Thesis: The reforms under Mao Zedong effected the Chinese people, like the Cultural Revolution, that took away citizen’s freedom of speech, opinion, and property by imprisoning or killing dissidents and by making all private property state owned. Mao’s other reforms like The Great Leap Forward, caused the Chinese people to live in communes and ultimately lose their desire to work which lead to famine and a decrease in family value, and lastly his Five Year Plan lead the China’s industry to boom but left the Chinese to always fear not being good enough and letting down their country.
document 1
- The Chinese people lost all their property, and were forced to work side by side as equals in communes.
- The better-off Chinese people lost all their property they had worked hard for, and were made equals with the poor.
- Mao’s Cultural Revolution followed Stalin’s example as he imprisoned any opponents to his government, he was taking away his people’s freedom of speech and opinion.
Document 2
- Mao Zedong is the primary focus in the photo, giving him a god-like appearance, with his people below him, another way of showing his superiority over the Chinese people.
- Three soldiers are depicted below Mao Zedong, all holding his little red book, and one a rifle. In the background, an army of Chinese citizens holding Zedong’s little red book is illustrated. These images show that all the Chinese people need to conform to Zedong’s little red book or face violence. The Chinese people have two options to conform and carry around the little red book, or be dissidents and face a rifle to the head.
- This poster is used as propaganda for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, which is based off of Mao Zedong and his government’s philosophy, and imprisoned or kills anyone who opposes their political beliefs.
Document 3
- Picture A shows a large group of Chinese people at work in the hot sun. The faces of the labors look defeated, others look bored. The woman on the right is staring off into space and has ceased working, she has no reason to work hard because she will be equal to her fellow laborer whether she tries or not.
- Picture B reveals what appears to be a normal family dinner. However, in the background, various other families are depicted. The family unit lost its significance to the Chinese people. They live together, work together, play together, with the other Chinese families in the commune, the children depicted could potential not even be blood-related to the two Chinese adults.
Document 4
- The Table shows that Mao’s Five Year Plan was generally successful in increasing good output from 1952 to 1957. Some goods like coal, pig iron, steel, and chemical fertilizer outputs were greater than intended.
- Mao’s strategy of giving a “factory or mine … a target to achieve,” was successful because “failure to meet a target was equivalent of failing your people.” The Chinese place an importance on honor and hard work, therefore by placing a goal they have a need to not just fulfill that goal but to go above and beyond the required output number. This made the Chinese always fear letting down their country.