Mao Zedong, also known as Chairman Mao, is the founder of the people’s republic of China in 1949. He was a communist and introduced a policy that impacted negatively on the Chinese culture and led to its isolation by the western world. The Chinese however credit Chairman Mao as a fearless and practical leader who instituted economic, social, and political changes that laid the foundation of transforming China from a little-known agricultural country into a world superpower (Meisner, 1999:16).
When in 1953, the communists under the leadership of Chairman Mao Zedong launched a program for collective farming; he became a hero among the Chinese peasantry. Macrohistory and world report 1945 estimates that by 1956 more than ninety percent of the Chinese farmers had joined a collective farm. Mao did not give much respect to the educated elite in society but placed his hopes among the masses. It was upon this background that Mao developed a new program, “the great leap forward” in which he hoped to greatly reduce the differences between the rich and the poor and also to eliminate the division of labor. Mao had also instituted the Cultural Revolution which led to persecutions, deaths, and loss of antiques historical sites, and culture. It was a period during which art, literature, films, and plays were banned (p.186).
.With the rise to power of Deng Xiaoping in 1978 however, many policies initiated by Chairman Mao became abandoned and other economic reforms were instituted. Other leaders were of the view that Mao’s interventionist approaches had led to a great loss of life. The policy of the Cultural Revolution has been seen as detrimental since then. Trouble began soon after the new leadership. There were strikes by workers, factory slowdowns, and chronic absenteeism as people were dissatisfied. Social disorders, for example, common crime, crept in and the division that had been caused by the Cultural Revolution began to take form as people took revenge on each other (Meisner, 1999:157). The moral fabric of the Chinese people was loosening fast and the government seemed unable to reign in on these conflicts.
The new leadership embarked on the isolation of the proponents of the Cultural Revolution. Cultural Revolution fantasists who rebranded themselves as “gang of four” consisting of Zhang Chunqiao, Wang Hongwen, Jiang Ging, and Yao Wenyuan were dispensed with easily because Mao in his wisdom had not accorded them any meaningful state power and resources (Meisner,1996:127). The armed forces and the police were left with the task of bringing down the gang and its followers. The smashing of the gang of four marked the end of the Cultural Revolution and the start of a new phase in Chinese history. A host of accusations was made again against the gang of four but foremost was the charge that they had turned China into a “cultural desert during the revolution” (p 132).
With the death of the Cultural Revolution, aspects of Chinese culture came to life again. Literature became appreciated as writers began to publish their work. There was a literary revival as writers began writing short stories which described their experiences during the Cultural Revolution. People began attending cinemas and movie shows. Libraries and museums were opened and people were encouraged to visit and deposit artifacts of national importance (Meisner, 1999:145). The era of the Cultural Revolution had also led to a decline in the education system since there had been reduced enrolments in universities and students remained psychologically and emotionally unset to resume classes.
China’s post-Mao reform on the education sector had far-reaching consequences in terms of the development of the country’s educational policy. The program was not only celebrated in China but also abroad. The new government of Hua goes Feng had for instance begun to revive universities in 1977 and as Meisner (1999:161) identifies; university enrolments were drastically increased and the college curriculum was expanded from the three-year system introduced during the Cultural Revolution to four years. The revamp of the higher education sector however came with challenges one of them being the decline in the number of children enrolled in elementary and secondary schools. This was because most research institute in rural areas that had earlier belonged to these elementary institutions was being converted into higher education centers by the state.
In attempts to solve china’s economic problems, work conferences were organized. This task of jumpstarting the economy had been left to the then vice-premier Deng Xiaoping who produced three policy documents in 1975. Deng had, amongst other proposals, advocated for the adoption of a technological transfer policy that will see advanced technology from capitalist countries being imported. Deng’s proposals were later implemented and the first action was the demand for labor discipline in factories.
In terms of the political landscape, there is significant evidence to show that there has been a radical shift from revolutionary campaigns towards rational approaches. Deng’s 1978 declaration that”the era of mass campaigns” had ended was welcomed by most citizens (Meisner, 1996:131). Campaigns have largely vanished from the contemporary Chinese political landscape. Some Mao ideologies, however, became beneficial to other leaders. When Deng Xiaoping launched his bid for total domination in 1978 he borrowed from Chairman Mao’s ideology that ‘effective political action required effective ideological preparation’ (p.112-115).
Works Cited
Meisner, Maurice. Deng Xiao Ping era: An Inquiry into the Fate of Chinese Socialism 1978-1994 (Hill and Wang, 1996), 104-36. Print.
Meisner, Maurice. Mao’s China and After: A History of the People’s Republic. 3rd ed. New York: Free Press, 1999. Print.