-
Setting the Stage for the Cultural Revolution
Mao's wife, Jian Qing, ordered a literary critic, Yao Wenyuan, to write a harsh and reprimanding review on a play directed by Beijing's mayor that appeared to Jiang Qing as a symbolic attack on Mao. As the critique gains traction, Jian Qing continues to criticize literature and art condemning the bourgeois, anti-party, and anti-socialists themes she finds in trending arts and cultures. Mao also starts replacing people in government positions with friends he trust. -
Unofficial beginning of the Cultural Revolution
The "May 16 Circular" issued by the Politburo expresses the intentions of the CCP: To suspend and expel bourgeoisie who have snuck into the government. Mao takes advantage of the students and establishes the Red Guard which he would use as instruments to hunt revisionists. The Cultural revolution starts to gain traction. -
The First Dazibao
A teacher from the University of Beijing writes the first Marxist Daizibao which is a big character poster attacking some of the university's professors and administrators by giving them the name "black, anti-party gangsters." This started a movement where other students started to create dazibaos to attack intellectuals, party officials, and people of wealth, especially those who have connections with foreign countries. -
Red Guards Assemble
Students who are extreme supporters of Mao form the Red Guard which Mao uses to fulfill his purpose. However, not all students knew what they were even doing, a number of the students joined due to personal issues such as dissatisfaction with the education systems or just out of the heat of the movement and wanting be a part of it. -
Mao's dazibao
Mao's dazibao states, "Bombard the headquarters." This dazibao was a direct attack against the Vice chairman of the CCP, Liu Shaoqi. This encouraged others to purge the CCP leaders. -
Sixteen Points Directive
The Eighth central committee of the CCP passes the Sixteen Points. This essentially means that the Chinese government supports Mao's intentions in dealing with China's economic policies and the presence of the Red Guards. -
Red Guards rally in Beijing
After being greeted and blessed by Mao at Tiananmen square, Mao gives the Red Guards a sense of power (right to rebel) by allowing them to "smash the Four Olds." An essential part of the rallies were the students showing off the Little Red Books and chanting praises of Mao. -
Things get heated
Red Guards use their power and right to rebel to ransack homes and obliterating and confiscating anything that had to do with the Four Olds or the Bourgeoisie or the Seven Kinds of Black. The violence gets escalated and results in beatings of more than 1700 people and innovations of 38000 homes. -
Promoting Mao
Qian Qing and Lin Biao aggressively promote Mao by displaying images of Mao and making people study his quotations in the “Little Red Book”. Mao’s cult of personality was being heavily promoted through this. This was also a means to recover his image as a caring ruler as the Red Guard's violence might have hindered the people. -
Down to the Countryside
In means to "reeducate" and reset the youth of China, Mao sends all the youth(including Red Guards) to the countryside where they did labour work and was thought through a new education system. The people who were sent down to the Countryside suffered and the CCP successfully suppresses the Youth from turning on them. -
Red Guards Dismantled
Mao sees the damage and the detrimental effects of the rebels and calls in the PLA to dismantle the Red Guards in hopes to restore order in the cities. -
Ninth Congress of the CCP
The new members of the Nith Congress of the CCP and the leaders who have survived the struggles and maintain their positions applauded the purging of the bourgeoisie, capitalists, revisionists, and counterrevolutionaries. Lin Bao is promoted to vice chairman of the CCP and was labeled Mao's successor. In a meeting, Mao officially claims the end of the Cultural revolution. -
The Lin Biao Affair
Lin Biao and other supporters in the military attempted a coup d'etat (forceful removal of a government) by attempting to assassinate Mao. Ultimately, this attempt failed and Lin's position and reputation were destroyed along with it and was forced to flee to Mongolia where his plane very suspiciously crashed. -
Falling action of the CR
Deng Xiao Ping replaces Zhou's place but immediately gets criticized by Jiang Qing and gets demoted by Mao and gets replaced with Mao's friend Hua Guofeng. Later in the year, Mao dies and Hua who was next in line orders the arrest of Jiang Qing and her supporters. This was the symbolic end of the CR -
Tienanmen Incident
Zhou Enlai dies and causes remorse among the Chinese people. During the memorial for this death in Tiananmen, people started to criticize Jiang Qing while Jiang Qing's followers attempt to remove memorials to Zhou, this causes a big riot. This later was known to be the Tiananmen Incident and was classified as Counterrevolutionary by the government. -
EVENT 1
January 1967, chaos escalates in Beijing Short term:People at the time suffered greatly from the beatings and the ransacking of homes. There was terror in the towns and the result was 1,700 people suffered from beatings and 38,000 home invasions.
Long term:Today, when we hear about Mao and the CCP, we get an underlying sense of tyranny. The fact that Mao allowed his Red Guards to be reckless, damaged his reputation along with the CCP for acting immoral. historical artifacts destroyed by RG -
EVENT 2
December 1968, Mao sends the Chinese youth down to the countryside
Short term :Many died from over labour, diseases, malnutrition, and starvations.
Long term: The CCP took advantage of the youth and successfully brainwashed and suppressed the youth from voicing an opinion or criticism against the government. Today we see many Chinese afraid to speak out as they were taught from a young age not to. This also limited the future of china due to lack of education and the traumatic experience. -
EVENT 3
September 1971 Lin Biao dies in plane crash after assasination faliure Sort term: The death of Lin Biao made the people secretly question Mao and his leadership Long term: The fact that the CCP tried to cover up for the death of Lin scares the people because it makes them wonder, how many more deaths or corrupt things are the CCP hiding? It also highlights the extent the CCP will go to protect their name and makes people fear the government even to this day.