u/The-MT-Sant - originally from r/GenZhou
Taking a modern Chinese History class right now and a lot of it can be your typical weird, Western, propagandistic gobbley gook that amounts to “communism bad China bad”. However, we’re currently on the section regarding the Cultural Revolution and it seems like something that even the modern Communist Party acknowledges as a mistake, with the rehabilitation of many figures under Deng Xiapoing in the 80s. It also (at least form how it is being taught) seems like something that was simply objectively bad and used as a crackdown on individual rights. We are also required to read “Son of A Revolution” by Liang Heng and Judith Shapiro. Is this a reliable book? Also Do communists typically just look at this era as a mistake made by Mao? Were there any salvageable aspects of this time period? Or should it be looked at as nothing more than a stain on the Party’s record and something that needs to be learned from? Furthermore, do you think that the Cultural Revolution was motivated by genuine fear of external pressure attempting to destabilize China or more so the party and Mao’s paranoia that a youynger generation wouldn’t hold the same fervor for revolution that the generation that actively participated in it did? Lots of questions I know (haha) but any information about Chinese historians, communists, or the CCP views this era would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
u/FeiGweilo - originally from r/GenZhouFrom a Communist and pro-China perspective, Mao was good because he fought the revolution and established the DotP in mainland China, however China had not yet industrialised by the time the CPC came to power. As I’m sure you’ve already read, Mao initially tried to follow the Soviets in industrialising China which produced some good results before the Sino-Soviet split. However, without the Soviets and no bourgeois capitalists of their own, it was difficult for China to continue its industrialisation alone whilst it was still crawling out of the husk of feudalism. This is why Deng introduced his reforms, because he understood dialectical and historical materialism well enough to know that one cannot bypass that phase of bourgeois capitalist industrialisation on the road to Communism. One of the biggest mistakes westerners make in their analysis of Deng is that they presume he was a capitalist at heart who gave up on the pursuit of Communism in China, merely keeping Communist aesthetic around as a cynical way to retain legitimacy but this is absolutely not true.
u/The-MT-Sant - originally from r/GenZhouInteresting! I appreciate all of the nuance from this thread. I consider myself a pretty open minded and nuanced thinker and I appreciate the class I’m in (for all of the reactionary talking points) because it does force me to take a more nuanced look at history and figures like Mao, both the good and bad but especially with things like this and the Great Leap Forward it can be difficult to navigate.
u/Euph0riccall - originally from r/GenZhouTo add to this. if you take the time to read any books by Deng, you’ll quickly notice he was very Marxist and has always been. Liberal lies are so easy to debunk yet everyone continues to listen to them