Transcript role of education, the arts, the media, and propaganda

Mao’s Domestic Policies – Part I
First Five Year Plan – 19531957
Mao wanted China to “walk on
two legs” – develop both
agriculture and industry at the
same time
Soviet Union assisted with
$300 million and 10,000
Russian engineers
Targeted the development of
heavy industry: coal, steel,
chemicals, automobile, and
transport
Effects of the First Five Year
Plan
Failure to meet the targets established by
The National Resource Committee was
the equivalent of failing China
Overall industrial output increased 15.5%
per year (faster than the target of 14.7%)
However, less people worked on farms, so
food production increased at an average
of 2% per year, compared to 14% from
1949-52
Hundred Flowers Campaign (1957)
Mao indicated his supposed
willingness to consider
different opinions about how
China should be governed
Given the freedom to
express themselves, the
Chinese began opposing
the Communist Party and
questioning its leadership
Anti-Rightist Campaign (1957 & 59)
This was initially tolerated and even
encouraged. However, after a few months,
Mao's government reversed its policy
They persecuted those who criticized, and
were alleged to have criticized, the Party
This was called The Anti-Rightist
Campaign
Results of the Anti-Rightist
Campaign
700,000 intellectuals were thrown out of
their positions and professions
In every factory, 5% of the workers had to
be denounced as “rightists”
All were sent to the countryside for reform
– many died of malnutrition, illness, cold,
overwork, and accidents doing unfamiliar
jobs
Some were executed or committed suicide
Looking Back on the Hundred
Flowers & Anti-Rightist Campaigns
Two Opinions on the Hundred Flowers
Campaign:
– From the start, it was a sneaky way to discover who
truly opposed Mao
– Mao intended to weaken those within his party who
opposed him by having them bicker between
themselves, but it backfired when people criticized
him more than he intended
Great Leap Forward – Second
Five Year Plan (1958-1962)
Collectivization became the official policy.
China’s land was divided into 70,000
communes
He hoped that it would help unemployment and
cause a genuine communal unity
He accused peasants of hiding grain and used
force against them
The food would be traded for money to buy
weapons or used for fuel
Policies Under the Great
Leap Forward
Forests were stripped of trees to be used as fuel for
factories, so deforestization resulted
Anything that peasants could melt down into steel was
put in backyard furnaces, but the steel was poor
quality and led to poor equipment being created
Mao ordered huge drives to build irrigation systems
using poor equipment. Some of these projects are still
unstable today
Mao also wanted to raise output in factories, so
common sense and rules went to the wayside in the
name of speed. Accidents frequently caused tens of
thousands of deaths
Results of the Great Leap
Forward
38 million died of:
– Being worked to death
– Others were killed, tortured, or imprisoned
– Famine (the average daily calorie intake was
1,534.8 for men and 1,200 for women – Aushwitz
got between 1,300-1,700 calories per day)
Heavy industry developed (although it was still
behind most large industrial countries)
Agriculture lagged behind
Results of the Great Leap Forward
Agriculture failed because:
– Unscientific agricultural methods were used
– There was a shortage of agricultural labor
because of peasants working on industrial
projects
– The peasants disliked losing their private lots
– Natural disasters – droughts and floods
– Peasants didn’t work hard because grain was
taken from them
Results of the Great Leap
Forward
As a result of the failure on
the Great Leap Forward,
Mao retired from the post
of chairman of the People's
Republic of China
His place as head of state
was taken by Liu Shaoqi,
but Mao remained
important in determining
overall policy
He’s Baaaaaaack!
In the early 1960s Mao became highly critical of
the foreign policy of the Soviet Union. He was
upset that:
– Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin
– Khrushchev was the head of the communist world
– Khrushchev backed down over the Cuban Missile
Crisis
Mao staged this media
event – him swimming in
the Yangze River – to
indicate that he was still
vigorous and capable to
lead China
Cultural Revolution
(1966-68)
The purpose of this movement was to:
– Restore Mao’s power and control
– Get rid of Soviet style communism
– Renew the spirit of revolution in China
– Destroy the rise of differentiation between the
proletariat and bourgeois (he believed a
hierarchy was increasing in development)
Cultural Revolution (1966-68)
Red Guards (groups of youths who banded
themselves together) were encouraged to criticize
those who Mao deemed untrustworthy with regards to
the direction he wanted China to take. No-one was
safe from criticism
Schools were seen as being elitist, so they were
closed. Students were encouraged to work beside
peasants in the countryside to enhance their
understanding of the revolution
Everyone had a file on them, many were tortured or
killed (500,000), humiliated in public, committed
suicide, or sent to labor camps
In this photo taken in
Harbin, Heilongjiang
Province, China, on
Aug. 25, 1966, the staff
of the Heilongjiang
Daily newspaper
criticize Luo Zicheng,
leader of the
committee work group
of the Provincial
Communist Party,
claiming that he
follows "the capitalist
line" and "opposes
the revolutionary
mass movement." His
dunce cap announces
his "crimes."
Cultural Revolution (1966-68)
There was a cult of Mao that was built up
Society was inundated with Mao’s face, quotes,
statues, posters and other forms of propaganda
Little Red Book was published in 1963 and
people were encouraged to read it as their
“Bible”. Schools used it in their curriculum
Why Take Part?
Mao would terrorize those who didn’t
Mao promised to make a classless society
Red Guards could do what they wanted and
could be violent
Taking part in politics was something no one
had been allowed to do under Mao, so they
were excited
Cultural Revolution (1966-68)
Eventually the terror turned to anything cultural,
including art and artists. Culture was wiped out,
as the image of Mao had to replace everything
The Red Guards confiscated tons of valuables,
which was then sold or destroyed
Then the terror turned to Party officials, his real
target
Eventually Liu Shaoqi was ousted from the
party, ending the Cultural Revolution, although
some believe it ended with Mao’s death in 1976
Burning of Books &
Old Culture
Burning of Buddhas
Results of the Cultural Revolution
Many suffered and died
(500,000 – 2 million)
Housing space increased
An entire generation lost
much of its schooling
Intellectuals suffered most
There was a loss of
cultural heritage
Mao’s Educational Policies
The CCP were reliant on Soviet help:
– 600 Russians taught in Chinese universities
– 36,000 Chinese had studied at Russian
universities
The illiteracy rate improved and so did school
attendance, but not as much as it could’ve been
because of the Cultural Revolution
Students were taught about Mao and the
ideology
The Arts, Media, & Propaganda
When speaking about the Cultural Revolution (19661970), Mao said, “Our purpose is to ensure that
literature and art fit well into the whole revolutionary
machine as a component party, that they operate as
powerful weapons for uniting and educating the
people and for attacking and destroying the enemy,
and that they help people fight the enemy with one
heart and one mind”
Students were to make “big-character posters” which
would called for students to cut class and travel across
the country to meet other young activists and
propagate Mao Zedong’s ideas
The Arts, Media, & Propaganda
During the Cultural Revolution:
– Red Guards broke into people’s homes burned
books, cut up paintings, trampled records and broke
musical instruments
– Films were censored by Mao’s wife
– Writers wore large insulting wooden plaques hung
from thin wire around their necks
– Many artists and other people were beaten and
sent to reeducation camps
– There was a loss of cultural heritage