporters. The is no logic in this arguement. However, it does put one on the defensive - just like the class wars in China.
Interesting comments, and there are some parallels between the class situations in China and the US.
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