Editing Cultural Revolution (section)

== Cultural impact and influence ==

=== Red Guards riot ===
[[File:Beijing 1968 I.jpg|thumb|A 1968 map of Beijing showing streets and landmarks renamed during the Cultural Revolution. Andingmen Inner Street became "Great Leap Forward Road", Taijichang Street became the "Road for Eternal Revolution", Dongjiaominxiang was renamed "Anti-Imperialist Road", Beihai Park was renamed "Worker-Peasant-Soldier Park" and Jingshan Park became "Red Guard Park". Most of the Cultural Revolution-era name changes were later reversed.|alt=]]

The revolution aimed to destroy the Four Olds and establish the corresponding Four News, which ranged from changing of names and cutting of hair to ransacking homes, vandalizing cultural treasures, and desecrating temples.<ref name="Lu" />{{rp|61–64}}

The revolution aimed to eliminate [[cow demons and snake spirits]] - the class enemies who promoted bourgeois ideas, as well as those from an exploitative family background or who belonged to one of the Five Black Categories. Large numbers of people perceived to be "monsters and demons" regardless of guilt or innocence were publicly denounced, humiliated, and beaten. In their revolutionary fervor, students, especially the Red Guards, denounced their teachers, and children denounced their parents.<ref name="Lu" />{{rp|59–61}} Many died from ill-treatment or committed suicide. In 1968, youths were mobilized to go to the countryside in the [[Down to the Countryside Movement]] so they may learn from the peasantry, and the departure of millions from the cities helped end the most violent phase of the Cultural Revolution.<ref name="King">{{cite book |first= |url=https://archive.org/details/artinturmoilchin0000unse |title=Art in Turmoil: The Chinese Cultural Revolution, 1966–76 |publisher=[[University of British Columbia Press]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-0774815437 |editor-last=King |editor-first=Richard |doi=10.59962/9780774815444}}</ref>{{rp|176}}

=== Academics and intellectuals ===
[[File:Yao Tongbin.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|[[Yao Tongbin]], one of China's foremost [[missile]] scientists, was beaten to death by a mob in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution (1968). This caused [[Zhou Enlai]] to order special protection for key technical experts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stokes |first=Mark A. |chapter=The People's Liberation Army and China's Space and Missile Development |editor1=Laurie Burkitt |editor2=Andrew Scobell |editor3=Larry Wortzel |editor3-link=Larry Wortzel |title=The Lessons of History: The Chinese people's Liberation Army at 75 |publisher=[[Strategic Studies Institute]] |url=https://ssi.armywarcollege.edu/pdffiles/PUB52.pdf |page=198 |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-58487-126-2 |access-date=11 January 2022 |archive-date=5 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205072610/http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB52.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>]]

Academics and [[intellectual]]s were regarded as the "[[Stinking Old Ninth]]" and were widely persecuted. Many were sent to rural labor camps such as the [[May Seventh Cadre School]]. The prosecution of the Gang of Four revealed that 142,000 cadres and teachers in the education circles were persecuted. Academics, scientists, and educators who died included [[Xiong Qinglai]], [[Jian Bozan]], Wu Han, [[Rao Yutai]], [[Wu Dingliang]], [[Yao Tongbin]] and [[Zhao Jiuzhang]].<ref name="documents">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ipHX7n55ISIC&pg=PA132 |title=Chinese Politics: Fall of Hua Kuo-Feng (1980) to the Twelfth Party Congress (1982) |publisher=[[University of South Carolina Press]] |year=1995 |isbn=978-1570030635 |editor-last=Myers |editor-first=James T. |editor-last2=Domes |editor-first2=Jürgen |editor-last3=von Groeling |editor-first3=Erik}}</ref> As of 1968, among the 171 senior members who worked at the headquarters of [[Chinese Academy of Sciences]] in Beijing, 131 were persecuted. Among the members of the academy, 229 died.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Cao |first1=Pu |title=文革中的中科院：131位科学家被打倒，229人遭迫害致死 |trans-title=Chinese Academy of Sciences during the Cultural Revolution: 131 scientists were "downed" while 229 were persecuted to death |url=http://mjlsh.usc.cuhk.edu.hk/Book.aspx?cid=4&tid=3847 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230127210636/https://www.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/en/collections/spc/usc-collections/?cid=4&tid=3847/ |archive-date=2023-01-27 |access-date= |website=[[Chinese University of Hong Kong]] |language=zh}}</ref> As of September 1971, more than 4,000 staff members of China's nuclear center in [[Qinghai]] had been persecuted, while more than 310 were disabled, over 40 committed suicide, and 5 were [[Capital punishment|executed]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wang |first=Jingheng |script-title=zh:青海核武基地的劫难 |url=http://www.yhcqw.com/36/9207.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200714221024/http://www.yhcqw.com/36/9207.html |archive-date=14 July 2020 |access-date=14 July 2020 |website=[[Yanhuang Chunqiu]] |language=zh}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2 May 2012 |script-title=zh:文革对中国核基地的损害：4000人被审查 40人自尽 |url=http://news.ifeng.com/history/zhongguoxiandaishi/detail_2012_05/02/14277600_0.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200608171436/http://news.ifeng.com/history/zhongguoxiandaishi/detail_2012_05/02/14277600_0.shtml |archive-date=8 June 2020 |access-date=23 February 2020 |website=[[Phoenix Television|Phoenix New Media]] |language=zh}}</ref> 

Despite the hardships, some significant achievements came in science and technology: scientists tested the first missile, created China's first [[hydrogen bomb]] and launched China's first satellite in the "[[Two Bombs, One Satellite]]" program.<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 November 2013 |title= |script-title=zh:中国"文革"科研仅两弹一星核潜艇 |url=http://phtv.ifeng.com/program/tfzg/detail_2013_11/21/31452743_0.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101091030/https://phtv.ifeng.com/program/tfzg/detail_2013_11/21/31452743_0.shtml |archive-date=2019-11-01 |access-date=23 February 2020 |website=[[Phoenix Television]] |language=zh}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Ching |first=Pao-yu |author-link=Pao-yu Ching |year=2019 |title=From Victory to Defeat – China's Socialist Road and Capitalist Reversal |url=https://foreignlanguages.press/new-roads/from-victory-to-defeat-pao-yu-ching/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200810043322/https://foreignlanguages.press/new-roads/from-victory-to-defeat-pao-yu-ching/ |archive-date=10 August 2020 |website=[[Foreign Languages Press]] |page=45}}</ref> 

Many health personnel were deployed to the countryside as [[barefoot doctors]]. Some farmers were given informal medical training, and health-care centers were established in rural communities. This process led to a marked improvement in health and life expectancy.<ref name="Huang Foreign Affairs 2011">{{cite journal |last1=Huang |first1=Yanzhong |year=2011 |title=The Sick Man of Asia. China's Health Crisis |url=http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136507/yanzhong-huang/the-sick-man-of-asia |url-status=live |journal=Foreign Affairs |volume=90 |pages=119–36 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141113012140/http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136507/yanzhong-huang/the-sick-man-of-asia |archive-date=November 13, 2014 |access-date=November 12, 2014 |number=6}}</ref>

=== Education system ===
In the early months of Cultural Revolution, schools and universities were closed. Secondary school classes of 1966, 1967, and 1968 were unable to graduate on time later and became known as the "Old Three Cohort (老三届)".<ref name="Xu2022" />{{rp|362}} Colleges and universities were closed until 1970, and most universities did not reopen until 1972.<ref name="Joel">{{cite book |last=Joel |first=Andreas |title=Rise of the Red Engineers: The Cultural Revolution and the Origins of China's New Class |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0804760782}}</ref>{{rp|164}} [[National College Entrance Examination|University entrance exams]] were cancelled after 1966 (until the beginning of ''[[Boluan Fanzheng]]'' period in 1977), replaced by a system whereby students were recommended by factories, villages and military units. Traditional values were abandoned.<ref name="Lu" />{{rp|195}} 

On the other hand, industrial Universities were established in factories to supply technical and engineering programs for industrial workers, inspired by Mao's July 1968 remarks advocating [[vocational education]].<ref name="Xu2022" />{{rp|362}} Factories around the country therefore established their own educational programs for technicians and engineers, and by 1976, there were 15,000 such 21 July Universities.<ref name=":Minami">{{Cite book |last=Minami |first=Kazushi |title=People's Diplomacy: How Americans and Chinese Transformed US-China Relations during the Cold War |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |year=2024 |isbn=9781501774157 |location=Ithaca, NY}}</ref>{{rp|92}} [[Gao Mobo]] observes that in many underprivileged areas, political campaigns brought improvements in education and public health.<ref name=":023">{{Cite book |last=Tu |first=Hang |title=Sentimental Republic: Chinese Intellectuals and the Maoist Past |publisher=[[Harvard University Asia Center]] |year=2025 |isbn=9780674297579}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=119-120}}

In the initial stage of the [[Down to the Countryside Movement]], most of the youth who took part volunteered. Later on, the government forced them to move. Between 1968 and 1979, 17&nbsp;million urban youth left for the countryside. Living in the rural areas deprived them of higher education.<ref name="King" />{{rp|10}} This generation is sometimes referred to as the "lost generation".<ref>{{cite news |author=Tracy You |date=25 October 2012 |title=China's 'lost generation' recall hardships of Cultural Revolution |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/24/world/asia/china-lost-generation/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129030828/http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/24/world/asia/china-lost-generation/ |archive-date=29 November 2014 |access-date=November 15, 2014 |work=CNN}}</ref> In the post-Mao period, many of those forcibly moved attacked the policy as a violation of their human rights.<ref name="Gao">{{cite book |last=Gao |first=Mobo |author-link=Gao Mobo |url=http://www.strongwindpress.com/pdfs/EBook/The_Battle_for_Chinas_Past.pdf |title=The Battle for China's Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution |publisher=Pluto Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-7453-2780-8 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103094507/http://www.strongwindpress.com/pdfs/EBook/The_Battle_for_Chinas_Past.pdf |archive-date=3 November 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{rp|36}} Formal literacy measurements did not resume until the 1980s.<ref name="Peterson">{{Cite book |last=Peterson |first=Glen |title=The Power of Words |publisher=University of British Columbia Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7748-5453-5 |doi=10.59962/9780774854535}}</ref> Some counties in [[Zhanjiang]] had literacy rates as low as 59% 20 years after the revolution. This was amplified by the elimination of qualified teachers—many districts were forced to rely on students to teach.<ref name="Peterson" />  

Primary and middle schools gradually reopened during the Cultural Revolution. Schooling years were reduced and education standards fell, but the proportion of Chinese children who completed primary education increased from less than half to almost all, and the fraction who completed junior middle school rose from 15% to over two-thirds. Educational opportunities for rural children expanded, while education of the urban elite were restricted by anti-elitist policies.<ref name="Joel" />{{rp|166–167}} Radical policies provided many in rural communities with middle school education for the first time.<ref name="Joel" />{{rp|163}} Rural infrastructure developed during this period, facilitated by the political changes that empowered ordinary rural people.<ref name="Han2008">{{Cite book |last=Han |first=Dongping |url= |title=The Unknown Cultural Revolution: Life and Change in a Chinese Village |date=2008 |publisher=Monthly Review Press |isbn=978-1-58367-180-1 |location=New York}}</ref>{{rp|177}}

===Slogans and rhetoric===
[[File:1967-04 1967年革命无罪造反有理.jpg|thumb|right|A Red Guard holding up the ''[[Selected Works of Mao Zedong]]'', with "revolution is no crime, to rebel is justified" written on a flag next to him, 1967]]
Huang claimed that the Cultural Revolution had massive effects on Chinese society because of the extensive use of political slogans.<ref name="huang">{{Cite book |title=The power of words: political slogans as leverage in conflict and conflict management during China's cultural revolution movement |editor-first1=G. |editor-last1=Chen |editor-first2=R. |editor-last2=Ma |publisher=Greenwood}}</ref> He claimed that slogans played a central role in rallying Party leadership and citizens. For example, the slogan "to rebel is justified" ({{zhi|c=造反有理|p=zàofǎn yǒulǐ}}) affected many views.<ref name=huang/>

[[File:Cultural revolution anhui.jpg|thumb|The remnants of a banner containing slogans from the Cultural Revolution in [[Anhui]]]]
Huang asserted that slogans were ubiquitous in people's lives, printed onto everyday items such as bus tickets, cigarette packets, and mirror tables.<ref name=Gao/>{{rp|14}} Workers were supposed to "grasp revolution and promote production".<ref name=huang/>{{Page needed|date=November 2024}}

Political slogans had three sources: Mao, Party media such as ''People's Daily'', and the Red Guards.<ref name=huang/> Mao often offered vague, yet powerful directives that divided the Red Guards.{{sfn|Chang|Halliday|2005}} These directives could be interpreted to suit personal interests, in turn aiding factions' goals in claiming loyalty to Mao.<ref name=huang/>{{Page number|date=November 2024}}

Dittmer and Ruoxi claim that the [[Chinese language in the United States|Chinese language]] had historically been defined by subtlety, delicacy, moderation, and honesty, as well as the cultivation of a "refined and elegant literary style".<ref name=Dittmer>{{Cite book |last1=Dittmer |first1=Lowell |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=7NkhMkuCs7QC}} |title=Ethics and Rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution |last2=Chen |first2=Ruoxi |year=1981 |publisher=Center for Chinese Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California |isbn=978-0-912966-47-2}}</ref> This changed during the CR. These slogans were an effective method of "thought reform", mobilizing millions in a concerted attack upon the subjective world, "while at the same time reforming their objective world."<ref name=huang/>{{Page number|date=November 2024}}<ref name=Dittmer/>{{rp|12}}

Dittmer and Chen argued that the emphasis on politics made language into effective propaganda, but "also transformed it into a jargon of stereotypes—pompous, repetitive, and boring".<ref name=Dittmer/>{{rp|12}} To distance itself from the era, Deng's government cut back on political slogans. During a eulogy for Deng's death, [[Jiang Zemin]] called the Cultural Revolution a "grave mistake".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Paulson |first1=Henry M. |title=Dealing with China: an insider unmasks the new economic superpower |year=2015 |location=New York |publisher=Grand Central Publishing |isbn=978-1455504213 |page=4}}</ref>

===Arts and literature===
In 1966, [[Jiang Qing]] advanced the ''Theory of the Dictatorship of the Black Line''. Those perceived to be bourgeois, anti-socialist or anti-Mao (black line) should be cast aside, and called for the creation of new literature and arts.<ref name="Jiaqi" />{{rp|352–353}} Disseminators of the "old culture" would be eradicated. The majority of writers and artists were seen as "black line figures" and "reactionary literati", and were persecuted, and subjected to "criticism and denunciation" where they could be humiliated and ravaged, and be imprisoned or sent to hard labour.<ref name="Hong">{{cite book |last=Hong |first=Zicheng |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=S7C9xtFKGWEC |page=213}} |title=A History of Contemporary Chinese Literature |publisher=Brill |year=2009 |isbn=978-9004173668 |translator-last=Day |translator-first=Michael M.}}</ref>{{rp|213–214}} For instance, [[Mei Zhi]] and her husband were sent to a tea farm in [[Lushan County, Sichuan]]. She did not resume writing until the 1980s.<ref name="sina">{{cite web |last1=Zhang |first1=Xiaofeng |author-mask=Zhang Xiaofeng (张晓风) |date=12 March 2008 |title= |script-title=zh:张晓风：我的父亲母亲 |trans-title=Zhang Xiaofeng: My father and mother |url=http://news.sina.com.cn/s/2008-03-12/113615131996.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019152135/http://news.sina.com.cn/s/2008-03-12/113615131996.shtml |archive-date=19 October 2017 |access-date=3 May 2017 |website=[[Sina Corporation|Sina]] |language=zh}}</ref> 

In 1970, the CCP came to view the [[Ministry of Culture (China)|Ministry of Culture]] as so disruptive that it decided to dissolve the Ministry and establish a Culture Group within the [[State Council of the People's Republic of China|State Council]] in an effort to rein in cultural politics.<ref name=":Minami" />{{rp|160}} The principles for cultural production laid out by Mao in the 1942 [[Yan'an Forum|Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Art and Literature]] became dogmatized.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Cai |first1=Xiang |title=Revolution and its narratives : China's socialist literary and cultural imaginaries (1949–1966) |last2=蔡翔 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |others=Rebecca E. Karl, Xueping Zhong, 钟雪萍 |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-8223-7461-9 |location=Durham, NC |pages=xix}}</ref> The literary situation eased after 1972, as more were allowed to write, and many provincial literary periodicals resumed publication, but the majority of writers still could not work.<ref name="Hong" />{{rp|219–20}} Documents released in 1980 regarding the prosecution of the Gang of Four show that more than 2,600 people in the field of arts and literature were persecuted by the Ministry of Culture.<ref name="documents" /> Many died: the names of 200 writers and artists who were persecuted to death were commemorated in 1979. These include writers such as [[Lao She]], [[Fu Lei]], [[Deng Tuo]], [[Baren (author)|Baren]], [[Li Guangtian]], [[Yang Shuo (writer)|Yang Shuo]] and [[Zhao Shuli]].<ref name="Hong" />{{rp|213–14}}

Writing about the romantic relationships of revolutionary martyrs became one of the taboo topics during the Cultural Revolution.<ref name=":22">{{Cite book |last=Wang |first=Xian |title=Gendered Memories: An Imaginary Museum for Ding Ling and Chinese Female Revolutionary Martyrs |date=2025 |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]] |isbn=978-0-472-05719-1 |series=China Understandings Today series |location=Ann Arbor}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=186-187}}

Depictions of [[Iron Girls|iron girls]] became a frequent subject of art during the Cultural Revolution, often shown in spaces and activities traditionally associated with male authority as part of an effort to develop the [[New Man (utopian concept)|new socialist woman]].<ref name=":Evans2" />{{Rp|page=100}}

==== Opera and music ====
[[File:Revolutionary opera.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|The ballet ''[[Red Detachment of Women (ballet)|The Red Detachment of Women]]'', one of the Model Dramas promoted during the Cultural Revolution]]Jiang took control of the stage and introduced [[Revolutionary opera|revolutionary operas]] under her direct supervision. Traditional operas were banned as they were considered feudalistic and bourgeois, but revolutionary opera, which modified [[Peking opera]] in both content and form, was promoted.<ref name="Lu" />{{rp|115}} Six operas and two ballets were produced in the first three years, most notably the opera ''[[The Legend of the Red Lantern]]''. These operas were the only approved opera form. Other opera troupes were required to adopt or change their repertoire.<ref name="King" />{{rp|176}} [[Loyalty dance]]s became common and were performed throughout the country by both professional cultural workers and ordinary people.<ref name="Xu2022" />{{rp|362}} The model operas were broadcast on the radio, made into films, blared from public loudspeakers, taught to students in schools and workers in factories, and became ubiquitous as a form of popular entertainment and were the only theatrical entertainment for millions.<ref name="Jiaqi" />{{rp|352–53}}<ref name="Lu" />{{rp|115}} Most model dramas featured women as their leads and promoted Chinese state feminism.<ref name="Karl-2010">{{Cite book |last=Karl |first=Rebecca E. |title=Mao Zedong and China in the twentieth-century world: a concise history |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8223-4780-4 |location=Durham, NC |pages=148}}</ref> Their narratives begin with them oppressed by [[misogyny]], class position, and imperialism before liberating themselves through the discovery of internal strength and the CCP.<ref name="Karl-2010" />

During the Cultural Revolution, composers of ''[[Yellow Music]]'', which had already been banned following the communist revolution, were persecuted, including [[Li Jinhui]] who was killed in 1967.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781578066094 |url-access=registration |title=Jazz Planet |editor=E. Taylor Atkins |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781578066094/page/226 226] |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |year=2004 |isbn=978-1578066094 |access-date=27 June 2015}}</ref> Revolution-themed songs instead were promoted, and songs such as "[[Ode to the Motherland]]", "[[Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman]]", "[[The East Is Red (song)|The East Is Red]]" and "[[Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China]]" were either written or became popular during this period. "The East Is Red", especially, became popular; it ''de facto'' supplanted "[[March of the Volunteers]]" (lyrics author [[Tian Han]] persecuted to death) as the national anthem of China, though the latter was later restored to its previous place.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=几度沧桑 国歌的诞生及背后鲜为人知的故事 |trans-title=The birth and behind-the-scene stories of the national anthem |url=https://www.gov.cn/guoqing/2017-06/07/content_5200590.htm |access-date=2024-12-31 |website=[[Central government of the People's Republic of China]] |language=zh}}</ref> 

"Quotation songs", in which Mao's quotations were set to music, were particularly popular during the early years of the Cultural Revolution.<ref name="Coderre2021">{{Cite book |last=Coderre |first=Laurence |title=Newborn Socialist Things: Materiality in Maoist China |date=2021 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |isbn=978-1-4780-2161-2 |location=Durham, NC |doi=10.2307/j.ctv1r4xd0g |jstor=j.ctv1r4xd0g}}</ref>{{rp|34}} Composer Li Jiefu first published quotation songs in ''People's Daily'' in September 1966 and they were promoted thereafter as a means for studying ''Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong''.<ref name=":2323">{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Andrew F. |title=Mao's Little Red Book: A Global History |date=2013 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-107-05722-7 |editor-last=Cook |editor-first=Alexander C. |location=Cambridge |pages= |chapter=Quotation Songs: Portable Media and the Maoist Pop Song}}</ref>{{Rp|page=47}} Records of quotation songs were played over loudspeakers, their primary means of distribution,<ref name="Coderre2021" />{{rp|35}} as the use of transistor radios lagged until 1976.<ref name="Coderre2021" />{{rp|32–33}} [[Rusticated youths]] with an interest in broadcast technology frequently operated rural radio stations after 1968.<ref name="Coderre2021" />{{rp|42}} At the 9th National Congress of the Communist Party, Jiang Qing condemned quotation songs, which she had come to view as comparable to yellow music.<ref name=":2323" />{{Rp|page=43}}

====Visual arts====
[[File:SZ 深圳博物館 Shenzhen Museum 深圳改革開放前歷史展廳 Before Reform and Opening-up History Exhibition Hall 文革時代紅色思想宣傳海布 political posters IX1 03.jpg|thumb|Posters from the Cultural Revolution period|alt=]]

Aesthetic principles emphasized during the Cultural Revolution included the "tall, big, complete," "red, bright, shining," and "the three prominences".<ref name=":22" />{{Rp|pages=187-188}} According to the principle of the "three prominences," the good are more prominent than the bad, the very good are more prominent than the good, and the one outstanding figure is more prominent than the very good.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=4}} Other stylistic principles of the Cultural Revolution included "tall, large, and full".<ref name=":Evans2">{{Cite book |last=Evans |first=Harriett |title=Red Legacies in China: Cultural Afterlives of the Communist Revolution |date=2016 |publisher=[[Harvard University Asia Center]] |isbn=978-0-674-73718-1 |editor-last=Li |editor-first=Jie |series=Harvard Contemporary China Series |volume= |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |chapter=Ambiguities of Address: Cultural Revolution Posters and Their Post-Mao Appeal |doi= |jstor= |editor-last2=Zhang |editor-first2=Enhua}}</ref>{{Rp|page=96}} 

Among the most significant visual works of the Cultural Revolution was Liu Chunhua's 1967 oil painting, ''Chairman Mao Goes to Anyuan''.<ref name=":Tang" />{{Rp|page=132}} Another influential painting was Pan Jiajun's 1972 ''I Am a Petrel'', which depicts a young woman soldier repairing a telegraph cables during a storm.<ref name=":Evans" />{{Rp|pages=94-95}} Praised as a new classic of depicting a revolutionary heroine, it inspired the creation of similar works and was itself widely distributed as a poster.<ref name=":Evans" />{{Rp|page=95}}

A Red Guard art movement developed, reaching its peak in 1967.<ref name=":Tang">{{Cite book |last=Tang |first=Xiaobing |title=Red Legacies in China: Cultural Afterlives of the Communist Revolution |date=2016 |publisher=[[Harvard University Asia Center]] |isbn=978-0-674-73718-1 |editor-last=Li |editor-first=Jie |series=Harvard Contemporary China Series |volume= |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |chapter=Socialist Visual Experience as Cultural Identity: On Wang Guangyi and Contemporary Art |doi= |jstor= |editor-last2=Zhang |editor-first2=Enhua}}</ref>{{Rp|page=128}} Red Guards from fine arts academies organized large art exhibitions, often in cooperation with rebel groups in work units or the army, which included many amateur art works.<ref name=":Tang" />{{Rp|page=132}} The most significant Red Guard art exhibition was ''Long Live the Triumph of Chairman Mao's Revolutionary Line'' which opened 1 October 1967 in Beijing and featured more than 1,600 art works in a variety of media produced by artists and amateurs from around the country.<ref name=":Tang" />{{Rp|page=132}} Following the exhibition, traveling teams toured art works from the exhibition through rural China and into remote areas.<ref name=":Tang" />{{Rp|page=132}} The Red Guard art movement favored forms of art deemed public or anti-elitist, such as black and white woodcuts (or brush and marker illustrations in the style of a woodcut), satirical cartoons, paper cut outs, and forms of [[folk art]].<ref name=":Tang" />{{Rp|page=|pages=132-133}} Among the most popular motifs in Red Guard art was the image of a worker, peasant, and soldier conducting criticism or Red Guards doing so.<ref name=":Tang" />{{Rp|page=173}} Red Guard groups in fine arts academies also published journals, pamphlets, and manifestos through which they criticized the old art institutions.<ref name=":Tang" />{{Rp|page=131}}

Traditional themes were sidelined and artists such as [[Feng Zikai]], [[Shi Lu]], and [[Pan Tianshou]] were persecuted.<ref name="King" />{{rp|97}} Many of the artists were assigned to manual labour, and artists were expected to depict subjects that glorified the Cultural Revolution related to their labour.<ref name="Andrews" />{{rp|351–52}} In 1971, in part to alleviate their suffering, several leading artists were recalled from manual labour or freed from captivity under a Zhou initiative to decorate hotels and railway stations defaced by Red Guard slogans. Zhou said that the artworks were meant for foreigners, therefore were "outer" art and not under the obligations and restrictions placed on "inner" art meant for Chinese citizens. He claimed that landscape paintings should not be considered one of the "Four Olds". However, Zhou was weakened by cancer, and in 1974, the Jiang faction seized these and other paintings and mounted exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities denouncing the artworks as [[Black Painting incident|Black Paintings]].<ref name="Andrews" />{{rp|368–376}}

Propaganda in posters was used as a mass communication device and often served as the people's leading source of information. They were produced in large numbers and widely disseminated to propagate ideological positions.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=I3S6mlTj1K4C |page=4}} |title=Picturing Power in the People's Republic of China: Posters of the Cultural Revolution |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=1999 |isbn=978-0847695119 |editor-last=Evans |editor-first=Harriet |pages= |editor-last2=Donald |editor-first2=Stephanie}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=4-5}} The two main posters genres were the big-character poster or ''[[dazibao]]'' and commercial propaganda poster.<ref name="Cushing">{{cite book |last1=Cushing |first1=Lincoln |last2=Tompkins |first2=Ann |title=Chinese Posters: Art from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution |publisher=Chronicle Books |year=2007 |isbn=978-0811859462}}</ref>{{rp|7–12}}

* The ''dazibao'' presented slogans, poems, commentary and graphics often posted on walls in public spaces, factories and communes. Mao wrote his own ''dazibao'' at Beijing University on 5 August 1966, calling on the people to "Bombard the Headquarters".<ref name="Cushing" />{{rp|5}}
* ''[[Xuanchuan]]hua,'' or propaganda paintings, were artworks produced by the government and sold cheaply in stores to be displayed in homes or workplaces. The artists for these posters might be amateurs or uncredited professionals, and the posters were largely in a [[Socialist Realist]] visual style with specific conventions—for example, images of Mao were to be depicted as "red, smooth, and luminescent".<ref name="Cushing" />{{rp|7–12}}<ref name="Andrews">{{cite book |last=Andrews |first=Julia Frances |title=Painters and Politics in the People's Republic of China, 1949–1979 |publisher=University of California Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0520079816}}</ref>{{rp|360}}
After decreasing in prominence throughout the 1980s, Cultural Revolution posters became prominent in public life again in the 1990s in connection with [[red tourism]], as collectibles, in commercial advertising, and in contemporary art.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Li |first=Jie |title=Red Legacies in China: Cultural Afterlives of the Communist Revolution |date=2016 |publisher=[[Harvard University Asia Center]] |isbn=978-0-674-73718-1 |editor-last=Li |editor-first=Jie |series=Harvard contemporary China series |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London |chapter=Introduction |editor-last2=Zhang |editor-first2=Enhua}}</ref>{{Rp|page=9}} In contemporary China, they continue to be reproduced in large amounts and sold commercially.<ref name=":Evans">{{Cite book |last=Evans |first=Harriett |title=Red Legacies in China: Cultural Afterlives of the Communist Revolution |date=2016 |publisher=[[Harvard University Asia Center]] |isbn=978-0-674-73718-1 |editor-last=Li |editor-first=Jie |series=Harvard Contemporary China Series |volume= |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |chapter=Ambiguities of Address: Cultural Revolution Posters and Their Post-Mao Appeal |doi= |jstor= |editor-last2=Zhang |editor-first2=Enhua}}</ref>{{Rp|page=87}} Historic posters are have been the subject of exhibitions and auctions, including in the United States and Europe.<ref name=":Evans" />{{Rp|page=92}} 

Before the Cultural Revolution, relatively few cultural productions reflected the lives of peasants and workers; during it, the struggles of workers, peasants, and revolutionary soldiers became frequent artistic subjects, often created by peasants and workers themselves.<ref name="Ching-2021">{{Cite book |last=Ching |first=Pao-Yu |title=Revolution and counterrevolution: China's continuing class struggle since liberation |publisher=Foreign Languages Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-2-491182-89-2 |edition=2nd |location=Paris |page=137}}</ref> Among the most prominent examples of this style included the peasant paintings of Huxian.<ref name=":Tang" />{{Rp|page=133}} In the early 1970s, worker, peasant, and soldier-created art was promoted as the paradigm of socialist art.<ref name=":Tang" />{{Rp|page=133}} The spread of peasant paintings in rural China, for example, became one of the [[Newborn socialist things|newborn things]] celebrated in a socialist society.<ref name="Ching-2021" /> 

==== Film ====
The ''Four Hundred Films to be Criticized'' booklet was distributed, and film directors and actors/actresses were criticized with some tortured and imprisoned.<ref name="Jiaqi" />{{rp|401–02}} These included many of Jiang Qing's rivals and former friends. Those who died in the period included [[Cai Chusheng]], [[Zheng Junli]], [[Shangguan Yunzhu]], [[Wang Ying (actress)|Wang Ying]], and [[Xu Lai (actress)|Xu Lai]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Paul G. Pickowicz <!-- |pages=371–72 --> |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=3XNyF4a7xHsC |page=128}} |title=China on Film: A Century of Exploration, Confrontation, and Controversy |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2013 |isbn=978-1442211797 |pages=128–29}}</ref> No feature films were produced in mainland China for seven years apart from a few approved "Model dramas" and highly ideological films.<ref>{{cite book |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=V0R-3zFSJbkC |page=207}} |title=Handbook of Chinese Popular Culture |publisher=Greenwood |year=1994 |isbn=978-0313278082 |editor=Dingbo Wu |page=207 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |editor2=Patrick D. Murphy |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160429072451/https://books.google.com/books?id=V0R-3zFSJbkC&pg=PA207 |archive-date=April 29, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> A notable example is ''[[Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy (film)|Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy]]''.<ref>{{cite book |author=Yingjin Zhang |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=6WzJq0hForAC |page=219}} |title=Chinese National Cinema |publisher=Routledge |year=2004 |isbn=978-0415172905 |pages=219–20}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Tan Ye |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=Wh0QMOLRCeIC |page=41}} |title=Historical Dictionary of Chinese Cinema |author2=Yun Zhu |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0810867796 |page=41}}</ref> China rejected Hollywood films and most foreign films.<ref name="Li2023" />{{rp|213}} [[Cinema of Albania|Albanian films]] and [[Cinema of North Korea|North Korean films]] developed mass audiences in China.<ref name="Li2023" />{{rp|213}} In 1972, Chinese officials invited [[Michelangelo Antonioni]] to China to film the achievements of the Cultural Revolution. Antonioni made the documentary ''[[Chung Kuo, Cina]]''.  When it was released in 1974, CCP leadership in China interpreted the film as [[reactionary]] and anti-Chinese. Viewing art through the principles of the [[Yan'an Forum|Yan'an Talks]], particularly the concept that there is no such thing as art-for-art's-sake, party leadership construed Antonioni's aesthetic choices as politically motivated and banned the film.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sorace |first=Christian |title=Afterlives of Chinese Communism: Political Concepts from Mao to Xi |year=2019 |publisher=[[Australian National University Press]] |isbn=9781760462499 |location=Acton |chapter=Aesthetics}}</ref>{{rp|13–14}}

Mobile film units brought [[Cinema of China|Chinese cinema]] to the countryside and were crucial to the standardization and popularization of culture during this period, particularly including revolutionary model operas.<ref name="Coderre2021" />{{rp|30}} During the Cultural Revolution's early years, mobile film teams traveled to rural areas with news reels of Mao meeting with Red Guards and Tiananmen Square parades, which became known as "red treasure films".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Li |first=Jie |title=Material Contradictions in Mao's China |publisher=[[University of Washington Press]] |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-295-75085-9 |editor-last=Altehenger |editor-first=Jennifer |location=Seattle |chapter=Mobile Projectionists and the Things They Carried |editor-last2=Ho |editor-first2=Denise Y.}}</ref>{{rp|110}} The release of the filmed versions of the revolutionary model operas resulted in a re-organization and expansion of China's film exhibition network.<ref name="Li2023" />{{rp|73}} From 1965 to 1976, the number of film projection units in China quadrupled, total film audiences nearly tripled, and the national film attendance rate doubled.<ref name="Li2023" />{{rp|133}} The Cultural Revolution Group drastically reduced ticket prices which, in its view, would allow film to better serve the needs of workers and of socialism.<ref name="Li2023" />{{rp|133}}

===Historical sites===
[[File:Trip to Ningxia and Gansu.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Buddhist statues defaced during the Cultural Revolution|alt=]]

China's historical sites, artifacts and archives suffered devastating damage, as they were thought to be at the root of "old ways of thinking". Artifacts were seized, museums and private homes ransacked, and any item found that was thought to represent bourgeois or [[feudal]] ideas was destroyed. Few records relate how much was destroyed—Western observers suggest that much of China's thousands of years of history was in effect destroyed, or, later, smuggled abroad for sale. Chinese historians compare the suppression to [[Qin Shi Huang]]'s [[great Confucian purge]]. [[Religious persecution]] intensified during this period, as religion was viewed in opposition to Marxist–Leninist and Maoist thinking.<ref name=Jiaqi/>{{rp|73}}

The destruction of historical relics was never formally sanctioned by the Party, whose official policy was instead to protect such items. On 14 May 1967, the Central Committee issued ''Several suggestions for the protection of cultural relics and books during the Cultural Revolution''.<ref name=Gao/>{{rp|21}} Despite this, enormous damage was inflicted on China's cultural heritage. For example, a survey in 1972 in Beijing of 18 cultural heritage sites, including the [[Temple of Heaven]] and [[Ming Dynasty Tombs|Ming Tombs]], showed extensive damage. Of the 80 cultural heritage sites in Beijing under municipal protection, 30 were destroyed, and of the 6,843 cultural sites under protection by Beijing government decision in 1958, 4,922 were damaged or destroyed.<ref>{{cite book |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=zDhquEq5kTYC |page=446}} |title=Beijing Record: A Physical and Political History of Planning Modern Beijing |author=Jun Wang |pages=446–47 |publisher=World Scientific |year=2011 |isbn=978-9814295727}}</ref> Numerous valuable old books, paintings, and other cultural relics were burnt.<ref name=Barnouin>{{cite book |last1=Barnouin |first1=Barbara |last2=Yu |first2=Changgen |title=Ten Years of Turbulence: The Chinese Cultural Revolution |publisher=Routledge |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-7103-0458-2}}</ref>{{rp|98}}

Later [[Archaeology|archaeological]] excavation and preservation after the destructive period were protected, and several significant discoveries, such as the [[Terracotta Army]] and the [[Mawangdui]], occurred after the peak of the Revolution.<ref name=Gao/>{{rp|21}} Nevertheless, the most prominent medium of academic research in archaeology, the journal ''[[Kaogu (journal)|Kaogu]]'', did not publish.<ref>{{cite web |title=《Archaeology》 Publishing report |url=http://oversea.cnki.net/kns55/oldNavi/n_YearStats.aspx?NaviID=48&Flg=local&BaseID=KAGU&NaviLink=Search%3a%E8%80%83%E5%8F%A4-%2fkns55%2foldNavi%2fn_list.aspx%3fNaviID%3d48%26Field%3dcykm%24%25%2522%7b0%7d%2522%26selectIndex%3d0%26Value%3d%25e8%2580%2583%25e5%258f%25a4%7cArchaeology-%2fkns55%2foldNavi%2fn_item.aspx%3fNaviID%3d48%26Flg%3dlocal%26BaseID%3dKAGU |publisher=China Academic Journals Full-text Database |access-date=31 January 2017}}</ref> After the most violent phase, the attack on traditional culture continued in 1973 with the ''Anti-Lin Biao, Anti-Confucius Campaign'' as part of the struggle against moderate Party elements.

=== Media ===
{{Further|Media history of China}}
During the early period of the Cultural Revolution, [[freedom of the press in China]] was at its peak.<ref name="Russo2020a">{{Cite book |last=Russo |first=Alessandro |title=Cultural Revolution and Revolutionary Culture |year=2020 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |isbn=978-1-4780-1218-4 |page=148 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv15kxg2d |jstor=j.ctv15kxg2d}}</ref> While the number of newspapers declined in this period, the number of independent publications by mass political organizations grew.<ref name="Volland2021">{{Cite journal |last=Volland |first=Nicolai |year=2021 |title="Liberating the Small Devils": Red Guard Newspapers and Radical Publics, 1966–1968 |journal=[[The China Quarterly]] |volume=246 |page=367 |doi=10.1017/S0305741021000424 |issn=0305-7410 |s2cid=235452119 |doi-access=free}}</ref> According to [[National Bureau of Statistics of China|China's National Bureau of Statistics]], the number of newspapers dropped from 343 in 1965, to 49 in 1966, and then to a 20th-century low of 43 in 1967.<ref name="Volland2021" /> At the same time, the number of publications by mass organizations such as [[Red Guards]] grew to an estimated number as high as 10,000.<ref name="Volland2021" />

Independent political groups could publish [[Broadsheet|broadsheets]] and handbills, as well as leaders' speeches and meeting transcripts which would normally have been considered highly classified.<ref name="Walder2019b">{{Cite book |last=Walder |first=Andrew G. |title=Agents of Disorder: Inside China's Cultural Revolution |year=2019 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |doi=10.2307/j.ctvnjbhrb |isbn=978-0-674-24363-7 |jstor=j.ctvnjbhrb |s2cid=241177426}}</ref>{{rp|24}} From 1966 to 1969, at least 5,000 new broadsheets by independent political groups were published.<ref name="Thornton2019" />{{rp|60}} Several Red Guard organizations also operated independent printing presses to publish newspapers, articles, speeches, and [[Big-character poster|big-character posters]].<ref name="Russo2020a" /> For example, the largest student organization in Shanghai, the Red Revolutionaries, established a newspaper that had a print run of 800,000 copies by the end of 1966.<ref name="Walder2019b" />{{rp|58–59}}