| dc.description.abstract | Research on the Movement and the Thoughts of the Red Guards
Abstract
A wave of the Red Guards movement swept the whole China during the initial stage of the Cultural Revolution. At the begining, the old Red Guards composed of the high level cadres’ childern endeavor to break the four olds and foster the four news, even to destory monsters and freeks. But after the direction of the Cultural Revolution is changed into bourgeois reationary line, it caused not only the downfall of the old Red Guards but the rise of the rebels. The great turbulence of the Chinese society followed that taking ransacking people’s home and the violence are occured frequently in the Red Guards movement. Therefore, when Mao Zedong achieved the purpose that he utilized the Red Guards overthrow Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, he gave the direction of up to the mountains and down to the villages to urban youths. It lead to the end of the Red Guards movement by urban youths themselves.
Although the movement of the Red Guards lasted only for two years, it aroused many thoughts. Take the followings for example. On Blood Lineage , initiated by the old Red Guards to maintain the pure identity of the Red Guards. On Birth, in opposition to On Blood Lineage. The United Action Committee, the first organization of the Red Guards against the Cultural Revolution. The claim of Sheng Wu Lian (the Union of the Proletariat of Hunan Province ), asking Mao Zedong to carry out the Paris Commune. The posters of Li yizhe (Li zhengtian, Chen yiyang, Wang xizhe), affected by the Lin Biao affair, asked for democracy and legal institutions. These all showed that the Red Guards got to have independent thoughts. They started to examine the Cultural Revolution and confronted the problems of the political systems in China.
Up to the mountains and down to the villages, one of the claims of the Cultural Revolution, made many Red Guards drop out of schools. Therefore, they became the lost generation in the Chinese society. However, because of having gone through the turbulent Cultural Revolution and cruel political struggles, many Red Guards realized the poverty of China. These also made them to become the thinking generation.
Keywords: Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards, the Old Red Guards, rebels,
bourgeois reactionary line, up to the mountains and down to the villages
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