Chinese history and culture analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Chinese history and culture analysis - Essay Example However, watching the movie, it is difficult to say if this fact destroyed him or helped him survive. The trouble is that in the conditions of so-called â€Å"cultural revolution† it was really impossible â€Å"to live†. It is essential to overview the historical facts in order to understand the plot of the movie. The Great Proletarian Cultural revolution in China represented a series of ideological and political campaigns of 1966—1976, which were organized and supervised by the chairman Mao Zedong. The main goal of Chairman Mao was to discredit and abolish political opposition and set up the regime of his own absolute power under the pretext of the possible â€Å"restoration of capitalism† in the Republic of China and â€Å"the struggle with internal and foreign revisionism†. According to the Chinese historians, the main reasons of â€Å"cultural revolution† were the following: 1) absolutization of the role of class struggle by Mao Zedong; 2 ) the cult of Mao Zedong’s personality that reached its peak in 1966—1976; 3) the struggle for the leadership in the party, active use of the mistaken views of Mao, the cult of his personality and his style by the heads of the Party in order to strengthen their power. â€Å"Cultural revolution† led to the wide-ranging repressions against intelligentsia, the destruction of Communist Party, social organizations, as well as to the great damage of culture and education, destruction of cultural monuments under the pretext of the struggle with the feudal principles and traditions, the changes in foreign policy, rapid expansion of the anti-Soviet ideology in the country. The system of state control was actually abolished. The law-enforcement and judicial system were inactive, thus hongweibing and zaofan, the groups or rather bands which were actually implementing the Cultural Revolution, were free to act in their own way. Certainly, this led to chaos. At the beginning hongweibing acted under the control of Mao and his people. There were many careerists among them and they managed to make a fast career. They were going ahead without remorse accusing their teachers in â€Å"counter-revolutionary revisionism† and their â€Å"comrade-in-arms† in the insufficient revolutionary character. Many of them grew up in unhappy families. Uneducated and cruel, they became the perfect tools in the hands of Mao. However, at the same time, among the strugglers there were many intellectuals. Later the Hongweibing were divided into two groups according to their origin. The first group included those who grew up in the families of intellectuals and the members of the Party and the second included the descendants of working class. There was an uncompromising struggle between the two groups. They followed the same rules, but interpreted them differently. After the confrontation of the two bands a murderer could say that it was â€Å"mutual assistanceâ₠¬ , a thief, who stolen bricks from the plant justified himself stating that â€Å"revolutionary class should reach its goals†. Mao’s control over the executors of Cultural Revolution was becoming weaker, but the main directions of the chaos development remained under his control. Mao had to interfere in the struggle when hongweibing became too cruel. Even in the small villages there was a war between â€Å"the North and the South of the village†