TERMS AND GUIDE QUESTIONS FOR FILM

THE MAO YEARS: IT'S RIGHT TO REBEL! (1960-76)

Liu Shaoqi (1898-1969): chairman of the People's Republic of China (1959-68) and chief political theorist for the CCP, who was considered Mao Zedong's successor until he was purged during the Cultural Revolution. Zhou Enlai (1898-76): A leading member of CCP leadership after the Long March, Mao's "right-hand man," and the frequent diplomatic representative of the CCP. Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997): Chinese communist leader who would become best known for "opening" the People's Republic of China to the West in the late 1970s and for leading the country's reform program until his death in 1997. Lin Biao (1907-71): military leader, who organized the Red Army into a modern fight force, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Lin became Mao's second-in-command during the Cultural Revolution, but he would later be accused of treason.

Mao’s "Little Red Book": a short anthology compiled and distributed to military personnel under Lin Biao's supervision that excerpted Mao’s speeches, newspaper articles, and other writing. Jiang Qing: (ca. 1914-1991): Mao's third wife and the most powerful woman in the People's Republic of China until her downfall in 1976, after Mao's death. As a member of the Gang of Four (Jiang Qing, Yao Wenyuan, Zhang Chunqiao, and Wang Hongwen) she was convicted in 1981 of "counter-revolutionary crimes" and imprisoned. Red Guards: groups of students who carried out Mao's proclamations during the Cultural revolution. Red Guards believed that they were directed to attack all "feudal" and "reactionary" elements in Chinese society. Shanghai Communiqué (1972): the document issued at the end of Nixon's visit that stated the mutual positions of the PRC and the US on matters such as the status of Taiwan

#1. Why did Mao appeal to young people in China to rebel? What did the Chairman hope to achieve by sending them around the country to learn from "revolutionary experiences"?

#2. What events brought Mao to the decision to rely on the PLA to restore social order? What were conditions in Chinese society like by this point?

#3. What led to the downfall of Lin Biao? How did Lin's fall affect the general feeling in China toward the Cultural Revolution?

#4. Why did Mao and Zhou Enlai begin to make overtures to the US to begin talks? What were some of the advantages Nixon felt the US could gain be establishing diplomatic ties with China?

#5. Why do you think that people in China generally reacted more emotionally to the death of Zhou Enlai than they did to the death of Chairman Mao?