A propaganda poster from the Cultural Revolution
Photo from chineseposters.net
This week, we learned about the end of Mao’s rule, his attempts at keeping power, the Red Guard, and the politics that went on at the time. Mao, trying to reestablish his power, waged the Cultural Revolution against political leaders of China in the 1960s. Liu Shaoqi, who was in power at the time, had begun production of consumer goods and his policies had a leading trend towards capitalism. We discussed Mao’s reasons for waging this war and the differences between Communism and the capitalism that was being established.
What I found by far the most interesting this week was reading the packet on different points of view of the Cultural Revolution. In this packet, as well as in our class discussions, it was brought up that people want to work. As lazy as we may be, without work, we humans have nothing to do with ourselves. When asked the question in class, “If you were all paid the same, would you rather be a film director or the assistant?” many chose being the director. I had always thought that humans, with their selfishness, would have chosen to do the easier jobs under equal pay. This was a fundamental reason why I thought Communism would never work. However, my mind was changed. However, we managed to come up with many reasons why people would still want to work even if they weren’t paid. There are reasons of social status, excitement, fun, and most importantly, fulfillment. This was particularly emphasized for me when I read the interview of Bai Di in the packet, where she mentioned that her education had been one for the future. Students under Communist China were educated to contribute to not only their nation, but to the history of the entire humankind. Their goal wasn’t money or material gain, but to fulfill a purpose and to bring meaning to their lives. Mao said that your existence only mattered if you put yourself into human history. Fulfillment is such a large part of human life.
I commented on Riki's blog here.
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