Political and Social Conditions in China

The Cultural Revolution is arguably one of the most volatile and problematic areas of modern history that we could ask our students to engage with, not necessarily in terms of ideology but in terms of nailing down the reasons for why things happened the way they did. This makes it perfect for teaching historical concepts such as Significance, Cause and Effect, Continuity and Change, Perspective, and Contestability.

Well, it's March 2017 and the new Stage 6 NSW History syllabuses have been released upon the world. I don't want to focus on what's been lost, and which options have shifted in outlook, or the ways in which the new structure of the courses may cause friction. As a pedagogical optimist I'd like to instead look at one of the new options that are available and the room it gives us as History teachers to help our students grow engage with the continuum of skills relating to the historical understanding. 

The new module for the HSC Modern History syllabus 'Change in the Modern World' features some great options for our Year 12 students. Option D: The Cultural Revolution to the Tiananmen Square 1966-1989 builds on a previous Year 11 Case Study and works as a possible follow-on for the current Year 12 National Study based around the rise of China in the earlier half of the 20th century. I've heard some teachers refer to this new Change in the Modern World China option as a transported version of the Year 11 topic and, while there are similarities, it's worth remembering that The Cultural Revolution to the Tiananmen Square 1966-1989 contains content points not previously addressed by the earlier syllabus - making the option an entirely new study of a very complex area of modern history.

Option D starts with the 'survey' dot point; the area of the syllabus in which students are given necessary context before investigating the overall case study. Knowing what to include here can be challenging for the teacher as the background for an event like the Cultural Revolution can be incredibly complicated and contestable. As a result, I've done my best here to boil things down to a manageable overview. In addition to this it's worth doing a couple of things before looking at the historical overview below.

1. Have students mark out key areas on a map of Asia (China's border, Beijing, Taiwan, key provinces in the Cultural Revolution such as Guangxi and Inner Mongolia, and significant neighbours such as the U.S.S.R., Vietnam, India, and Korea) to build a field of geo-political knowledge to work from.
2. Cover some key terms that will be coming up during the background/survey part of the study:

• Bourgeoisie
• Capitalism
• Cold War
• Cult of Personality
• Feudalism
• Great Leap Forward
• Industrialisation
• Marxism
• Maoism / Mao Zedong Thought
• People's Liberation Army
• Proletariat
• Revisonism
• Stalinism

Anyway, here's the overview. The information below pertains to overall survey section of Option D: Political and Social Conditions in China. 

Picture from the Chinese Civil War

Legacy of the 1949 revolution

In 1949 China had just won a civil war against the Nationalists, who fled to Taiwan. This group, the Guomindang, were conservative and largely traditionalist. In contrast, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) wanted to introduce reforms based on fairness, land distribution, and liberation of women. The CCP's establishment in 1949 was the first time China had ruled itself without war or colonial influence for 50 years.

Mao said, "We will no longer be a nation subject to insult and humiliation. We have stood up".

This new China wanted to change, and to use communism to reach this goal. There was a sense that China was not developed enough yet to shake off its feudal and colonial past; it had to organise itself.

Mao's first plan was to introduce Soviet-styled Five Year Plans, but he abandoned this in favour of the Great Leap Forward in 1958-1960. This failed and China's attempts to modernise in the early 1960s reflected the ideological struggle between Mao's ideas and the Soviet model of communism. The Soviet ideas that appealed to Mao included the collectivisation of farms, a cult of personality that would elevate him to godlike status in the eyes of the people, redistribution of lands and private property, and total control of the lives of the people. However, the Soviet leader Stalin would not offer financial assistance to Mao when asked, leading China to become increasingly independent and anti-Soviet.

Mao was able to get the Chinese people to 'buy in' to his brave new world by encouraging them to take land off the rich and murder those who stood in their way. Nearly 2 million were killed in 1952, and China had collectively stained itself with the blood of the old regime - united in an act of brutal justice, this would not be the first time the Chinese people were asked to become instruments of state-sanctioned murder.

Tensions between the CCP and Mao Zedong that led to the Cultural Revolution

In 1955, the new Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev criticised the personality cult that had grown around the previous Russian leader, Stalin, and this led to some in the CCP recognising that Mao had similarly used power to cultivate worship amongst the masses. In 1956, some members of the Party changed the Chinese constitution to remove all references to Mao Zedong by name.

Annoyed, Mao began to test the loyalty of other members of the CCP as early as 1957, and his own writings on Marxism identified problems in the continuing emergence of elites in Chinese communist society. He warned his colleagues against corruption, and resented those who did not fall in line with his policies. Mao initially pointed the finger at rich landlords who he claimed persisted despite the famine that had wiped out so many in 1959 and 1960, but by 1965 he asserted that Chinese communism was under threat of those in the Party who wanted to 'revise' it (revisionists).

In 1964, fellow Party member Deng Xiaoping advised Mao not to attend a Party meeting, prompting Mao to remark, "Someone is shitting on my head". Mao grew angry at Party members resisting his attempts to target revisionists and 'capitalist roaders' (those taking the capitalist road by enjoying Western-styled privileges and material possessions), and he believed that China was beginning to become a series of 'independent kingdoms' where Party members in different regions had gathered power for themselves. The Party tried to target the education system as the way to address Mao's claims, but Mao put the focus back on them - he wanted to go after what he called the 'big shots'.

Social Conditions in China in 1966

China had undergone drastic change in the years between 1949 and 1966. 2-3% of the population were now members of the CCP, and more than 30% of all Chinese land had been redistributed more fairly. Mao instigated several new laws designed to make women more equal - the 1950 Marriage Law made it illegal for men to marry children, purchase brides, have multiple wives, or force marriages. Primary school attendance also increased by 200%, and university graduation by 100%.

The Great Famine that had arrived due to the Great Leap Forward led to millions dying of starvation. People had to steal or die, and the Chinese black market emerged to make survival possible. Corruption became commonplace. 

Sources for above information:

• People's China by Craig Dietrich, 1986, Oxford University Press.
• The Cultural Revolution by Frank Dikotter, 2016, Bloomsbury.
• A Short History of China by Gordon Kerr, 2013, Pocket Essentials.
• Mao's China and After (3rd Edition) by Maurice Meisner, 1999, The Free Press.
• Deng Xiaoping by Alexander V. Pantsov and Steven I. Levine, 2015, Oxford University Press.
• Red Star Over China by Edgar Snow, 1968, Grover Press.

Questions/Activities based on the above:

1. Why did things begin to become strained between China and their fellow communist neighbour, the Soviet Union? 
2. How did Mao encourage the Chinese people to commit to his ideology?
3. Why do you think the other Party members took Mao's name out of the Chinese constitution?
4. What was a 'revisionist'? 
5. What do you think Mao meant by 'big shots'?
6. Why did corruption become the norm in China by 1966? 
7. Construct a timeline based on the dates featured in the above information.
8. Which event do you think had the most significant impact on China and why?

Resource: Click here for a PDF containing the above information.