Reply #68: Mao's Little Red Book and Red Guards [View All]

[EC]

were all brainwashed children..."The Killing Fields"

Mao's return to power in 1966 put an end to "creeping capitalism." To purify the revolution Mao appealed to young people, who nearly destroyed Chinese society by pitting one faction against another, even children against their parents. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese were executed, sent to jail, or exiled to re-education camps. Yet, surprisingly, by the early 1970s the political tide began to turn in favor of capitalistic America.

As Mao toppled Deng Xiaoping and others from power, his great "Cultural Revolution" proceeded to devastate Chinese society. His call to young people caused 11 million "Red Guards" to quit school and flock to Beijing to attack Mao's rivals. Children turned in their parents. Teachers were humiliated, beaten, even killed. Artists and writers were tortured. Books, artwork, and records were destroyed.

When faced with imminent anarchy, the Peoples Liberation Army restored order and sent the Red Guards back to communes all over China. This mass communal effort was coined "The Green University," but with minimal education beyond Mao's "little red book" of quotations, these youth were later to be called "The Lost Generation."

http://hoover.archives.gov/exhibits/China/Political%20Evolution/1949-71/revolution.html