1. WHAT WERE THE EFFECTS OF THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION?
Authority challenged
Economic damage
Disrupted education
A new Chinese culture
Power changes
General chaos

2. Challenges & changes to Authority
Teachers were challenged and attacked by students
All ranks in the PLA were abolished
Central government’s control and ability to pass & enforce laws was seriously weakened
Any attempt to challenge the Red Guards or the ‘Thoughts of Chairman Mao’ was met with accusations of being counter-revolutionary. Mao’s authority had increased.

3. ECONOMIC DAMAGE The economy fell into ruins 1966-68
The industrial and agricultural progress in the early 1960s was destroyed almost overnight
Factories came to a standstill
Farming methods reverted to traditional manual labour
Many ‘reactionaries’ were forced to work as labourers in the countryside

4. DISRUPTION TO EDUCATION
Teachers were prime targets for attack
All schools, colleges, and universities were closed for 2 years
Educated people were suspected of being part of a growing bourgeois or specialist class who were causing the revolution to lose its way
Professors performed manual work e.g. cleaning toilets
Progress from in literacy and learning was damaged and a ‘generation’ of children received little formal education

5. A NEW CHINESE CULTURE
Anything that represented old traditional Chinese culture was destroyed – temples, shrines, art, gardens. Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing, led the attack. This increased her power. She controlled art & culture until 1976.
Western, capitalist and foreign influences were attacked and banned
A new Chinese culture emerged glorifying Maoist communism, the revolution, and the achievements of the Chinese people since 1949.

6. POWER CHANGES Local organisations of the CCP were destroyed
Senior party leaders who were opponents or rivals of Chairman Mao were accused of revisionism, capitalist ideas, and arrested and dismissed. Liu died in prison Deng was humiliated in front of 3,000 Red Guards. Deng’s son was thrown out of a window and broke his spine
Mao’s power had increased

7. GENERAL CHAOS By 1968 China was in complete chaos
Rival groups of Red Guards began to fight each other in their efforts to prove who had most loyalty to Mao and the revolution
In 1969:
Mao was forced to order the Red guards to stop their attacks
The PLA were called in to restore order but they continued the attacks for a while
Some historians believe Mao was never able to be fully in control of the cultural revolution. Others believe that he did not want to be, and in fact wanted some chaos to destroy opponents
The cultural revolution ended by 1971

8. WAS THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION A SUCCESS OR FAILURE?
FOR MAO?
What were his original aims?
What were the outcomes?
FOR THE CCP?
FOR THE 1949 REVOLUTION?
FOR CHINA AND THE CHINESE PEOPLE?