China's Cultural Revolution (Wednesday, August 22nd, 2018)

Every once in awhile I hear some history on these tours that is intreagueing to me, so I like to share it in a very abbreviated format.

In 1949 after the end of WWII the communists won the revolution and took over China. Their only ally at that point was Russia. 

But then in the 1950’s China and Russia broke off their relationship and China was on it’s own. China felt that the best way to survive on it’s own was to grow the population of the country. So families started having more children, and in 30 years the population had doubled.

Unfortunately, the people weren’t educated and the country had no technology. The government decided that in order to bring more money into the country, everyone should bring in all of their metal, which would be melted down and sold by the government. So the government pulled all of the farmers out of the fields to melt down the metal. With a much larger population and no food being farmed, everyone in the country was starving. Between 1958 and 1960; 32 million people died of starvation. The conditions were horrible.  

By 1966, the babies that were born during their 1950’s boom were now in their teens. People were starting to revolt because the living conditions were so poor. So the government used the teenagers to form a group called the Red Guards to punish people who spoke out about communism. Most educated people were punished and publicly humiliated. Many ended up committing suicide because of the treatment. It was forbidden to practice any type of religion at this time as well. 

 In 1976 Mao DeZong (the original founder of communism in China) died and there was a government uprising to stop the cultural revolution. In 1978 during the national congress China decided to open it’s borders. The baby boomers were now in their twenties, but still none of them had an education. This was when the one child policy started. The government still controlled the economy, things were still purchased on coupons, and there was a lot of corruption as wealthier people would pay off the government to get more coupons. 

In the 1980’s China was still a true communist country. All of the land and businesses were owned by the government, and everything was rationed. In addition to paying a high price for food, a family also had to have food coupons to purchase food at all. In southern China, people could grow small gardens year round to subsidize their food allowance, but in the northern provinces, food could only be grown for a few months during the summer. So families would grow as much food as they could in the summer months, then pickle the vegetables and bury them. For four to five months a year they had no fresh vegetables at all and would live off of the vegetables they buried in the fall. 

By 1989 the people of China were in a full revolution. The government began realizing that they couldn't be successful without the support of the people, so by 1990 the government changed the economic system to allow people to become educated and make a living. Today, they feel that they are now achieving what we call the American dream!