Mao's revolutionary modernization

Mao Zedong (Unit 10.6) believed that traditional Chinese culture was the foundation of inequality and oppression. The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) was an explicit attempt to destroy traditional Chinese culture and replace it with revolutionary socialism. The Four Olds (old customs, old culture, old habits, old ideas) were targeted for destruction. Temples were razed, classical texts burned, traditional clothing banned, traditional names changed. Confucian philosophy was condemned as feudal. Intellectuals and traditional cultural figures were persecuted, beaten, or killed.

The Cultural Revolution killed perhaps a million people and traumatized many millions more. It also destroyed cultural artifacts on a massive scale and disrupted the education of an entire generation. Maria should treat the Cultural Revolution as the extreme case of forced anti-traditional modernization in the course.