Cultural Revolution of the Chinese (1966-1976) started when the then leader of the Communist party, Mao Zedong launched it in bid to reaffirm his authority over the elite government. In the belief that the ruling leaders were driving China and the party towards the wrong course, he called out for the youth to wash out what he termed as ‘impure’ components of Chinese society 1 . This move was initiated to bring to life the spirit that China had to lead them to conquest in the civil war about 20 decades before to form the People’s Republic of China. The Cultural Revolution would continue till 1976 when Mao died, and its rough effect would later shape the Chinese society and politics.
In the beginning of this uprising, President Liu Shaoqi and other ruling elites in his government were impeached. In 1969, Liu succumbed to torture. Several groups sprung by the identity of the Red Guard movement and by September 1969, many cities had reached the threshold of mayhem. This made Mao to order Lin to send army troops in to reestablish order 2 . The army then drove out the Red Guard movement forcing them into the countryside, where they resisted. Disorder erupted and the Chinese economy fell making production from industries to drop by 12% in 1968 compared to the one of 1966 3 .
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Lin was to become Mao’s successor in 1969. However, he exercised great greed for power and insinuated that the clash with the bordering Soviet troops were a threat and thus used this excuse to wage a martial law. Mao was disturbed with this premature power grab and started to maneuver around Lin’s back with the help of the Chinese premier, Zhou Enlai, leading to a split of ranks of power in the China’s top government. Lin died in a plane crash in Mongolia while attempting to flee to the Soviet Union late 1971 4 . Consequently, his troop was purged and Zhou resumed the command and had a greater control of the government. The demise of Lin made most of the Chinese people to feel disappointed over the development of Mao’s “upright revolution”, which crumbled seemingly in the verge of ordinary power struggles.
Zhou had a vision of stabilizing China by restoring numerous former officials to power and reviving the educational system. This idea received a blow when in 1972, he learned that he had cancer, and Mao suffered a stroke 5 . This ordeal made both of them to support Deng Xiaoping, who initially had been expelled during the infant stages of Cultural Revolution, and this move sparked opposition from the radical Jiang and her allies (Gang of Four). This made the Chinese politics to be shaped and be in tatters in the following years amid the antagonists. In April 1976, Jiang and the Gang coaxed Mao to oust Deng few months after Zhouhad died. Later in the same year, Mao died and a coalition between the police, civil, and the military ousted the Gang of Four and eventually Deng resumed power. He would later maintain it for the next 2 decades.
1.5 million People perished during the Cultural Revolution, and millions of others were jailed, tortured, displaced, their property seized and generally humiliated. The immediate effect of this uprising was felt majorly in the cities but the enduring impacts were felt all over China years later. Eventually, Mao’s offensive towards the party, and the government he had created would bring results opposite of what he anticipated, leading to many citizens losing faith in their government in the long run. The impact would drain several societal and political systems and thus the basis of this paper.
Effect on Education
As the Revolution progressed, most learning institutions stopped usual operations for quite a long time. This was characterized by student recruitment in senior schools stopping for more than five years and college recruitment stopping for a relatively longer time period 6 . Massive interruptions in schools caused decreased opportunity for a big number of students in gaining university degrees and qualifications to get admissions in senior high schools 7 . As a result, it is estimated that the ones who could not obtain a college degree due to Cultural Revolution lost almost 50 % of their potential earnings. Both genders suffered the blow of getting senior high school certificates with some quitting their education in junior high level 8 .
The period brought high grades of educational reforms which when critically reviewed, are both reasonable and failed 9 . This reforms can be critiqued by having a light of postmodern curriculum theories. The aspects of educational reforms during the Revolution and which are in line with the postmodern theories are of sound nature in intention. First of all, the intentions are wipe out the feudal ideas deeply rooted in education, to open up learning opportunities for the neglected individuals, and promoting hands-on form of education while teaching relevant information. However, the movement from one extreme to the next, the throwing away of the old reforms and their roots, the breaking down without comprehensive construction, the forceful nature of implementing the changes, and the appearance of the new elite that led to the fall of the reform.
Along with the educational reforms that accompanied it, the Cultural Revolution in China was a test on the large scale thus influencing the life of a young generation as a whole and the adults who were in the realm of schooling in the country 10 . The understanding of these impacts can be of help to countries of the world with the related problems and help them use alternative ways in developing the education sector. The connection to the rest of the countries is that some face heightened periods of radical politics, with the Chinese one being on the extreme side of the spectrum 11 . Chinese education has mostly been linked to legislation philosophically and institutionally. Mao and his allies took on the youth and formed brigades of Red Guards to bombard the Communist headquarters 12 .
The height of Revolution, the intellectuals were taken to the rural areas to be taught by the occupants. The students and workers were all forced to participate in the uprising while everything else in China was shut down, including schools. Students and teachers were engaging to destroy the deep rooted ideology, ancient culture, outdated habits and customs. All systems of old literature, textbooks, art and shows were forbidden in the schools 13 . Education, the string through which the social and economic fabric is knit, was the first target of attacks. Mao believed that to revolutionize education, there was need to abolish the Confucian culture in order to build a socialist country 14 . The culture involved making people to learn moral principles by learning the guidelines of social affairs and moral codes.
The culture was opposed to the traditional Chinese culture which concentrated on the teaching of ways of selecting the ruling elite rather than development of personality and true education. The traditional form of education was more biased towards book knowledge than hands-on skills. Instructions in this system stressed on memorization and crushed the spirit of initiative and free thinking of the students. To enter a certain level of the education system, one had to take admission examination. It led to tough competitions among students 15 . The children from well-off families tended to perform better than their counterparts from a semi-literate working class background 16 . In 1966, Mao abolished entrance examinations with the intent of reducing the students’ background gap. This would make the children of the working class be admitted 17 . The link between classroom progress and upward achievement was cut entirely hence availing education to every student through introduction of senior middle school. Once a student left this level, they were given jobs regardless of their academic records. It was upon the relevant company to decide whether the individual could go to college or not, based on their performance on the job.
So by 1968, the reformed school had many characteristics. One of them is that it erased the methodical teaching of theoretical concepts and initiated the teaching of concepts that were related to industrial production and agriculture 18 . Apart from just learning in the classrooms, students would be required to work in the fields and their educational performance was no longer rewarded or celebrated in the classrooms. University entrance examination was scrapped off to reduce the difficulty in admission 19 . Additionally, graduates were assigned to work in plants or given jobs on rural farms, whence they would be selected to be admitted to the university. Finally, there was a reduced length of learning in the pre-tertiary school from 12 years to 10 years.
However, the system faced myriad challenges. It was so challenging to get back the students to the mood of education after working. The teaching profession was demoralized and there was a feeling that there was no need of learning if all the students needed was to know how to work in the factories 20 . Administration of the learning institutions was moved from the jurisdiction of the learned intellectuals to that of the workers, warriors, government officials and peasants 21 . The idea was to break an old culture and replace it with a new one.
Effect on the Society
Cultural Revolution was an insightful and heated struggle of the direction the Chinese society will take and who would rule it between the working people or a noble class. Mao and his political force behind the Communist Party organized people rebel and prevent the conquest of China by the Capitalist and to send a shock wave to the section of the party that became increasingly allied to the bureaucratic system. However, the uprising was more than that
The people pushed the revolutionary transformation of Chinese economy, culture, social institutions, and values and they were also restructuring the Communist Party in the long run 22 . According to Mao, this was the result of pushing the revolution under the dictatorship of the masses.
The methods in which the revolution was carried out are quite different from the known dictatorships where people are sent to work in slavery camps and tortured. In this one, Laborers, farmers, and people from all corners of the country converged to criticize the corrupt rule. They carried out heated debates about the economic policies, culture, the system of education, and the significance of the Communist Party to the masses of people 23 . Mao had little or no interest in “eliminations.” He used the bottom up approach and called the masses to act to rout the enemies of revolution. He called on the people to “bombard the headquarters” and conquer the few capitalist crusaders who were trying to return the society back to the authorities of capitalism. Critical assessment shows that these were tremendously political incitation.
The result was violence between the bureaucrats and the uprising youth. However, only a minority of the movement was involved in the war 24 . Much of the violence that erupted was fueled by the capitalism top officials seeking to retain their rooted position. One of their tactics was to marshal groupings of workers and farmers to the people in disguise that it was Cultural Revolution. This happened when they were sharply criticized. They created their own Red Guard movement which went wild and this was an attempt to make them not face the struggle and to discredit the Cultural Revolution.
The uprising brought discussions in the society about the need to narrow the gap of inequalities between men and women, city and countryside, mental and manual labor, and between industry and agriculture. It was an objective of the Maoist movement to disintegrate the cultural unevenness that prevailed in China when the elites ruled the country. Previously, the situation was such that professionals, artists, and intellectuals were focused in the urban areas and detached from the other people, especially those living in the countryside making about 80% of the country’s total population 25 . Professionals such as doctors, artists, and the workers who have scientific and technical skills, and all kinds of people with educatiom were commanded to go among the countryside workers and farmers, to experience the state of life of the rural workers, to transfer their knowledge and wisdom and eventually to exchange their skills to solve the societal needs of the dwellers, and to learn from them.
China created in the Mao era was keen to avoid the style of Western world to have an overconcentration on the urban state. The Cultural Revolution had a vision to connect agricultural and industrial development, discourage regional inequalities, and devolve productive capabilities. This is the strategy that brought consideration to the wellbeing of the formerly neglected people living in the rural area and gave importance to their needs.
However, this strategy brought with it self-alienation to the rest of the world. China cut links with the west and the Soviet Union. But, after the great destruction that resulted from the Cultural Revolution, Chinese government called upon the Western developers to help rebuild the country. Nevertheless, come 21st century, China has considered cracking a harsh whip on corruption thus running in a risk of isolating itself again. The consequences, however, may be dire than we think in real time.
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