無產階級文化大革命

Do you believe that a widespread and cataclysmic event such as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution could occur again in China today? Why? Why not?

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China in the mid to late 1960's was part of Mao's plans to socialize the country by removing all of its cultural history. Whether Mao believed that Chinese traditions stood in the way of socialist progress or just needed a means to re-assert his power and disrupt the current power structure (which had somewhat pushed him aside in light of the failures of this other plan, the Great Leap Forward) can be debated. The cultural revolution spurred violence turning Chinese against Chinese. It allowed for ancient religious and cultural artifacts to be destroyed and thus lost to the world forever and it halted Chinese economic growth since people were too busy being revolutionaries to be productive in manufacturing. Today's government and the communist party recognize that the revolution was a bad thing and place blame on the revolution on Mao, but at the same time they still revere Mao for his earlier heroic acts to create the People's Republic and for his contributions to communist theory.

So the question lies, can this happen today, in modern China? Can the people revolt and turn China into a state of turmoil? In the 30 plus years since Mao's death, and from my limited and now expanding understanding of modern China, no other individual has been raised to such a pedastool and deified like Mao. Mao's cult of personality is in part how his influence and antagonism to spurn the revolution allowed for this to start in the first place. Modern China seems to be accepting much more of a mix of ideologies and seems to be moving away from isolated communist goals. Privately owned companies and seeds of capitalism have sparked China's economy. The global market and global communications, while still limited and controlled in China are opening more channels of communication and at a more gradual pace. China's role in the 2008 Olympics showed them to be gracious world hosts (their existing human rights issues not withstanding). The recent gift of pandas to Taiwan, as opposed to threats of violence show a more open China.

In many ways I think China may be in a current cultural revolution, but much more focused on the cultural part as opposed to the revolutionary aspect of it. Chinese have been granted more freedom to interact with the world. I look forward to really diving in and learning more about where China is today. There is still a mix of ancient old customs and new world acceptance and this interesting blend of socialism meets capitalism. As the people are allowed to feel less and less oppressed, they should be less and less inclined to violent revolution.

Panda Party

It's been 60 years since Taiwan and mainland China split during the 1949 Civil War and the rise of the People's Republic of China, but tensions are still high in Taiwan as pandas from China, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, which together means "reunion," are making their home in a Taiwanese zoo ( http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/01/26/asia/AS-Taiwan-China-Pandas.php ).

Taiwan had previously rejected the offer from China for pandas, wanting to avoid Chinese influence in Taiwan. It's interesting to think how these creatures, who generally bring a smile to people's faces as they munch on bamboo and well just look cool, could create mixed feelings amoung the Taiwanese.

While mainland China rose from the civil war into the communist People's Republic of China, Taiwan's indepedence, a sore point for the mainland, allowed the island nation to develop into a democracy. As recently as 2005 when China offered Tawain some pandas, the ruling party at the time refused the gift and still argue that its the mainland's way of pushing their influence and forcing unification.

All of these feelings were set into motion as modern China was taking shape. China has in the past made military threats towards Taiwan to force them back under mainland control, now they just want to share some "bear".