1 00:00:01,160 --> 00:00:04,120 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how 2 00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:18,280 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy B. Wilson and I and we are closing 4 00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:21,560 Speaker 1: in on the end of our mini series on China 5 00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:26,720 Speaker 1: during the time of Chairman Mao Zedong, and we've talked 6 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:30,800 Speaker 1: to the last two installments about how China's Greatly Forward Movement, 7 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:35,760 Speaker 1: which started in was almost entirely a failure. Yes, it 8 00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:40,280 Speaker 1: allowed the nation to streamline some production and to build 9 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:43,040 Speaker 1: some new infrastructure, but a lot of that work was 10 00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:47,599 Speaker 1: was of inferior quality. It eventually crumbled or failed, and 11 00:00:47,720 --> 00:00:51,479 Speaker 1: the consequences of deforestation and dam building, a wetlands, draining, 12 00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:54,160 Speaker 1: and other attempts to tame the land wound up being 13 00:00:54,240 --> 00:01:00,440 Speaker 1: ecologically devastating, and most notably, the Great Leak Forwards Lysses 14 00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:03,640 Speaker 1: led directly to a famine in which an estimated thirty 15 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:07,240 Speaker 1: five to forty five million people died. By the time 16 00:01:07,319 --> 00:01:11,800 Speaker 1: the Great Leap Forward ended, Chairman Mountedung had been replaced 17 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:14,480 Speaker 1: as the Chinese head of state, but he was still 18 00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:18,319 Speaker 1: the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party or CCP, and 19 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:22,399 Speaker 1: as such he still maintained enormous power and influence, but 20 00:01:22,760 --> 00:01:25,280 Speaker 1: thanks to the failure of the Great Leap Forward, by 21 00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:28,320 Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties that power was really waning and he 22 00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:31,960 Speaker 1: was under huge pressure to fix things. He also thought 23 00:01:31,959 --> 00:01:35,080 Speaker 1: the People's Republic of China was heading in the wrong direction. 24 00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:39,840 Speaker 1: It lacked revolutionary spirit, and it was trending toward capitalism 25 00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:43,640 Speaker 1: and away from its communist ideals. He was really worried 26 00:01:43,640 --> 00:01:46,959 Speaker 1: that disparity and inequality were on the rise, which just 27 00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:51,480 Speaker 1: ran completely contrary to the egalitarian ideas that he had 28 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:54,440 Speaker 1: been pursuing, and he thought the same thing was happening 29 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:56,800 Speaker 1: in the Soviet Union too. It seemed to him that 30 00:01:56,840 --> 00:01:59,920 Speaker 1: after the death of Joseph Spalen, the Soviet Union was 31 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:04,320 Speaker 1: contaminating itself with capitalism. He also suspected that some of 32 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:08,440 Speaker 1: his opposition wanted to bring back the old Imperial regime regime, 33 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:11,079 Speaker 1: which had ended when he was in his late teens. 34 00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:15,840 Speaker 1: Mao's great plan to address all of these problems and 35 00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:18,800 Speaker 1: to once again put China on the path to modernization 36 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:23,000 Speaker 1: was the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, or just known as 37 00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:26,920 Speaker 1: the Cultural Revolution, which started in nineteen sixty six. It 38 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:32,160 Speaker 1: fell roughly into two phases. A really aggressive, radical phase 39 00:02:32,200 --> 00:02:35,120 Speaker 1: of purges and arrests that went from nineteen sixty six 40 00:02:35,200 --> 00:02:38,600 Speaker 1: to nineteen sixty eight, and a revision of China's culture 41 00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:41,400 Speaker 1: and government that followed and continued until Mao's death in 42 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:45,480 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies six. So we're gonna tackle each of these 43 00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:50,520 Speaker 1: phases in a separate episode and that will conclude this 44 00:02:50,720 --> 00:02:55,880 Speaker 1: mini series. Been a herculean effort. So I'm feeling a 45 00:02:55,919 --> 00:03:01,920 Speaker 1: little relieved right now. Um begin with the revolutionary ideas 46 00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:05,640 Speaker 1: that started all of this. Mao's third wife, Jiong Ching, 47 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:09,120 Speaker 1: had been an actress before the pair married, and many 48 00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:11,880 Speaker 1: of the other party leaders were actively distrustful of her, 49 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:14,919 Speaker 1: so at first she mostly worked low level positions within 50 00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:18,160 Speaker 1: the government. Before the start of the Cultural Revolution, she 51 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:20,919 Speaker 1: was working in the Central Propaganda Department at the Ministry 52 00:03:20,919 --> 00:03:23,520 Speaker 1: of Culture. She was one of the people who decided 53 00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:26,440 Speaker 1: what kinds of operas and dramatic works could be performed 54 00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:30,200 Speaker 1: in China. In nineteen sixty five, she kind of outlined 55 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:32,560 Speaker 1: all the things that she thought had failed about the 56 00:03:32,639 --> 00:03:35,320 Speaker 1: changes maw had tried to make in China. In China 57 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:38,880 Speaker 1: so far, in her view, the next aspect of the 58 00:03:38,920 --> 00:03:43,040 Speaker 1: revolution needed to be specifically cultural. Now We're going to 59 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:46,720 Speaker 1: talk about her specific contributions to China's culture during the 60 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:50,120 Speaker 1: revolution in the next episode. But she was an important 61 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:52,360 Speaker 1: figure in all this that we would really be remiss 62 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:56,000 Speaker 1: if we put off mentioning her until later. The Central 63 00:03:56,080 --> 00:03:59,400 Speaker 1: Committee of the CCP met in May of nineteen sixty 64 00:03:59,440 --> 00:04:03,200 Speaker 1: six to launched the Cultural Revolution. It issued a sixteen 65 00:04:03,240 --> 00:04:06,760 Speaker 1: point set of guidelines outlining the revolution on August eighth 66 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:10,080 Speaker 1: of the same year. It is not, unfortunately, a simple 67 00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:12,240 Speaker 1: list of sixteen things, or we would read them off. 68 00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:17,080 Speaker 1: Mao wanted to attack the quote four olds. These were 69 00:04:17,200 --> 00:04:22,080 Speaker 1: old ideas, culture, customs, and beliefs. Anything that seemed bourgeois 70 00:04:22,279 --> 00:04:25,800 Speaker 1: or feudal was to be destroyed, and this mouth thought 71 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:29,280 Speaker 1: would just clear the way for new greatness in art 72 00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:33,799 Speaker 1: and literature and education. Also to be removed from Chinese 73 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:37,400 Speaker 1: culture were the so called five Black Elements. So those 74 00:04:37,400 --> 00:04:43,400 Speaker 1: were landlords, rich peasants, counter revolutionaries, bad elements, and rightists. 75 00:04:44,279 --> 00:04:48,920 Speaker 1: So too specify what some of those are. Counter revolutionaries 76 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:51,920 Speaker 1: where anyone who was critical of Mao and his plans, 77 00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:56,440 Speaker 1: and bad elements were basically criminals. Rightists were people who 78 00:04:56,480 --> 00:04:59,119 Speaker 1: had been critical of the party in the government during 79 00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:01,800 Speaker 1: the hundred Flower his campaign, which we talked about in 80 00:05:01,839 --> 00:05:05,920 Speaker 1: more detail during the Great Leak Forward episode. Mao also 81 00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:09,159 Speaker 1: wanted to close the gap between rural people and urban people, 82 00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:13,640 Speaker 1: and between laborers and intellectuals. About eight percent of China's 83 00:05:13,640 --> 00:05:17,679 Speaker 1: population lived in rural areas, many of them were extremely poor, 84 00:05:17,920 --> 00:05:20,359 Speaker 1: and on the other hand, there was another more privileged 85 00:05:20,360 --> 00:05:24,200 Speaker 1: class of people that included landlords, intellectuals, and others, and 86 00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:27,040 Speaker 1: these people had wealth and status while the peasantry simply 87 00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:29,919 Speaker 1: did not, and Mao wanted to end this disparity in 88 00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:33,560 Speaker 1: China's long history of elitism in its more privileged classes. 89 00:05:34,560 --> 00:05:38,360 Speaker 1: One of his first steps was to send university students 90 00:05:38,360 --> 00:05:41,360 Speaker 1: to the country to work and to be quote re educated. 91 00:05:41,839 --> 00:05:44,120 Speaker 1: They were going to work on farms and to learn 92 00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:47,120 Speaker 1: from the proletariat or the working class people, and this 93 00:05:47,200 --> 00:05:51,640 Speaker 1: served multiple purposes simultaneously. It got the young intellectuals, who 94 00:05:51,720 --> 00:05:53,880 Speaker 1: mal considered to be a threat out of the way. 95 00:05:54,320 --> 00:05:57,880 Speaker 1: It didn't end run around unemployment problems that were plaguing 96 00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:01,160 Speaker 1: China cities. If they were working the country, these students 97 00:06:01,200 --> 00:06:03,600 Speaker 1: would not be competing for jobs when they finished school, 98 00:06:04,279 --> 00:06:07,279 Speaker 1: and it provided additional labor for the peasantry, and it 99 00:06:07,320 --> 00:06:11,560 Speaker 1: gave the peasantry an opportunity to learn from students that 100 00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:14,400 Speaker 1: had now moved in down to basic skills like literally, 101 00:06:14,640 --> 00:06:19,280 Speaker 1: literacy and math. By the fall of nineteen sixty eight, 102 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:23,440 Speaker 1: one point five million university students had been sent to 103 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:27,640 Speaker 1: the country to work, and Mao had a different plan 104 00:06:27,760 --> 00:06:31,480 Speaker 1: for China's younger students. So while the university students were 105 00:06:31,520 --> 00:06:34,520 Speaker 1: immediately being sent to the country, the high school aged 106 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:38,039 Speaker 1: students were encouraged to join a new organization called the 107 00:06:38,080 --> 00:06:42,600 Speaker 1: Red Guard. The Red Guard was a pseudo army empowered 108 00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:45,480 Speaker 1: to seek out and deal with the Five Black Elements. 109 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:49,039 Speaker 1: It had the flavor of a grassroots movement and of 110 00:06:49,160 --> 00:06:51,919 Speaker 1: radical youth movements that existed in other parts of the 111 00:06:51,960 --> 00:06:56,400 Speaker 1: world in the nineteen sixties, but really participation was encouraged 112 00:06:56,480 --> 00:07:00,719 Speaker 1: and enabled by the government, specifically by Mao. Being in 113 00:07:00,760 --> 00:07:04,680 Speaker 1: the Red Guard was simultaneously a political act and an 114 00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:08,320 Speaker 1: act of rebellion. The Red Guard was supportive of Mao 115 00:07:08,440 --> 00:07:11,520 Speaker 1: and destructive towards his ad ever series, but at the 116 00:07:11,560 --> 00:07:14,800 Speaker 1: same time it was rebellious, It was violent, and it 117 00:07:14,880 --> 00:07:18,360 Speaker 1: was hard to control. It was, after all, essentially an 118 00:07:18,440 --> 00:07:22,520 Speaker 1: army of teenagers operating, operating with little to no adult supervision, 119 00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:28,040 Speaker 1: and empowered by their government to aggressively pursue enemies. Even 120 00:07:28,040 --> 00:07:32,040 Speaker 1: if adults wanted to curb the Red Guard's more extreme behavior, 121 00:07:32,400 --> 00:07:36,480 Speaker 1: they really couldn't for fear of being branded counter revolutionaries 122 00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:40,000 Speaker 1: and then targeted by the Red Guard themselves. This was 123 00:07:40,200 --> 00:07:44,080 Speaker 1: especially true considering how wholeheartedly Mao was in support of 124 00:07:44,080 --> 00:07:47,560 Speaker 1: the Red Guard's activities, so much so that he closed 125 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:50,280 Speaker 1: all the schools in June of nineteen sixty six so 126 00:07:50,360 --> 00:07:53,840 Speaker 1: students could participate. Then he met them in Beijing for 127 00:07:53,880 --> 00:07:58,000 Speaker 1: a series of rallies. So you know anything about Mao, 128 00:07:58,040 --> 00:08:01,440 Speaker 1: you know, they had this immense cult of personality, and 129 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:05,400 Speaker 1: he really wanted to inspire fervor in these young people, 130 00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:09,920 Speaker 1: so he made grand gestures like trying to swim across 131 00:08:09,920 --> 00:08:13,920 Speaker 1: the Yangzi River, which the youth then emulated. After this 132 00:08:14,040 --> 00:08:16,640 Speaker 1: series of rallies in Beijing, many of the ones who 133 00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:19,200 Speaker 1: had gotten the chance to meet the chairman refused to 134 00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:22,400 Speaker 1: wash the hands they used to touch him. He also 135 00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:25,200 Speaker 1: granted the student's free rail passes so that they could 136 00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:29,520 Speaker 1: engage in what was known as quote revolutionary tourism. The 137 00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:33,880 Speaker 1: students made what's known as big character posters, so posters 138 00:08:33,880 --> 00:08:38,040 Speaker 1: with slogans, criticisms and the like written in Chinese characters 139 00:08:38,120 --> 00:08:41,120 Speaker 1: and hung up on buildings. Mao made one of his 140 00:08:41,200 --> 00:08:45,240 Speaker 1: own to further cement his connection to the youth, and 141 00:08:45,440 --> 00:08:48,840 Speaker 1: probably the most memorable part of the connection between Mao 142 00:08:48,920 --> 00:08:52,080 Speaker 1: and the Red Guard. They carried with them a copy 143 00:08:52,240 --> 00:08:55,760 Speaker 1: of quotations from the works of Mao Zedong or Mao's 144 00:08:55,920 --> 00:08:58,720 Speaker 1: Little Red Book, and they would refer to it regularly 145 00:08:59,600 --> 00:09:03,800 Speaker 1: in their work. To seek out dissenters, counter revolutionaries, capitalists, 146 00:09:03,840 --> 00:09:06,920 Speaker 1: and anyone else who didn't fit in with MoU's ideology, 147 00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:12,800 Speaker 1: the Red Guard became zealous and ruthless. Their targets included intellectuals, teachers, 148 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:16,439 Speaker 1: capitalists as we mentioned, and party officials who were critical 149 00:09:16,440 --> 00:09:21,080 Speaker 1: of Mao. They rated the homes of perceived enemies, who 150 00:09:21,080 --> 00:09:25,400 Speaker 1: they often beat, humiliated, and imprisoned. Some of their targets 151 00:09:25,480 --> 00:09:28,600 Speaker 1: were sent into force labor and re education programs around 152 00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:32,000 Speaker 1: the country, some were imprisoned, as we said, and some 153 00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:35,920 Speaker 1: were killed. The Red Guard rated more than one hundred 154 00:09:35,920 --> 00:09:40,560 Speaker 1: thousand homes in Beijing alone, one thousand, seven hundred people died. 155 00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:44,839 Speaker 1: Some of these were suicides following the Red Guards public humiliation. 156 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:47,960 Speaker 1: The worst month was August of nineteen sixty six, which 157 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:53,000 Speaker 1: became known as Red August. There wasn't just one monolithic 158 00:09:53,120 --> 00:09:56,480 Speaker 1: Red Guard, though, there were differences in how these groups 159 00:09:56,480 --> 00:09:59,520 Speaker 1: behaved and how they conducted themselves because they weren't really 160 00:09:59,559 --> 00:10:03,880 Speaker 1: report in to any kind of central leadership. In some cases, 161 00:10:03,920 --> 00:10:08,199 Speaker 1: the Red Guard factions formed rivalries and they clashed against 162 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:12,200 Speaker 1: each other really violently, with each faction believing that it 163 00:10:12,480 --> 00:10:16,160 Speaker 1: and none of the others was correctly interpreting and following 164 00:10:16,160 --> 00:10:19,920 Speaker 1: the views of Chairman Mao. In Beijing, for example, many 165 00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:22,480 Speaker 1: of the Red Guards members were children of high ranking 166 00:10:22,520 --> 00:10:26,200 Speaker 1: members of the CCP. They banded together and in a 167 00:10:26,240 --> 00:10:29,520 Speaker 1: group known as Coordinated Action, carried out what was called 168 00:10:29,559 --> 00:10:33,360 Speaker 1: the Red Terror, a horrifying and violent campaign that was 169 00:10:33,400 --> 00:10:36,680 Speaker 1: meant to protect their parents. This was really the opposite 170 00:10:36,720 --> 00:10:39,160 Speaker 1: of what the Red Guard was intended to do, because 171 00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:42,000 Speaker 1: the parents that they were protecting were people who were 172 00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:45,280 Speaker 1: suspected of capitalist leanings. They were actually meant to be 173 00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:48,880 Speaker 1: the people that the Red Guard would be pursuing. So 174 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:51,720 Speaker 1: by September of nineteen sixty seven, so the Red Guard 175 00:10:51,720 --> 00:10:53,960 Speaker 1: had been going on for about a year, it was 176 00:10:54,040 --> 00:10:57,200 Speaker 1: near anarchy in some cities, and Mao and Defense Minister 177 00:10:57,320 --> 00:11:01,160 Speaker 1: Lynn Biao deployed troops to try to restore order. The 178 00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:05,000 Speaker 1: People's Liberation Army was also stationed around nuclear power plants, 179 00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:07,800 Speaker 1: museums and the like that were threatened by the Red 180 00:11:07,840 --> 00:11:11,320 Speaker 1: Guard's violence. Mao himself was astonished at the level of 181 00:11:11,360 --> 00:11:13,720 Speaker 1: violence and anarchy that the Red Guard had turned to. 182 00:11:15,080 --> 00:11:18,320 Speaker 1: By nineteen sixty eight, the fervor and intensity of the 183 00:11:18,360 --> 00:11:21,960 Speaker 1: Red Guard had become a liability, so Mao started handing 184 00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:26,199 Speaker 1: more power over to the People's Liberation Army instead. A 185 00:11:26,200 --> 00:11:29,440 Speaker 1: common misperception is that the Red Guard rampaged all over 186 00:11:29,559 --> 00:11:33,760 Speaker 1: China throughout the Cultural Revolution, but really it's heyday was 187 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:37,040 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty six, and by nineteen sixty eight it was 188 00:11:37,080 --> 00:11:40,520 Speaker 1: really on the wane. Mao was shocked by how violent 189 00:11:40,600 --> 00:11:42,960 Speaker 1: and zealous they had become, and he recognized that they 190 00:11:42,960 --> 00:11:47,400 Speaker 1: had really outlived their usefulness. So at that point, high 191 00:11:47,400 --> 00:11:50,800 Speaker 1: school aged children joined the university students and being sent 192 00:11:50,840 --> 00:11:54,599 Speaker 1: to the country to work. By nineteen seventy eight, sixteen 193 00:11:54,800 --> 00:11:58,600 Speaker 1: million students total had been sent to the country, and 194 00:11:58,679 --> 00:12:01,000 Speaker 1: sending young people into the country, we also went all 195 00:12:01,040 --> 00:12:03,960 Speaker 1: the way through the Cultural Revolution and after it was over, 196 00:12:04,040 --> 00:12:08,199 Speaker 1: with that practice ending in nineteen eighty. It reminds me 197 00:12:08,520 --> 00:12:12,240 Speaker 1: of like Lord of the Flies. That's exactly what I 198 00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:16,959 Speaker 1: was thinking as well. So before we get to the 199 00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:21,240 Speaker 1: other hallmark of this part of the Cultural Revolution, let's 200 00:12:21,240 --> 00:12:23,600 Speaker 1: take a brief moment for a word from a sponsor. 201 00:12:23,960 --> 00:12:28,160 Speaker 1: It sounds grand so to return to the Cultural Revolution 202 00:12:28,920 --> 00:12:32,040 Speaker 1: along with all of his goals to close the wealth gap, 203 00:12:32,520 --> 00:12:36,760 Speaker 1: elevate China's proletariat, and inspire a revolutionary spirit of the 204 00:12:36,840 --> 00:12:40,320 Speaker 1: nation's youth. Another one of Mao's objectives and the Cultural 205 00:12:40,360 --> 00:12:42,640 Speaker 1: Revolution was to get rid of anyone in the government 206 00:12:42,640 --> 00:12:45,080 Speaker 1: who opposed him, so that he could ensure that his 207 00:12:45,160 --> 00:12:47,880 Speaker 1: successors would carry on his work the way he wanted 208 00:12:47,920 --> 00:12:51,320 Speaker 1: after he was gone. So, running alongside the Red Guard's 209 00:12:51,320 --> 00:12:55,440 Speaker 1: work among China's intellectuals, capitalists, and right as citizens, both 210 00:12:55,480 --> 00:12:59,040 Speaker 1: real and suspected, was an ongoing purge of the same 211 00:12:59,080 --> 00:13:03,319 Speaker 1: influences in China's government. For the most part, Mao didn't 212 00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:07,120 Speaker 1: go directly after his highest ranking opponents. Instead, he would 213 00:13:07,160 --> 00:13:11,319 Speaker 1: go after their underlings. He would discredit them, publicly, humiliate them, 214 00:13:11,400 --> 00:13:14,800 Speaker 1: or have them arrested. Then once their support within the 215 00:13:14,800 --> 00:13:17,440 Speaker 1: party had been destroyed. He would go after those bigger 216 00:13:17,480 --> 00:13:22,920 Speaker 1: targets who became much easier to take down without their supporters. Uh. 217 00:13:22,960 --> 00:13:25,920 Speaker 1: One of these was Leo Chao Chi, who we mentioned 218 00:13:25,920 --> 00:13:28,439 Speaker 1: in the Great Famine episode. He was at that point 219 00:13:28,520 --> 00:13:32,040 Speaker 1: China's head of state. He had replaced Mao in nine, 220 00:13:32,120 --> 00:13:34,600 Speaker 1: at which point it was clear that Mao's Greatly Forward 221 00:13:34,679 --> 00:13:38,200 Speaker 1: was failing. We also pronounced his name just a little 222 00:13:38,200 --> 00:13:40,520 Speaker 1: bit differently in that episode because I found a different 223 00:13:40,679 --> 00:13:45,040 Speaker 1: and better pronunciation resource between when we recorded the first 224 00:13:45,040 --> 00:13:47,920 Speaker 1: two episodes and these two episodes, and neither of us 225 00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:53,560 Speaker 1: speaks a total language we are really trying um. Leo 226 00:13:53,760 --> 00:13:57,120 Speaker 1: had vocally argued against the Great Leap Forward when he 227 00:13:57,160 --> 00:13:59,920 Speaker 1: realized how devastating it had turned out to be for 228 00:14:00,080 --> 00:14:04,079 Speaker 1: China's farmers. Unlike other leaders who had begun to sway 229 00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:09,920 Speaker 1: Mao away from the Greatly policies, Leo had criticized Mao directly, 230 00:14:10,160 --> 00:14:12,920 Speaker 1: rather than shifting the blame to other people, saying they 231 00:14:12,960 --> 00:14:16,920 Speaker 1: had sort of misinterpreted or wrongly carried out Moo's vision. 232 00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:21,120 Speaker 1: And this work, while crucial to ending the famine, came 233 00:14:21,120 --> 00:14:24,160 Speaker 1: back to bite him. Leo was removed from office in 234 00:14:24,240 --> 00:14:27,960 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty six, beaten and imprisoned, and he died in 235 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:33,360 Speaker 1: prison in nineteen sixty nine. Dong Xiaoping was the General 236 00:14:33,480 --> 00:14:37,080 Speaker 1: Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, and he was purged 237 00:14:37,160 --> 00:14:40,520 Speaker 1: from his office as well, along with two thirds of 238 00:14:40,560 --> 00:14:45,880 Speaker 1: the Communist Party's Central Committee. Purchase continued through nineteen sixty 239 00:14:45,880 --> 00:14:48,640 Speaker 1: seven and nineteen sixty eight, and he's mostly took place 240 00:14:48,720 --> 00:14:52,640 Speaker 1: in cities and also included members of the People's Liberation Army. 241 00:14:53,200 --> 00:14:57,320 Speaker 1: Purged officials should be exiled, imprisoned, or sent into forced labor. 242 00:14:58,360 --> 00:15:01,680 Speaker 1: More generally intellectual were sent into the country and re 243 00:15:01,800 --> 00:15:05,280 Speaker 1: educated as well. That often meant that the people who 244 00:15:05,360 --> 00:15:09,160 Speaker 1: had been running things were no longer there to run them, 245 00:15:09,240 --> 00:15:14,080 Speaker 1: so businessmen, administrators, engineers, and others who were doing jobs 246 00:15:14,120 --> 00:15:17,680 Speaker 1: that required an education were in since instead sent to 247 00:15:17,800 --> 00:15:20,760 Speaker 1: rural areas to du forced labor, or sometimes sent a 248 00:15:20,840 --> 00:15:24,920 Speaker 1: prison or killed. The people who moved into these positions 249 00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:27,760 Speaker 1: often simply did not have the knowledge or the skills 250 00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:31,920 Speaker 1: to do them. They abolished regulations and abandoned the procedures 251 00:15:31,960 --> 00:15:36,040 Speaker 1: that industries had previously followed, especially for the late nineteen 252 00:15:36,080 --> 00:15:40,360 Speaker 1: sixties years of the cultural revolution, China's economy really suffered 253 00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:43,440 Speaker 1: dramatically as a consequence. In in nineteen sixty eight, the 254 00:15:43,520 --> 00:15:47,880 Speaker 1: Chinese economy also started to collapse, with virtually every economic 255 00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:53,200 Speaker 1: measure dropping well below prior year's levels. Between nineteen sixty 256 00:15:53,240 --> 00:15:56,040 Speaker 1: seven and nineteen sixty nine, there was just a huge 257 00:15:56,200 --> 00:16:00,240 Speaker 1: focus on quote purifying class ranks, and this went so 258 00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:03,360 Speaker 1: far as to look back into people's family trees and 259 00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:06,520 Speaker 1: whether they had family members in the past who had 260 00:16:06,560 --> 00:16:11,080 Speaker 1: been counter revolutionary or had immigrated outside of China. People 261 00:16:11,160 --> 00:16:14,720 Speaker 1: were persecuted for their own family, their own backgrounds, and 262 00:16:14,840 --> 00:16:18,520 Speaker 1: that of their family members, including like in the past, 263 00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:22,480 Speaker 1: like their their parents and grandparents, whether they were still 264 00:16:22,520 --> 00:16:25,080 Speaker 1: in touch with these family members, or whether they still 265 00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:29,400 Speaker 1: held so called counter revolutionary beliefs. Tens of thousands of 266 00:16:29,400 --> 00:16:34,960 Speaker 1: people were killed in the resulting investigations. This through China 267 00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:39,520 Speaker 1: cities completely into chaos, with organizations failing after their leaders 268 00:16:39,520 --> 00:16:43,320 Speaker 1: were exiled or arrested. Media outlets that have been sponsored 269 00:16:43,320 --> 00:16:47,560 Speaker 1: by those organizations failed. The number of magazines and newspapers 270 00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:50,400 Speaker 1: being printed in China plummeted, and the ones that remained 271 00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:53,680 Speaker 1: were under the oversight of the state. In addition to 272 00:16:53,760 --> 00:16:57,440 Speaker 1: the perception that China's elite had attitudes that were threatening 273 00:16:57,480 --> 00:17:00,960 Speaker 1: to Mao's vision of order. They also had stuff. If 274 00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:03,560 Speaker 1: you were an intellectual elite person, if you made a 275 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:08,160 Speaker 1: good income, you probably owned things like paintings and artifacts 276 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:12,560 Speaker 1: and collections of things that were historically or culturally valuable 277 00:17:12,600 --> 00:17:17,320 Speaker 1: in some way. So owning artwork became considered to be bourgeois, 278 00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:21,920 Speaker 1: and so did being a professional artist. So, since China's 279 00:17:22,080 --> 00:17:25,879 Speaker 1: art had a long history of being politically oriented in 280 00:17:25,920 --> 00:17:29,000 Speaker 1: some way, a lot of the existing art also celebrated 281 00:17:29,040 --> 00:17:33,280 Speaker 1: ideals that were no longer considered to be acceptable, and 282 00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:35,720 Speaker 1: this is what led China, mostly at the hands of 283 00:17:35,720 --> 00:17:39,200 Speaker 1: the Red Guard, to destroy cultural and historical treasures during 284 00:17:39,240 --> 00:17:43,040 Speaker 1: the Cultural Revolution. Portrayals of this in the West are 285 00:17:43,080 --> 00:17:46,040 Speaker 1: often along the lines of every possible artifact with any 286 00:17:46,119 --> 00:17:51,239 Speaker 1: hint whatsoever of bourgeoisie or imperialism just being destroyed. And 287 00:17:51,280 --> 00:17:55,159 Speaker 1: while entire historical sites were reduced to rubble and a 288 00:17:55,200 --> 00:17:59,120 Speaker 1: lot of artifacts were destroyed, it wasn't quite the wholesale 289 00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:03,520 Speaker 1: destruction of a nation's entire artistic and cultural history that 290 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:07,919 Speaker 1: you kind of see in Western portrayals. Sometimes books and 291 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:10,760 Speaker 1: documents really fared the worst since they were easy to 292 00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:13,040 Speaker 1: burn or pulp, and the Red Guard would air on 293 00:18:13,080 --> 00:18:16,320 Speaker 1: the side of suspicion when dealing with them. But often 294 00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:18,680 Speaker 1: when the Red Guard rated someone's home, they would turn 295 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:22,160 Speaker 1: over things that were obviously valuable to the state, and 296 00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:24,359 Speaker 1: as words spread of what the Red Guard was doing, 297 00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:29,880 Speaker 1: people sometimes destroyed their own possessions preemptively. They're also as 298 00:18:29,920 --> 00:18:32,400 Speaker 1: it became clear that the Red Guard was out of control, 299 00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:35,600 Speaker 1: there were some efforts on the part of the government 300 00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:38,760 Speaker 1: to protect things that were really culturally important and needed 301 00:18:38,800 --> 00:18:40,800 Speaker 1: to be preserved. So it wasn't as though the government 302 00:18:40,840 --> 00:18:44,080 Speaker 1: completely turned a blind eye and was like just smash 303 00:18:44,119 --> 00:18:47,200 Speaker 1: it all, like that's not that's not what's going on. 304 00:18:47,920 --> 00:18:52,640 Speaker 1: But by nineteen sixty nine, China's intellectual class had been gutted. 305 00:18:53,440 --> 00:18:56,520 Speaker 1: It's government had been cleared out of nearly all dissent, 306 00:18:56,720 --> 00:19:01,119 Speaker 1: either real or imagined, its cities had been thrown into chaos, 307 00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:04,679 Speaker 1: and its economy had been run off the rails. Works 308 00:19:04,720 --> 00:19:08,760 Speaker 1: of art, artifacts and monuments had been destroyed. This really 309 00:19:08,840 --> 00:19:12,240 Speaker 1: left an open playing field for Maw to recraft the 310 00:19:12,320 --> 00:19:15,320 Speaker 1: nation's government, culture, and way of thought to suit his 311 00:19:15,359 --> 00:19:17,960 Speaker 1: own ends, and that is what we're going to talk 312 00:19:17,960 --> 00:19:23,480 Speaker 1: about in our next episode. It breaks my heart to 313 00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:26,919 Speaker 1: think of all that art being destroyed. I kind of 314 00:19:26,960 --> 00:19:28,879 Speaker 1: have to pinch myself tonight, get choked up when we 315 00:19:28,880 --> 00:19:32,159 Speaker 1: talk about it. Do you have some listener mail for 316 00:19:32,240 --> 00:19:35,680 Speaker 1: us to enjoy? I do. I am going to read 317 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:40,960 Speaker 1: a pretty happy piece of listener mailoray. This is from 318 00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:44,680 Speaker 1: Valentine and he says, Hello, Tracy and Holly love the show. 319 00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:48,720 Speaker 1: Your episode on galut at University Death President now opened 320 00:19:48,760 --> 00:19:51,879 Speaker 1: our minds to the deaf community. This led me to 321 00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:54,760 Speaker 1: attend a s L meetings and pivot the promotion of 322 00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:57,879 Speaker 1: our startup, My Bell, And he has a video that 323 00:19:57,920 --> 00:19:59,439 Speaker 1: I will put in our show notes and you can 324 00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:04,760 Speaker 1: watch it too. My bell is basically a digital thing 325 00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:07,680 Speaker 1: that you can mount on the handlebars of a bicycle, 326 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:10,399 Speaker 1: so it will play like prerecorded instead of just a 327 00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:15,000 Speaker 1: regular bicycle bell, it will play prerecorded things that you 328 00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:18,840 Speaker 1: can use in place foot bill. Listening to one podcast 329 00:20:19,040 --> 00:20:22,560 Speaker 1: Yours led to some brainstorming and a string of miraculous events. 330 00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:25,320 Speaker 1: During our kickstarter we hit a plateau and we're running 331 00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:27,840 Speaker 1: out of ideas on what to do to relax and 332 00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:30,520 Speaker 1: clear my mind. I naturally listen to your podcast and 333 00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:35,200 Speaker 1: stumbled stumbled upon the DPN episode. This led to visualizing 334 00:20:35,200 --> 00:20:39,480 Speaker 1: how our product can help deaf cyclists. Deaf cyclists as 335 00:20:39,560 --> 00:20:42,560 Speaker 1: described in our video, and I'm going to tell you 336 00:20:42,600 --> 00:20:44,600 Speaker 1: in case you don't get to watch the video to 337 00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:47,320 Speaker 1: take a break from the letter, Um, it is by 338 00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:51,800 Speaker 1: recording things like on your left, So like having a 339 00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:55,360 Speaker 1: prerecorded thing this is on your left to play as 340 00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:59,120 Speaker 1: you approach someone that you're going to pass on your bicycle. UM, 341 00:20:59,280 --> 00:21:01,200 Speaker 1: do you better could be undicate with the like a 342 00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:04,400 Speaker 1: hearing cyclist in front of you, that that you're coming 343 00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:07,560 Speaker 1: up behind them. To get back to the letter. From there, 344 00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:11,480 Speaker 1: I contacted Carrie Brewer, a deaf cycling activist. Our minds 345 00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:14,159 Speaker 1: clicked and she sent us a video testimony. Also, I 346 00:21:14,200 --> 00:21:17,720 Speaker 1: started attending local as L meeting satisfying my childhood desire 347 00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:20,440 Speaker 1: to learn sign language. At the a s L meeting, 348 00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:23,439 Speaker 1: I met Big Wang, a filmmaker learning as L for 349 00:21:23,520 --> 00:21:26,360 Speaker 1: his next project, which is on children of deaf adults. 350 00:21:26,920 --> 00:21:29,600 Speaker 1: He played a big role in making the promotion, editing 351 00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:34,000 Speaker 1: subtitles as L voiceover and be footage simultaneously. Once the 352 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:37,119 Speaker 1: video was done, we sent it to every deaf media 353 00:21:37,119 --> 00:21:40,040 Speaker 1: outlet available. Since then, we have been on the Daily Moth, 354 00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:43,840 Speaker 1: def TV, and just this Monday, I Deaf News interviewed 355 00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:45,320 Speaker 1: us and a new friend from the a s L 356 00:21:45,359 --> 00:21:48,159 Speaker 1: meeting was happy to be our interpreter and the end 357 00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:50,920 Speaker 1: their kickstarter did not meet at school, but learning how 358 00:21:50,920 --> 00:21:54,919 Speaker 1: our product can help deaf cyclists. The adventures involved are priceless. 359 00:21:55,280 --> 00:21:58,760 Speaker 1: Thank you Valentine, Thank you Valentine for writing to us. 360 00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:01,680 Speaker 1: I love that whole idea you so much. I do, 361 00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:04,560 Speaker 1: and and I kind of interrupted the letter a couple 362 00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:07,720 Speaker 1: of times to explain what the video is because you know, 363 00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:09,399 Speaker 1: we can't play you the video right now in this 364 00:22:09,440 --> 00:22:12,639 Speaker 1: audio podcast to see what it was he was talking about. 365 00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:14,800 Speaker 1: And it's a really cool idea and something I had 366 00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:18,240 Speaker 1: not ever thought of before, which is one of the 367 00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:22,040 Speaker 1: reasons we pick episodes like this to try to get 368 00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:24,440 Speaker 1: people to think about things that maybe they have never 369 00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:27,800 Speaker 1: thought of before. So I had never thought of if 370 00:22:27,800 --> 00:22:30,600 Speaker 1: you are not a speaking person, how do you communicate? 371 00:22:30,640 --> 00:22:32,440 Speaker 1: How do you communicate with the person in front of 372 00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:34,879 Speaker 1: you when you were on a bicycle Apart from just 373 00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:38,479 Speaker 1: a bell, which is not a very like there's no 374 00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:41,840 Speaker 1: bell code of yeah, ways to bring the bicycle bell 375 00:22:42,119 --> 00:22:44,600 Speaker 1: for people to know what you're doing. It makes noise 376 00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:47,440 Speaker 1: and it might get attention that there's no clear definition 377 00:22:47,440 --> 00:22:51,680 Speaker 1: of what it means. Yeah, well, and I think I also, uh, 378 00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:53,960 Speaker 1: there's a bike path near where I live now that 379 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:55,919 Speaker 1: I've spent a lot of time on and so I 380 00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:59,159 Speaker 1: also am more aware of the things that cyclists do 381 00:22:59,280 --> 00:23:03,000 Speaker 1: to try to let pedestrians new what is going on 382 00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:06,439 Speaker 1: behind them. So anyway, I am really glad that this 383 00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:09,960 Speaker 1: podcast was able to, you know, inspire somebody to think 384 00:23:09,960 --> 00:23:11,919 Speaker 1: of a new use for something they were trying to do. 385 00:23:13,080 --> 00:23:16,159 Speaker 1: So it's pretty awesome. Yeah, if you would like to 386 00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:18,720 Speaker 1: write to us, you can. We are at History Podcast 387 00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:22,800 Speaker 1: at how Stuffworks dot com. Our Facebook is Facebook dot 388 00:23:22,840 --> 00:23:25,040 Speaker 1: com slash miss in history, and our Twitter is at 389 00:23:25,040 --> 00:23:28,000 Speaker 1: missed in History. Our tumbler is missed in History dot 390 00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:30,400 Speaker 1: tumbler dot com, and we're on Pinterest at pinterest dot 391 00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:34,439 Speaker 1: com slash missed in History. We also have a spreadshirt store. 392 00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:37,120 Speaker 1: You can reach it from the home page of our website, 393 00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:39,199 Speaker 1: which is missed in History dot com, or you can 394 00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:41,400 Speaker 1: just go to miss in History dot spreadshirt dot com. 395 00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:44,120 Speaker 1: If you want to go straight there. If you would 396 00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:46,800 Speaker 1: like to learn a little more about what we've talked 397 00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:49,960 Speaker 1: about today, you can come to our parent company's website 398 00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:53,200 Speaker 1: and put the word MAU into the search bar and 399 00:23:53,520 --> 00:23:58,480 Speaker 1: you will find MOUs just kind of unfortunate place. I'm 400 00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:02,040 Speaker 1: saying this because the circumstances were unfortunate, not the placement 401 00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:07,600 Speaker 1: was unfortunate. An article called the top ten public enemies. Uh. 402 00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:10,040 Speaker 1: That is that how stuff works dot com. Or you 403 00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:12,199 Speaker 1: can come to our website where we will put up 404 00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:14,600 Speaker 1: share notes that include all of the sources that we've 405 00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:17,280 Speaker 1: used for this, as well as a link to the 406 00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:21,400 Speaker 1: video we were just talking about for the digital bicycle bell. 407 00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:23,320 Speaker 1: You can do all of that and a whole lot 408 00:24:23,359 --> 00:24:25,720 Speaker 1: more at our website, which is missed in history dot 409 00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:32,840 Speaker 1: com for more on this and thousands of other topics. 410 00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:46,640 Speaker 1: Because it how stuff works dot com.