The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution Podcast

In the wake of the January Storm and the replacement of the Shanghai-style Commune movement with revolutionary committees, Mao decides that it's time to bring the People's Liberation Army into the thick of the struggle after almost a year of the military sitting on the sidelines. But with what consequences?....

The Cultural Revolution takes a dramatic turn when rebels seize control of Shanghai and spark a prairie fire that engulfs China into a series of "power seizures" in what comes to be known as the "January Storm."

As the Beijing Red Guard movement continues to break down into factionalism and ideological contradictions sharpen at the top, the city of Shanghai becomes the new epicenter of struggle in the ongoing drama of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.

This month we're doing a minisode: a review of Zhang Yimou's 1994 epic masterpiece of Chinese cinema, "To Live," which sets its second act during the Cultural Revolution. Also Drew drops some announcements and updates!

Though the bloodshed of Red August has been curbed by Mao, the Red Guards expand their struggle through the "Destroy the Four Olds Campaign," filled with chaos and excess. Youth find new ways to express themselves and learn what it means to be a communist revolutionary. Meanwhile, Mao and his allies have to decide which direction to take the Cultural Revolution next.

For this year's Chinese National Day 2022, we're taking a break from the usual chronological format and doing something VERY special- an interview with my friend "Uncle Zhang," who was a Little Red Guard as a primary school student growing up in the Cultural Revolution. Listen to what he has to say about his experiences and what we can possibly learn from the Chinese revolutionary experience!

The work teams have pulled out of the campuses and the Red Guards have stepped onto the scene of history- and are out for revenge. Mao writes his first big character poster endorsing the Red Guards. The first of the major Red Guard rallies in Tiananmen Square is held. The Cultural Revolution spreads to Shanghai, and the chaos reigns under all of Heaven....

This month we're doing a minisode: a review of Carma Hinton's 2003 documentary about the Cultural Revolution, "Morning Sun."

Mao presents the May 16 Circular to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and declares the launch of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Within days the struggle spills out of the halls of power and into the campuses of Beijing....

We begin our journey through the Cultural Revolution with a bit of background: why did the Cultural Revolution happened and what led up to it?