Thousand Flowers Movement (1957); citizens were encouraged to openly express their opinions of the communist regime. Then the government crackdown against those who were critical of it. Critics were sent to prison labor camps.

The “Great Leap Forward” ( ); a program of pushing industrialization through small-scale projects integrated into the peasant communes. A disaster; The homemade iron was unusable for modern purposes Agricultural production plummeted. 15 to 30 million starved to death. Mao stepped down as Chairman.

China responded to its population problem in the mid-1960s by limiting urban couples to two children and rural couples to one.

The Chinese Communist Party had the following attitudes towards women: Women should achieve legal equality Women proved themselves during W.W.II Career opportunities should be open to women

The picture “Women, Nation, and Industrialization” suggest that the Chinese state under the leadership of Mao Zedong sought to achieve gender equality by having women engage in the same work as men.

In rural society, the gentry class (traditional landlords) were arrested and sent to rehabilitation camps. Hundreds of thousands died. Their land was redistributed to the landless poor. Their political responsibilities were shifted to local party cadres.

“Cultural Revolution” (1965); movement against deviant thought. Teenagers were formed into bands of “Red Guards.” Teachers were beaten, imprisoned, and subject to extreme humiliation.

In the poster “The Cult of Mao” the red books in the hands of people in the crowd contained quotations from Mao Zedong.

Intellectuals also became targets. Sent to rehabilitation camps where they confessed to social crimes, repented, and were reaccepted by society. A process of “brainwashing” involving the study of Marxist ideology. Based on Confucian belief that proper training in correct moral doctrine could help the man and strengthen the state.

The poster “Building the new society” depicts how the Great Leap Forward overcame the divide between agriculture and industry.

An attack on “the four olds;” 1.Traditional books were burned. 2.Traditional art was destroyed. 3.Buddhist sculptures were smashed. 4.Foreign things were attacked.

In the poster “Smashing the Old World” Buddhism is attacked as a feature of the “Old World”.

Deng Xiaoping ( ) successor to Mao. Institutes “Four Modernizations;” 1.Agriculture 2.Industry 3.Defense 4.Science and Technology Opens to Western ideas while maintaining Communism Thus a common feature of both Soviet and Chinese reforms in the 1980s and 1990s was the welcoming of foreign investment in joint enterprises.

Scientists and scholars were allowed to study in Japan and the West. Contact made them aware of western prosperity. Collapse of communism in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union led to democratic spirit in China. College students, held a democratic demonstration in Tiananmen Square, Beijing (1989).

Deng Xiaoping sent tanks and troops. Hundreds of students were killed and the leaders were jailed. Modern China, economic freedom is allowed, but no challenge to the Communist party rule will be tolerated.

Deng’s economic reforms, allowing elements of free-market capitalism, have improved the standard of living in China and an explosion of economic growth.

That concludes Modern China.