Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward was "an economic and social campaign that intended to change China from an agrarian economy into a modern society." (Investopedia , 2012) In 1958 the Great Leap Forward, the second five-year plan, began. (Investopedia, 2012) This plan ended two years early after "about 20 million people were estimated to have died of starvation between 1959 and 1962" (Great Leap Forward, 2016) These people were the first victims under Mao Zedong's rule.They had no choice but to follow his instructions or else they would be killed, but in the end many died anyway.
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During the Great Leap Forward (Timeline, 2009) |
HumiliationDuring the Cultural Revolution there were countless groups of people that were targeted. One of the first groups targeted were the intellectual and elderly people. (Histroy.com, 2009) The Red Army would have "struggle sessions" where educators were publicly denounced and tortured. (Yongyi, 2015.) Mao also singled out eight other categories of enemies: landlords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries, bad elements, rightists, traitors, foreign agents, and capitalist roaders. "Also, in the fight against "class enemies" and "bourgeois reactionaries," teachers, people with a college degree or relatives overseas, workers, and members of minority groups such as Tibetans, were also targeted." (Hays, 2008.)
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Citizens being denounced (In pictures, 2012) & Man being denounced (Philips, 2005) |
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Children apart of the Red Army (History.com staff, 2009) & Litte red book (Ebbighausen 2016) |
Red ArmyThe Red Guards were formed when Mao "stirred up the passions of thousands of rebellious youth in Beijing middle schools and colleges" (Yongyi, 2015) Mao shut down all education systems and these children became empowered by Mao. ("Political") Because of Mao these children were ridded of their education. They were taught violence and torture instead of receiving the proper education. They denounced their own family members and teachers for Mao. Although the people in the Red Army looked up to Mao then, later they realized what they had done. In the video at the end of the page, a man apologizes to his mother. He says that he knows now what he did, denouncing his own mother, was wrong. Even though these people formed the Red Army, they were under Mao's mind control, which makes them victims as well.
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Bian Zhongyun
"Bian Zhongyun, fifty years old, who had been working for this middle school for seventeen years, was the first educator to be beaten to death by students in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution." Bian, another vice principal, and two deans were forced to wear signs with their names on them, crossed out with a red "X." They were forced to kneel and were beaten with nail-spiked clubs by their own students. The students responsible for beating their own teachers were a gorup of tenth grade girls. (Philips, 2005) One of the girls, Song Binbin, who was their leader, was responsible for and participated in the beating of the teachers. Much later, after the Cultural Revolution, Song publicly announced an apology to Bian and her fellow coworkers. Some Chinese citizens accepted her words, while others disgrace her. (Buckley, 2014) In this situation I believe that both Bian Zhongyun and Song Binbin are victims of the Cultural Revolution. Although Song was not innocent like Bian was, she didn't know that what she was doing was wrong. She fell victim to Mao, blinded by him and his words.
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Song Binbin and Mao Zedong (Song 2014) & Bian Zhongyun (Though) |
Videos:
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The boy who denounced his mother (T., 2013) |
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Revolutionary Holocaust Victims (P. 2010) |
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Bian Zhongyun's husband (D, 2011) |