On the Eve of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

Late 50’s- early 60’s China: Pleas for Political Liberalism to Experiments in Radical Utopianism

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.

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.

The Three Hard Years (1960-62): the period in which mass starvation spread throughout China.

Chen Yun (ca. 1905-95): Long March veteran and economic hard-liner.

Socialist Education Campaign (beginning in 1963): launched to reinvigorate Party discipline, thousands of cadres through this campaign were sent down to the countryside to “learn from the peasants.”

Launching the Cultural Revolution

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 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.

Wu Han (d. 1969): modern historian of China's Ming Dynasty, playwright and author of the drama The Dismissal of Hai Rui from Office.