Revisiting the Cultural Revolution

The Cultural Revolution was the most severe political crisis to face the People’s Republic of China (PRC), yet our understanding of many basic questions about it remains imperfect.  Why did the Cultural Revolution occur?  How did it start and how did it unfold?  Was it an attempt to engender a revolutionary transformation of Chinese society and politics, or was it in reality a struggle for power?  What was Mao’s role in the Cultural Revolution?  In what ways did the violent political movement affect the everyday lives of the Chinese people?  How did the Cultural Revolution end?  This presentation surveys recent scholarly trends in the study of Mao’s tumultuous last decade, focusing especially on newly emerging multi-disciplinary scholarship, as well as increased attention to the transnational and international context of modern Chinese history.