Student movements are a powerful human resource capable of influencing the course of state leadership. It is connected with a student’s understanding of life, a maximalist perception of the world, and the desire for changes. Students are open-minded; however, they are often used by the leaders to obtain political aims. This is what happened during the Cultural Revolution in China in 1966-1967s.
Red Guards consists of students who were the most active participants in the cultural revolution and of youth in general. However, they were actively used by Mao Zedong to fight political opponents. In the spring of 1966, students began to actively recruit into the movement, embraced by a romantic attitude towards the revolution (Carey and Andrea 15). However, this student movement was different from the groups around the world, as other movements are characterized by a more natural origin. In other words, both the students’ deep reverence for Mao Zedong and the governor’s political goals make this movement more artificial.
There are several reasons why the movement was popular and why many students responded to it. Firstly, it was challenging for students to take part in a historical event, due to their romantic mood (Carey and Andrea 16). Besides, many of them were dissatisfied with the Chinese society’s performance, namely, recently implemented new educational policies (Carey and Andrea 16). These were two factors that made this movement popular, and a significant number of people were involved. In addition, it was used for the personal purposes of Mao Zedong, for example, to influence political opposers. Thus, this student movement is different from others around the world, to most extent, because of its unnaturalness.
Work Cited
Carey, Elaine, and Alfred J. Andrea. Protests in the Streets: 1968 Across the Globe. Hackett Publishing, 2016.