If you require any of these books and articles, then please contact Mr. Budd for copies and help in tracking them down:
Causes of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
Perspective |
Historian/Publications |
Evidence for this... |
Long-term Cultural Factors |
Lucian Pye – Reassessing the Cultural Revolution, The China Quarterly, 108, December 1986, 600-603 |
Cultural Revolution was a playing out of tensions behind the peasant uprisings that China had experienced from Han times onwards. Not enough to blame Mao or Lin Biao alone. Deeper examination of cultural and societal forces needed. He cited studies of Nazi Germany which looked at the state of German society and German culture rather than the motivations of Hitler: ‘What was it in the nature of Chinese culture and society that not only permitted but encouraged the extremism of that period?... What was the connection between their faith in the miraculous power of rebellion and the heterodox traditions of populist Taoism-Buddhism mysticism?’ |
Societal Pressures since 1949 |
Hong Yung Lee – The Politics of the Chinese Cultural Revolution: A Case Study, 1978 Anita Chan – Students and Class Warfare: The Social Roots of the Red Guard Conflict in Guangzhou, The China Quarterly, 83, September 1980, 397-446 |
Pre-Cultural Revolution social tensions led to the Red Guard violence. Students had to fight for dwindling opportunities. Abuse and violence grew as the students tried to show their devotion to the cause. They resented the subordinate status that had originally been placed upon them. Authoritarian personality characteristics that the Red Guards learned were powerfully linked to a new system of political socialisation that was based in the schools. The decline of the family as a socialisation agent was replaced by the authority of the state, and school-learned socialisation. |
Power Struggle |
Tang Tsou – The Cultural Revolution and Post-Mao Reforms: A Historical Perspective, 1986 |
Cultural Revolution limited political power and played a large part in the Post-Mao reforms in China. CR was not an abrupt break from the past but a continuation of a self-limitation of political authority that existed also in China’s traditional political system. CR and Red Guards were expressions of profound crisis in integration. In the struggle for power, two political forces divided the Chinese people and refused to be integrated. The use of violence WAS controlled, achieved the desired social change with the least disruptive effects. |
Indoctrination and the Cult of Personality |
Anne Thurson – Enemies of the People, 1987 |
Examined how the political upheaval affected people’s lives, challenging Tsou’s thesis. CR as tragedy not politics. Based largely on interviews with survivors conducted in 1981-82. CR surpassed only by the Nazi Holocaust. Explained Red Guard cruelty but stating that morality was a product of education, not inherent in nature. Cult of Mao elevated Mao to god, unquestioning faith and obedience. China had never been a society where individual judgement was encouraged. Role of the leader always more important than that of the individual. Mao’s power only served to enhance traditional subservience before authority. |
Nature of Regime and Societal Pressures |
Jonathan Spence – The Search for Modern China, 1990 |
The nature of Chinese politics was a system that bred both fear and compliance and made it possible for the mass campaigns of terror and intimidation. Red Guards viewed the CR as the struggle of one class to overthrow another. Blamed the frustrations of the Chinese students as a cause of the violence of the Cultural Revolution. Disillusioned students who were frustrated over policies that kept them from obtaining political advancement because of their family backgrounds fuelled the revolution. Millions of disgruntled urban students who had been relocated to the countryside during earlier campaigns. Mao used this to his advantage. Red Guards became the new vanguards of the revolution |
Causes of the Violence during the Cultural Revolution
Perspective |
Historian/Publications |
Evidence for this... |
Indoctrination of Youth |
Zhai Zhenhua – Red Flower of China: An Autobiography, 1992 |
Wrote memoir of life during CR. Felt she was merely being a good revolutionary by taking part in violence. Idealism, blind faith and patriotism led to disillusionment when she was sent for re-education in the countryside. |
Social Tensions |
Li Xiuyuan – A Step toward Understanding Popular Violence in China’s Cultural Revolution, 1995 |
Chinese people were active agents in the revolution, not merely victims of Mao. Warns against government editing of scar literature. Mass violence the result of tensions and conflicts amongst social groups, which used punishment and discipline against each other. |
Personal Ambition |
Zhong, Zheng and Di – Some of Us, 2001 |
Present the day-to-day lives of women who grew up during the CR, who experienced a sense of empowerment, to go beyond victims and victimisers. Why do some people’s memories seem to be treated as more legitimate than others? Essays by 9 women – wanted to challenge the idea that all had been ideologically brainwashed. Advantages for women as fewer gender constraints during CR. |
Nature of Regime |
William Joseph, Christine Wong, David Zweig - New Perspectives on the Cultural Revolution, 1991 |
Drew on new statistical data and interviews from open China. Argued that goals of CR did not correspond to the outcomes. Mao launched it as an attempt to purify Chinese politics and reinvigorate the economy, but fell massively short. Failed to create egalitarianism and Maoist ideals. Why did a movement based on seemingly noble ideals turn so brutal? Social violence of the Revolution could be explained by the pre-Cultural Revolution political system, which encouraged factionalism and conflict. Contradictions of Maoist self-reliance and central planning caused incoherence. “Maoism itself was embodied in the paradox that Mao wanted people to act voluntarily exactly as he wanted them to, without quite trusting that they would do so”. (Richard Krauss). Lynn T. White III – CR as an unintended result of administrative policies. Roots of violence lay in previous measures undertaken by the state. Labeling, monitoring and campaigning of administrative policies influenced Chinese students’ attitudes towards each other. Tactics that increased fear and raised compliance in short-term worked by led to tumult in the long-term. |
Perspectives on Mao's China
Perspective |
Historian/Publications |
Evidence for this... |
Soviet-Marxist Perspectives |
Kuo Mo-Jo 1892-1978 |
Marxist histories of China embraced by Stalin-era USSR, CCP before 1935 and orthodox Marxists in the West. They tend to be critical of Mao. He was a usurper who deviated or corrupted Marxist theory. They argue that Mao bastardised the CCP, changing it from a proletarian party with an urban-industrial membership into a revolutionary peasant party. He transformed international Marxism into a nationalist event, fuelled by bitter opposition to foreign imperialism, Soviet inference and Western influences. |
Maoist-CCP Perspectives |
Propagandist Hu Qiaomu (1912-92) Thirty Years of the Chinese Communist Party, Academic Guo Morou (1892-1978), American Journalist Edgar Snow (1905-1972) and Chinese-Australian historian Mobo Gao (1952-). American Marxist Maurice Meisner (Mao’s China: A History of the People’s Republic, 1977) – sympathetic to socialist ideals of the Communist revolution but critical of its leaders and their actions. |
These views are sympathetic to Mao Zedong. Mao was a visionary leader and his military, political and ideological contributions were pivotal in the success of the revolution. They glorify Mao’s leadership of the Red Army, Jiangxi Soviet, Long March and Yanan Soviet. They downplay or criticise the role of Mao’s rivals, such as the pro-Soviet faction in the 1930s. They acknowledge the importance of Marxist theory – but claim it could not have succeeded without Mao’s interpretation and leadership. Victory over the Japanese was due to Mao. 100 Flowers campaign was a trap rather than an error of judgement, GLF was a success marred by natural disasters. Cultural Revolution was necessary to protect Socialism from ‘revisionism’. Official CCP histories and publications until 1976 were in this camp. |
Western Liberal and Nationalist Perspectives |
Jung Chang and Jon Halliday – Mao The Unknown Story (2005) – self-serving megalomaniac with no regard for life. Immanuel C.Y. Hsu (The Rise of Modern China, 1970) – Mao was China’s Lenin and Stalin combined, Michael Lynch (Access to History Series, 2008) – violence and murder the result of Mao’s rational decisions as leader, John King Fairbank (China: A New History, 1992) – Mao was both a popular rebel leader and a cruel updated emperor. |
Were shaped initially by the politics of the Cold War. Many believe that Chiang Kai-Shek was the rightful leader of China. Mao was a usurper with no political legitimacy. Communism is a flawed system that inflicted abuses of power, failed policies and suffering. Tiananmen Square Incident 1989 only reinforced this perspective. Negative picture of Mao – a malignant dictator in the same vein as Stalin. Mao relied on coercion and violence during Yanan Rectification Campaign (1942) and Anti-Rightist Campaign (1957). GLF failed because Mao and his followers didn’t understand basic economic principles. The Cultural Revolution was nothing more than an attempt by Mao to restore power, exploiting the cult of personality. |
Post-Mao Revisionism & Scar Literature |
Li Zhisui’s The Private Life of Chairman Mao (1994) – Mao had dubious personal habits, not a genius! Sun Shuyun (The Long March, 2006) – much of Long March was myth. Jung Chang (Wild Swans), Anchee Min (Red Azalea), Li Cunxin (Mao’s Last Dancer). |
CCP official position after Mao’s death is based on the Central Committee ruling of 1981 – ‘Mao’s contributions to the revolution far outweigh his mistakes’ – 70 per cent good, 30 per cent bad. Mao still venerated but not flawless. This ‘revisionism’ of official accounts by the government itself encouraged many to publish their own memoirs now that Maoism had been officially discredited. This led to the growth of ‘Scar Literature’ in which many ordinary Chinese wrote about their sufferings during Mao’s reign to try and come to terms with the horror experienced. These Revisionists delve into his failings and private life. |
Neo-Marxist Post-Revisionist Perspectives |
Mobo Gau. Gao Village: Rural Life in Modern China, 2007 and The Battle for China’s Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution, 2008 Xueping Zhong et al. Some of Us, 2001 Lu Xiuyuan, A Step Towards Understanding Popular Violence in China’s Cultural Revolution, 1995 Tsang Tsou, The Cultural Revolution and Post-Mao Reforms, 1986 |
In response to the revisionism of the Scar Literature wave of the 1980s/1990s, many sought to re-evaluate Mao’s rule. Was it possible that Mao’s rule actually had some benefits? Much of this writing is influenced in part by a reaction to the inequalities of modern Chinese capitalism. Mobo Gau acknowledges that errors were made during Mao’s rule and excesses occurred, though he attributes few of these to Mao. Instead, Gao lays much of the blame on urban and party elites, the same groups who have demonised Mao since his death. Xueping Zhong challenges the idea that everyone was brainwashed into violence during the Cultural Revolution. By using the interview approach with survivors similar to Scar Literature, Xueping argues that the Cultural Revolution actually had benefits for women as there were fewer gender constraints. Lu Xiuyuan argues that the Chinese people themselves were active agents in the Cultural Revolution, Mao shouldn’t take all the blame for the violence. Tsang Tsou argues the Cultural Revolution was an expression of people power, was necessary as it limited government power and paved the way for reforms after Mao’s death. |