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Mao and his wife led a literary critic, Yao Wenyuan, to publish a vitriolic critique of a play by Beijing's mayor, which was seen as an attack on Mao. Jiang Qing later wrote back criticism about literature and art because of the anti-socialists' popularity.
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Mao begins to recruit students and young teachers to come together and revise/criticize the school authorities. They came to become to be known as the Red Guards.
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A dazibao is commonly a quickly written poster in black or red ink, labeling professors as "black, and anti-Part gangsters". This quickly spread and became one of the most popular revolutionary activities.
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The idea of forming the red Guards was to eliminate intellectuals and those against Mao. Although millions joined the red guards (all with different purposes), it was still selective of its soldiers - especially the ones who come from a "bad/intellectual" family.
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Mao decided to create his own dazibao directed towards Liu Shaoqi, saying "Bombard the Headquarters". Mao making his own led to the dazibao written by students more authority.
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The making of this document was made to officially state the pov/support of the Chines Government about Mao's ideas, this marked the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, officially.
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The Red Guards started rallies in Tiananmen Square to destroy the four olds, which helped lead to the rise of the Little Red books.
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The continuation of the Red Guards' actions spread quickly and led to a dramatic increase in injury rates.
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SPRING: The propaganda effects from the little red book increase as the book is now forced upon all to have a copy at home, carry it around, and to study it (although much of the population was illiterate). Mao's image also started to be portrayed like a God-like figure by some.
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During this time, it became evident that this revolution has done way more harm than good for its country. From fatalities to the economy, and even to its culture. Mao then gets help from the PLA to restore peace within the cities with many different ways, the main one, to break apart the red guards.
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Mao created this movement to eliminate the threat of the Chinese youth. During this time, he sent urban youth to be educated and to do manual labor. Many passed during this time due to the hard-working conditions.
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Mao makes an end to the Cultural Revolution. Now, in attempts of fixing the problematic past. Later promoting Li Biao to the chairman of the CCP.
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Mao becomes suspicious of Lin as he asks nonstop to become vice president. This was in relations to Lin's previous attempt to assassinate Mao during a plane crash.
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Wang replaces Lin, Jiang and Zhao compete, Jiang Qing starts this movement in an attempt to make Lin receive criticism for all the failures during the revolution. But fails.
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Mao replaces Hua Guofeng with Deng Xiaoping due to the criticism he faced. Mao dies. After Mao's death, Hua becomes chairman of the CCP and arrested the "Gang of Four", which then marks the end of the Cultural Revolution.
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The highly respected Zhou Enlai dies, and his memorial was set in Tiananmen Square. But during the memorial, many used this time to criticize Jiang Qing. This led to a riot and chaos, later known as the Tiananmen Incident.
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July 1968
THE RED GUARDS DISMANTLE
Short term: chaos spread by the disrupted economy. Not long after, schools and government offices re-open.
Long term: In the coming years after the end of the cultural revolution, it could be seen that there was an increase in fatality rates due to the amounts of torture, killing, and suicide. The loss of people also led to the loss of cultural heritage. -
Spring 1968
Campaign to promote Mao's cult of personality
Short Term: Mao Ze Dong made it mandatory to carry the “Little Red Book”. His face was also stuck among many media outlets (newspapers, songs, chants) which increased his power.
Long Term: Mao’s movement to empower himself ultimately affected the economic and cultural development negatively in China. -
December 1968
"Down the Countryside" Movement
Short term: the threat of Chinese youth rebelling during that period of time was extremely low as they were sent to the countryside.
Long-term: decrease in the population (malnutrition, disease, exhaustion). 16 million withdrew from school, leading to the loss of the crucial parts of their learning years. -
Although there were positive long-lasting effects from the CR like the democratic reforms, the overall impact was still negative, due to the amount of population decrease and the economic failure caused.