GenZhou

990 readers

32 users here now

GenZhou is GenZedong without the shitposts

See this GitHub page for a collection of sources about socialism, imperialism, and other relevant topics.

We have a Matrix homeserver and a Matrix space (shared with GenZedong). See this thread for more information.

Rules:

This community is explicitly pro-AES (China, Cuba, the DPRK, Laos and Vietnam)
No ableism, racism, misogyny, transphobia, etc.
No pro-imperialists, liberals or electoralists
No dogmatism/idealism
For articles behind paywalls, try to include the text in the post
Mark all posts containing NSFW images as NSFW (including things like Nazi imagery)
Shitposts will be removed (please post them to /c/GenZedong or elsewhere instead)

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

GrainEater@lemmygrad.ml

ComradePupIvy@lemmygrad.ml

Why was the cultural revolution "allowed" to happen? (lemmygrad.ml)

submitted 1 day ago by King_Simp@lemmygrad.ml to c/genzhou@lemmygrad.ml

3 comments fedilink hide all child comments

What I mean is that I get the general ideological beliefs behind the cultural revolution, but how did so much chaos occur in the first place, backed by both the party and a lot (even if not the majority) of people?

Obviously there was the famine after the GLF and a general sense of paranoia politically given both that and the conflict between China and basically all of its (major) neighbors like india, the USSR, and the capitalist east Asian countries along with American meddling in the area.

However, reading about it honestly reminds me a lot of the French revolution (not 1:1 Obviously, just a general feel of chaos and intensity and paranoia and such), but it had been 16 years since the liberation of China.

So my question basically boils down to why both the party and a lot of people were so willing to engage in the cultural revolution.

top 3 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 7 hours ago

Because it was sorely needed.

[–] GreatSquare@lemmygrad.ml 23 points 1 day ago

After that "16 years of liberation", there was a massive economic disparity actually widening between the rural population (where >95% of China lived) and the urban population who are enjoying free healthcare, education, massive salaries, modernization of infrastructure and industry etc etc etc.

Liberal historians mourn over the destruction of ancient Chinese elite artworks but that art was completely invisible to the vast majority of Chinese who were illiterate and living in squalor working their guts out. That culture belonged to the ultra rich or royalty of China.

What about the real folk arts that were eroding because rural people were starving or barely had free time?

[–] darkernations@lemmygrad.ml 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

If you want a timeline without the cultural revolution please see India. Without going through the cultural revolution, and learning from its mistakes, there is no modern China.

(For a pop culture analogy/reference see the Dark series on Netflix!)