Maos Cultural Revolution :: Chinese China History

monoamine oxidases Cultural RevolutionDressed in the drab military uniform that symbolized the revolutionary judicature of Communist China, Mao Zedongs body still looked powerful, alike(p) an giant rock in a gushing river. An enormous red flag draped his coffin, like a red sail unfurled on a Chinese junk, illustrating the dualism of handed-down China and the present Communist China that typified Mao. 1 A river of people flowed one-time(prenominal) while he lay in state during the second week of September 1976. Workers, peasants, soldiers and students, united in grief brought together by Mao, the helmsman of redbrick China. 2 He had assembled a revolutionary government using tralatitious Chinese ideals of filial piety, harmony, and order. Maos cult of personality, party purges, and political policies reflect Maos esteem of these traditional Chinese ideals and history. Mao was born on December 26, 1893 in Shao Shan, a village in Hunan Province. 3 His family lived in a rural villa ge where for hundreds of age the pattern of everyday life had remained largely unbroken. 4 Maos develop, the son of a poor peasant, during Maos childhood however, prospered and become a wealthy land owner and sieve dealer. 5 Yet, the structure of Maos family continued to mirror the rigidity of traditional Chinese society. His father, a strict disciplinarian, demanded filial piety. 6 Forced to do farm industry and study the Chinese classics, Mao was expected to be obedient. On the other hand, Mao remembers his mother was generous and sympathetic. 7 Mao urged his mother to confront his father but Maos mother who believed in many traditional ideas replied that was not the Chinese way. 8 Mao in his interviews with historian Edgar Snow reports how during his childhood he essay to escape this traditional Chinese upbringing by running away from home. The rebellion Mao claims to have manifested might have distanced Mao physically from his family but, traditional Chinese values were dee ply ingrained, shaping his political and personal persona. His fathers harshness with dealing with opposition, his cunning, his demand for worship from subordinates, and his ambition were to be seen in how Mao demanded harmony, order, and reverence as a ruthless dictator. Yet, Mao, was also the kindly father figure for the people of China, as manifested in characteristic qualities of Maos mother kindness, benevolence, and patriarchal indulgence. The China that Mao was born into was fast becoming a shell of its former past.