The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution Podcast

Despite no military engagements with the Soviets for 2 years, continued pressure on the northern border and US stepping up attacks on Laos and Cambodia make Mao and company consider a new tactic: partially opening up the country to engagement with the West via sports competitions and friendship tours. This culminates in a secret meeting that, months prior, would be unthinkable: the meeting of Premier Zhou Enlai and US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

As China marches into a new decade, class struggle goes down to a low point compared to the prior three years. However, a swift and harsh “One Strike Three Antis” Campaign causes shockwaves across Chinese political life, and Mao & Lin Biao go toe-to-toe at the Lushan Conference causing an irreparable schism between the two.

During the Cultural Revolution, China experienced its greatest period of diplomatic isolation with one very notable exception: the People's Socialist Republic of Albania led by Enver Hoxha. This tiny nation, despite being thousands of miles away from China, was its closest comrade-in-arms. In this episode, we'll dive into one of the most interesting and unique stories of Cold War international relations: Sino-Albanian friendship during the Cultural Revolution.

Despite the afterglow of the 9th Congress, Mao and the Chinese leadership still find themselves in a tit for tat fight against the Soviets on the northeastern border that could quickly escalate into nuclear war. Meanwhile, the American ruling class on Capitol Hill begins ruminating over the possibility of using this moment to reach out to the "Red Chinese." Can China stands its ground in between the two superpowers in the midst of the Cultural Revolution?

The Communist Party of China holds its first congress since the beginning of the Cultural Revolution with great pomp and fanfare. The Maoists use the congress as a time to declare victory over the Rightists, but trouble at the Soviet border nearly brings China and the USSR to the brink of nuclear war...

By popular demand, this is a special episode where I answer your questions about WHO IS DREW? How did he become a communist and a Sinophile? What was his time in the RCPUSA and RCYB like? Enjoy some wild stories with your (not so) humble host!

Guangzhou: China's third largest city and the birthplace of Cantonese culture. Known as the "City of Flowers," the city of Guangzhou was, much like Shanghai and Beijing, a hotbed of class struggle during the Cultural Revolution. Join Drew as he dives into a revolutionary dim sum delight and sums up the experience of the GPCR there!

With the end of the Red Guard & rebel movements and the deployment of the Mao Zedong Thought Workers Propaganda Teams, the class struggle across China seems to have calmed down. The last of the revolutionary committees are elected and founded. Things seem good- but a brutal new campaign initiated by the leadership of the provincial revolutionary committees sends many former rebels to prison or to their death. Young comrades are sent to the countryside to work among the peasants, and Liu Shaoqi is finally expelled permanently from the Party.

Chairman Mao badges were an ubiquitous symbol of the Cultural Revolution, with every Chinese person (and millions of people around the world) wearing them on their chest to show devotion to Chairman Mao and communist revolution. Dive into the deeper meanings and social impact of these small but iconic pieces of metal with Drew- an avid collector and researcher of them!

The Hundred Day War at Qinghua University continues to rage on. Reports of a massacre in Guangxi Province involving cannibalism reach Beijing. Mass killings of civilians is reported in rural Guangdong Province. Ideological splits begin appearing in factory and collective-level revolutionary committees. Mao calls a meeting with rebel leaders to put an end to the Red Guard movement completely. Can Mao save his Cultural Revolution, or is it too late?....

The Red Guard movement disintegrates and the Cultural Revolution goes off the rails as the "all-around civil war" between rebel movements reaches a violent shrieking crescendo when the two factions at Qinghua University, the "Harvard of China," go to war. Suicides and vigilante killings skyrocket across the nation. Can Mao save his revolution within a revolution, or have things gone too far?...

In this episode, we'll be traveling to the vast steppes of Inner Mongolia to see how the Cultural Revolution played out in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region- and why it ended in brutal excess and with such sharp contradictions. A fascinating contrast to the examples of Tibet and Xinjiang that are worth summing up for their historical lessons.

Mao and the Party Center try to bring the Cultural Revolution back to focus by establishing a series of new provincial revolutionary committees and order Red Guards to attend Marxist theory study sessions. But the Red Guards are still out for blood, and are quickly turning the all-around civil war into a war of total annihilation as the rebel movement becomes intent on destroying itself rather than the revisionist headquarters within the Party.

AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with two comrades, "Mr. & Mrs. Wang," who were revolutionary Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution in the city of Baoji, Shaanxi Province. A truly great experience for all listeners!

The "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung" or "The Little Red Book" is one of the best selling and most controversial books ever written. It is also one of the quintessential symbols of the Cultural Revolution, radical leftist ideology, and the general zeitgeist of the Global Sixties. This month's thematic episode will have us dive into the history, development, and spread of the Little Red Book that was called a "spiritual atom bomb" by the Chinese people.

As the factional fighting grows bloodier and the mass movements grow exceedingly more and more radical, the Party apparatus in the provinces begins to collapse. Mao and the CCRG find themselves struggling to curtail the surge of chaos, as the Cultural Revolution begins to come apart at the seams.

[REUPLOADED] How did people have sex and fall in love during the Cultural Revolution? How did dating and marriage work in China in the 1960's and 1970's? What was queer culture like during this time? What was permitted and what was forbidden? The answers to this may surprise you- so join us today for a deep dive into sex during the GPCR!

[REUPLOADED] Drew is joined by Dr. Han Dongping of Warren-Wilson College (and author of "The Unknown Cultural Revolution") as well as two other History majors/independent scholars for a roundtable/panel discussion about the Shanghai Commune and its place in the history of the broader Cultural Revolution.

How did the Cultural Revolution affect Chinese cuisine and how people cooked? What kinds of foods were popular at the time? Enjoy our holiday special and dig into how and what people ate during the Cultural Revolution!

Mao continues to lose control of the Cultural Revolution and the Party structure in the provinces collapses. Inner-Party intrigue by a group of firebrands begins to rock the boat. Accusations of a shadowy "May 16 Conspiracy" throws the rebel movement into a panic. Mass movements begin to take the Cultural Revolution in new directions. Will Mao be able to curtail the problem, or will things get worse?...

Tibet and Xinjiang- China's westernmost regions and the source of considerable controversy and emotionally-charged discourse in West. Because of this, it's hard to have a clear picture of what the Cultural Revolution- a contentious topic within itself- was like in these regions. What do scholars, archival evidence, and eyewitness testimony tell us though? The answer will surprise you!

China's "all-around civil war" spirals into chaos as a right-wing mutiny threatens China's heartland in the city of Wuhan. Mao retaliates by ordering the PLA to distribute weapons to mass organizations and Red Guard factions. It's certainly no dinner party...

Ji Bing, a veteran of the People's Liberation Army, joins us to talk about growing up as a Little Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution, joining the PLA during the twilight years of the GPCR, and experiencing the death of Chairman Mao, the Arrest of the Gang of Four, and his thoughts on how to view the Cultural Revolution as a historical event. Don't miss out!

China has 8 United Front parties under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. What part did they play during the Cultural Revolution and how were they affected? We take a quick look at their role in this third minisode of the GPCR Podcast.

"The messier, the better!" The Red Guard movement begins to break down nationwide into brutal factional armed struggle. The People's Liberation Army is forced to take sides. Chairman Mao and his comrades help establish the Beijing Revolutionary Committee. The mass movements grow nationally and the Cultural Revolution spills out of Chinese borders and into the popular imagination of the people of the world with riots breaking out in Hong Kong.

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?