History Essay Assignment about China in Revolution

China in Revolution

I. Essay. Respond to each of the following in essay.

1. The Wugong Cooperative became a model for agricultural cooperatives around China. When How was the Geng Changsuo’s rural cooperative first formed and what made it relatively successful?

2. What was the Soviet economic model and how was it adapted to China? What were the benefits and weaknesses of this model of development?

3. What happened as a result of collectivization and the policies of the Great Leap Forward? What was the role and responsibility of Mao Zedong and Chinese Communist Party economic and political policies?

4. Although we talk about the Cultural Revolution as a singular event, what it meant and how it progressed changed significantly over time. Explain how the Cultural Revolution developed over the following three periods: 1966-67, 1968-1971, and 1972-1976.

II. Born Red

In Gao Yuan’s Born Red, we learn about the tumultuous events of the 1960s through the eyes of a boy who experienced them. In an essay, explain how Gao participated in and was affected by the national political campaigns of the Maoist period. How does the memoir help us understand how people coped with the impacts of national political conflicts?

III. Revolutions: 1911, 1949, 1966

What is a “revolution”? Explain what the revolutions of 1911, 1949, and 1966 meant to China, and what each of them tells us about our conceptual understanding of the term “revolution.”