'Thought reform through labour'

By 1969, China had dismantled its education system. Family life and social interaction was subject to intervention and management by the state.

For children growing up in these conditions, denied play, denied a range of experience, and denied safe refuge at home, finding a balanced way of behaving became increasingly difficult. Many turned to gangs, or behaviours such as fighting and stealing.

This created an urban problem. Central government presumably feared this would develop into a civil unrest, or perhaps a challenge to themselves. What do you think? Was the power structure in Peking ultimately afraid of the population?

One solution was simply to send young teenagers out of the cities, and to rural locations. They were instructed 'to learn from the peasants'. For many youngsters this experience was probably bitter. We'll read about this in Chapter 22 of Wild Swans.

Think about other histories you know of: what have been the techniques used by governments to deal with a population?

In Chapters 20 and 21 of Wild Swans, we see the extent of the persecution against the author's parents. She writes of this experience in 1968,

'That night, as I lay in bed listening to the gunshots and the Rebels' loudspeakers blaring out bloodcurdling diatribes, I reached a turning point. I had always been told, and had believed, that I was living in a paradise on earth, socialist China, whereas the capitalist world was hell. Now I asked myself: If this is paradise, what then is hell?'

China has much changed and is different today. In the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping's reforms, and the introduction of Communism with Chinese characteristics has resulted in the development of international trade, economic liberalisation, and Mao now officially being 70% correct.

If you consider historical time in hundreds, or thousands of years, rather than in single years or decades, then could you say that Mao and the Cultural Revolution has played a minor part? But maybe he has changed China for hundreds of years to come? Will his impact now endure through the control of the Communist Party? Or will the economic interests of the east and the west become bigger than their political differences, and so make them look more alike in the future? What do you think? Can you imagine historical time spread over hundreds of years?

Chapter 19 of Wild Swans. The author's father is highly principled; he is still very loyal to the ideas which originally fashioned the Communist Party. He writes a letter to Chairman Mao.

Do you think this will change events at this point in China?

Although we tend to think society won't ever change, circumstances can develop very rapidly. A fluid situation can throw up people who seize opportunities, take advantage of change, and manage events in their favour. They shape what happens next, for good or bad.

Can you think of people you've studied in history who you would say shaped events?

We'll pause this week in our reading to give the visitor a chance not to be (metaphorically) beaten about the head by the Chinese Communist Party.

(Find out instead about Falun Gong. They're usually outside the Star Ferry terminal, TST.)

Note! I see the Shen Yun Performing Arts Group is in London, April 2012.

Shen Yun is supported by Falun Gong. Falun Gong is banned in China, but is active outside China, and has links to the US and Taiwan, which we know as old Kuomintang territory.

The role of Shen Yun is as the 'cultural wing' for Falun Gong; they act as cultural ambassadors for a pre-Communist China. They present the ideas of the imperial regime through art. (Is it possible to see the Communist Party as a 'blip' in Chinese history?)

Can you begin to see why political control of the arts becomes so important?!

Watch this video about Shen Yun from their website on Classical Chinese dance. It is 18 mins long. You will come away with an understanding how politics and the arts are linked.

Nothing is simple in history, is it? There are always more stories to be told, depending on which angle you stand to look.