The Chinese Cultural Revolution was a period of sociopolitical movement started in 1966 and ended in 1976 by the death of Mao Zedong. The stated purpose of the movement was to purge the remaining elements of capitalism and tradition from the Chinese Society. The movement led to a period of chaos and violence, with rebel factions formed by people seizing control. Those who were deemed a part of the five black categories (intellectuals, landlords, rightists etc.) would be “struggled against”, a process of public humiliation that could result in injury, death or suicide. Violence would erupt between different rebel factions in many areas, with over 18.77 million guns distributed among the populace. A death toll of over a million was estimated at the end of the period. 

There are thousands of stories and memories about this period, and many are lost in time. But there are still some that remain, and out of these, three form an interesting connection: the stories of a third grader in Beijing, a member of the Educated Youth in Beijing, and a member of the libertarian rebel faction in a rural area of Anhui. Their names are not known, but their pasts are still very real, and show us how a societal movement can change what is right and what is wrong.

“[I] felt a little like, oh, maybe my father should be struggled against.”

The first interview subject was a third grade student at the time. She went to one of the elite schools of Beijing. One of her most prominent memories is how one time the third and fourth grade students got into a fight over a sentence she said at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. 

“[The fourth graders] really beat us, smacked our mouths with shoes, and things like that. The teacher was there, but didn’t dare intervene. At that time, the Cultural Revolution had already started, so institutions were already broken down.”

This highlights how the Cultural Revolution has changed what was acceptable, and what was allowed. The non-action of the teacher to stop violence among children, perhaps hard to imagine in our current society, shows how deep the deinstitutionalization and change in social norms was at the time.

The interview subject also mentions that his father was an intellectual, and he was being struggled against and beaten, and she would help him apply the medicine because her mother wasn’t home. She says at the time kids “didn’t know right and wrong… [Everyone] had to be activist, revolutionary… [I] felt a little like, oh, maybe my father should be struggled against.”

This is a striking example of how a person’s moral compass changed in the Cultural Revolution. It shows that often, especially for children, the main source of morality is society, and it is powerful enough to lead a daughter to support unjust violence against her own father.

“It was like before the Cultural Revolution, when we’d get into trouble, breaking people’s windows and such“

The second subject was a member of the Educated Youth, later sent down to the rural areas from the city to unite the populace and spread the revolution. At the time he was still in the city, he describes that he had a really good teacher that he liked. However, with the influence of the revolution, they have created a “big-character poster”, a poster for public shaming, concerning their teacher. “We were just parroting others-we criticized the teacher for Revisionism, or something like that.” After the poster was discovered by the teacher, he said “We were particularly afraid: such a good teacher, and we wrote so many awful things!” He describes how later the teacher was struggled against in front of the whole school, forced to stand on a stack of bricks. 

This highlights the blur of moral values at the time, although the interview subject knew the teacher was a good person, he didn’t hesitate to humiliate her in the influence of the Cultural Revolution. And he was met with no consequences, in fact, the teacher was struggled against in front of the whole school.

One sentence he uses to describe the guilt he felt after making the poster is particularly interesting: “It was like before the Cultural Revolution, when we’d get into trouble, breaking people’s windows and such–we were really anxious.” This sentence alone highlights how the Cultural Revolution has transformed the society’s morality. During the period, people didn’t feel it was wrong to break people’s windows, publicly shame others or exert violence, those values belonged to the times before.

“The rebel faction’s anger rose up. No one could control it.“

The third interview subject was a member and a former leader of a local rebel group in the Liberation faction in a rural area of Anhui. He describes although he had good relationships with the rival Conservative faction, there would be times when violence would erupt between the two factions. He remembers how streets would be closed during night, people were injured, or even times when a faction would carry fake coffins to claim the other side had killed their people to radicalize the conflicts. He describes that during struggle sessions there would be “Cursing, hanging signboards [on them], putting dunce caps”. 

He also says that when “The rebel faction’s anger rose up. No one could control it. A regular person, even one with a sense of justice, wouldn’t argue against them, so [everyone] just let them speak.” This highlights a different view of the change in the moral compass. While in the perspective of the youth, the violence was allowed as it was right and moral, in the perspective of others, it was allowed simply out of fear. Not everyone thought the violence was right, but they nonetheless didn’t speak up due to fear. 

These stories highlight how the Cultural Revolution have shaped what was allowed, what was right, and what was wrong. Actions of violence, harm, and humiliation that would be unimaginable before were deemed right and proper, with many joining, and others staying silent. While the Cultural Revolution has ended, it still serves as a reminder of the power of social movements, and how fluid our definitions of right and wrong can be.

-Ege Teksoz

References

East Asian Library, University Library System, University of Pittsburgh. (n.d.). What is CR/10 In China’s Cultural Revolution in Memories: The CR/10 Project. Retrieved 10/8/2025, from http://culturalrevolution.pitt.edu

Song, Y. (2011, August 25). Chronology of Mass Killings during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence, Sciences Po. Retrieved 10/8/2025, from https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/chronology-mass-killings-during-chinese-cultural-revolution-1966-1976.htmlSciences Po