Deng Xiaoping's reversal

After Mao's death, Deng Xiaoping (Unit 10.6) reversed course. Deng's reforms allowed market mechanisms, foreign investment, and limited cultural opening. Traditional elements that the Cultural Revolution had attacked began to return cautiously. Confucianism, attacked under Mao, was selectively rehabilitated by the late 1990s. Traditional festivals, family practices, and cultural forms revived.