It’s important to understand the parallels between the Cultural Revolution in China and current cultural movements in North America.
In this video, Xi Van Fleet and Dr. Pingnan Shi, survivors of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, share their experiences and insights on the destructive nature of the Cultural Revolution and its aim to replace traditional values with Marxist ideology.
4:00 Replacing system by destroying statues, churches, and customs, and re-naming
15:30 Forcing people to conform to many new rules
18:30 Teachers had to follow the party line
23:30 Description of one incident in which schoolchildren were used by some older revolutionaries, and how the tragic actions of these children are sometimes considered the start of the Chinese communist revolution.
37:30 Communism/Marxism relied on destroying private property, religion, and family
41:00 Training to think logically and learn Math is missing in public school
What was the intention behind creating this document? The authors state they "... began investigating twentieth century contexts in which teachers made grave mistakes in teaching about identity—mistakes that at the time seemed scientific, unifying, correct, and culturally necessary— but ultimately laid a tragic foundation for inter-group hatred ... " (p. 4).
Teaching About Identity Lessons From The Cultural Revolution
Some quotes from the guide. Anything sound familiar?
"... Mao was explicit in his views on the ideological role of schools. He saw education as producing a binary effect: either teachers could be revolutionary or anti-revolutionary; there was no in-between...
Mao called upon the youth of the country (symbolic of the “new”) to rise up against and destroy anything perceived to be part of the Four Olds: this included books, art, architecture, religious edifices, music, and even traditional modes of education seen as too bourgeois, Western, or Confucian. Students across the country were called to form groups of “Red Guards,” paramilitary bands of ideologically driven teens and young adults who first plastered schools and buildings with large-character anti-Olds and pro-Reds (or pro-Revolutionary) propaganda, before then openly targeting teachers (who were seen as representative of bourgeois, intellectual, or even feudal society that must be attacked) and students who either were seen as ideologically opposed to the Revolution or, as soon developed, impure in their bloodline…” (p. 7)
If you would like to learn more, here is an excellent learning resource (may only be suitable for adult learners):
The latest online curriculum from VOC, Communism: A History of Repression, Violence, and Victims, offers a new approach and a robust foundation in communism’s brutal past and enduring legacy. The updated version of the curriculum expands to cover virtually every nation that has experienced in some way the scourge of communism.
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