There were basically two sets of perpetrators part of China's Cultural Revolution; the leaders, and the enforcers . Moa Dezong had a group of politicians that helped him, often called "The Gang of Four." These people led the revolution. The Gang of Four consisted of Moa Zedong's wife, Jiang Qing, Wang Hongwen, Zhang Chunqiao, and Yao Wenyuan. Along with "The Gang of Four," Moa had his own "army." Moa's "army" was called the Red Guards. These were the enforcers. The Red Guards consisted of students, primaryily. Children even in elementary school was apart of the Red Guards. They carried out the brutal tasks, such as beating and humiliating the intellectual population (Chen 2013).
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Image from meeting in Bejing. Of The Gang of Four, Moa Zedong is third from the left, standing next to his wife, Jiang Qing ("Echoes," 2012).
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Wang Hongwen was the youngest member of "The Gang of Four." Wang was a politician in China. He was the second member of the gang to die. Soon after Jiang died, Wang did, at the age of 58 in August of 1992 ("Wang," 2016). Zhang Chunqiao was also apart of the group. He was a politician, theorist, and writer ("Zhang," 2016), dying in April of 2005. The fourth member of the part was Yao Wenyuan. He was a literary critic and politician, dying in April of 2005 ("Yao," 2016). They all worked together to complete a common goal: help rid of traditional elements to gain more political power.
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Citizens of China holding pictures of The Gang of Four ("Gang of Four Arrested," 2013).
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This image is of farmers farming during the Great Leap Forward (Alpha History).
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Mao had his own selfish reasons for starting this Cultural Revolution that will be mentioned first. Mao wanted to rid his rivals and revive his poor image (Ramzy, 2016). The poor image being referred to is The Great Leap Forward. Mao wanted to transform China into a society that could compete with other industrialized nations within a five year period he called, "The Great Leap Forward." Between 1958 and 1960, millions of citizens in China were moved to communes. Working on farms or in manufacturing, Mao banned private farming.The Great Leap Forward was stopped in 1960, three years into the five year plan. An estimated 20-48 million lives were lost, according to the article, due to a flood (killing 2 million people), an exstensive drought, and crop failures that led to starvation ("The Great Leap Forward"). After his failed plan that killed millions, he wanted to revive his imagine, in turn, the Cultural Revolution was started.
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Mao had other reasons for the Cultural Revolution besides just to revive his name. Mao wanted to rid of captialist economy and gain more power in doing so. A capitalist economy is a political system where trade and industry is controlled by a private owner, and by ridding that, the government would own the goods, which would give Mao more power. The farmers, would in turn, suffer. Mao wanted to rid of all religion, tradition, and culture. He felt as though if he rid of these elements, the people would have nothing to believe in. If his citizens had no morals and traditions to follow, they would be more apt to follow and be led by him. Mao wanted to cast away "The Four Olds." These Four Olds consisted of ridding old ideas, customs, culture, and habits. Mao and his Gang of Four and the Red Guards destroyed old books, artwork, museums, etc (Chen, 2013).
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Chen's video describing the Cultural Revolution (Chen 2013).
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This image displays the burning of traditional pieces part of China's culture ("Destroy The Old," 2014).
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Mao disliked the way China was being westernized and worked hard to de-westernize it. He targeted intellectuals, landlords, rich peasants, and basically everyone against him and his idea. These people were attacked, beaten, humiliated, and murdered by The Red Guards.This created pure chaos. Citizens lived in fear to being turned over to the government for being a "traitor'" by their enemies. Mao wanted to eradication education completely as well. He felt as though if people were educated, they had the ability to think for themselves and overturn is revolution. Schooling was put to a halt during this revolution (Chen, 2013).
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