Chairman Mao Zedong

Kundun is a 1997 film written by Melissa Mathison and directed by Martin Scorsese. It is based on the life and writings of the Dalai Lama. While it did not put up big numbers at the box office, it did win considerable critical acclaim -- some consider it to be the very best film by either Scorsese or Mathison. The majority of the film was shot in Morocco. Kundun - Plot. Except for brief sequences in China and India, the film is set entirely in Tibet. It begins with the search by Reting ...

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• Kundun - Plot
• Kundun - Awards

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Authoritarian pro-capitalist Chinese critics of Mao say that Mao was aware of the increasing ideological differentiation and the petty struggles occurring in the air of the "si da," the four big freedoms, so he should have shut down the Red Guards and the entire Cultural Revolution earlier. Oddly, this suited Western liberals who objected to keeping China off the capitalist road. Critics, especially those criticizing Mao for totalitarianism argue that Mao was able to manipulate the entire Chinese people by dividing up the people and c ...

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Red Guards China, Red Guards China - Cultural Revolution, Red Guards China - Rebels and Loyalists, Red Guards China - Idealism and savagery, Red Guards China - Resolution, Red Guards China - Mao, Red Guards China - The Red Guard in popular culture, Red Guards China - Aftermath

Read more here: » Red Guards China: Encyclopedia II - Red Guards China - Mao

Zhensheng returned to Harbin just months before the outbreak of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in the spring of 1966. A lack of photographic film, marauding Red Guards, and a political dictate against photographing the negative aspects of the revolution, reduced Zhensheng to nothing more than a propaganda functionary. Although, he quickly realized that only people wearing the red-colored arm band of the Red Guards could photograph without harassment. To achieve this, he ...

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Li Zhensheng, Li Zhensheng - Early Life, Li Zhensheng - Cultural Revolution, Li Zhensheng - Red-Color News Soldier

Read more here: » Li Zhensheng: Encyclopedia II - Li Zhensheng - Cultural Revolution

Except for brief sequences in China and India, the film is set entirely in Tibet. It begins with the search by Reting Rimpoche (the regent of Tibet) for the 14th Reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. Reting, following a vision he has had, discovers the location of a promising candidate: a child born to a poor herding family near the Chinese border. Reting and other lamas administer a test to the child in which he must select from various objects the ones that belonged to the previous Dalai Lama. The child passes the test; he and his family are brought to Lhasa, where he will be installed as D ...

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Kundun, Kundun - Plot, Kundun - Awards

Read more here: » Kundun: Encyclopedia II - Kundun - Plot

Those who suffered from the Red Guard barbarism during the Cultural Revolution are allowed to claim back the property they lost from the PRC government as long as they have some sort of "evidence" to prove their property; for example, a photo or ownership paper. A majority of the victims, however, face difficulty in claiming the property or belongings because they lost the "evidence" due to th ...

See also:

Red Guards China, Red Guards China - Cultural Revolution, Red Guards China - Rebels and Loyalists, Red Guards China - Idealism and savagery, Red Guards China - Resolution, Red Guards China - Mao, Red Guards China - The Red Guard in popular culture, Red Guards China - Aftermath

Read more here: » Red Guards China: Encyclopedia II - Red Guards China - Aftermath

Li Zhensheng was born to a poor family in Dalian, which is located in the northeastern province of Liaoning, China. His mother died when he was three, and his older brother, who was a member of Mao's army, was killed during the Chinese Civil War. Zhensheng helped his father, who was a cook on a steamship and later as a farmer, until Zhensheng was 10-years-old. Zhensheng quickly rose to the top of his class despite starting school late. He later earned a spot at the Changchun Film School, where he acquired much of his photographic know ...

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Li Zhensheng, Li Zhensheng - Early Life, Li Zhensheng - Cultural Revolution, Li Zhensheng - Red-Color News Soldier

Read more here: » Li Zhensheng: Encyclopedia II - Li Zhensheng - Early Life

Many young Chinese were enthusiastic about the prospect of "being politically influential at such young age." With Little Red Books in their hands, squads of Red Guards formed and began to go from house to house looking for potential elements of corruption, which sometimes included teachers, relatives, and then their own families. The accusations against their victims were becoming more and more ridiculous as well. Someone might be punished for not owning an "extra set" of the Chairman's publications. These punishments could be exceptionally ...

See also:

Red Guards China, Red Guards China - Cultural Revolution, Red Guards China - Rebels and Loyalists, Red Guards China - Idealism and savagery, Red Guards China - Resolution, Red Guards China - Mao, Red Guards China - The Red Guard in popular culture, Red Guards China - Aftermath

Read more here: » Red Guards China: Encyclopedia II - Red Guards China - Idealism and savagery

At the outset, the goal of the Cultural Revolution was to remove capitalists from state power and prevent the restoration of capitalism as was felt to have occurred in the Soviet Union. Mao believed that by keeping political struggle inside the confines of the Communist Party, the full power of the exploited would not come to bear on the question of capitalism versus socialism. Hence, Mao sanctioned the Red Guards to operate outside the party. At the time, Mao's thesis that Khrushchev had put the S ...

See also:

Red Guards China, Red Guards China - Cultural Revolution, Red Guards China - Rebels and Loyalists, Red Guards China - Idealism and savagery, Red Guards China - Resolution, Red Guards China - Mao, Red Guards China - The Red Guard in popular culture, Red Guards China - Aftermath

Read more here: » Red Guards China: Encyclopedia II - Red Guards China - Cultural Revolution

As time went on, the Red Guards crystallized into "rebels" and "loyalists." Loyalists started out with the theory that those of good class background were good Red Guards. Loyalist Red Guard organizations often started with leaders whose parents were officials in the Communist Party, especially those aligned with Liu Shaoqi or Deng Xiaoping or were more respectful of Khrushchev and the Soviet Union. Loyalist Red Guards sought to convert the movement into one criticizing peers and those of bad class background as determined by the class struggle p ...

See also:

Red Guards China, Red Guards China - Cultural Revolution, Red Guards China - Rebels and Loyalists, Red Guards China - Idealism and savagery, Red Guards China - Resolution, Red Guards China - Mao, Red Guards China - The Red Guard in popular culture, Red Guards China - Aftermath

Read more here: » Red Guards China: Encyclopedia II - Red Guards China - Rebels and Loyalists

By 1969, the Red Guard factions were dismantled entirely; Mao feared that the chaos they caused and could still cause might harm the very foundation of the Chinese Communist Party. Following Mao's death and the Gang of Four's demise in 1976, the Cultural Revolution officially ended. During the late-1970s and early-1980s, numerous ex-Red Guards who were identified as having committed serious crimes against humanity during the revolution were finally tried and sentenced to prison; some were even executed. However, the physical and psych ...

See also:

Red Guards China, Red Guards China - Cultural Revolution, Red Guards China - Rebels and Loyalists, Red Guards China - Idealism and savagery, Red Guards China - Resolution, Red Guards China - Mao, Red Guards China - The Red Guard in popular culture, Red Guards China - Aftermath

Read more here: » Red Guards China: Encyclopedia II - Red Guards China - Resolution