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Mao’s China, 1945–76

The Red Guards and the Red Terror

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 3

Overview

Who the Red Guards were and why they answered Mao, the Tiananmen rallies, bombard the headquarters, Jiang Qing's part, the 'four olds', the treatment of teachers, the destruction, factional fighting and denunciations.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What did Mao and Jiang Qing set the Red Guards against in 1966, and what did the attack on the 'four olds' destroy?

Numbers

Who were the Red Guards?

Key term

Describe the rallies held in Beijing in the second half of 1966.

Questions from this subtopic

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  1. 1

    Who were the Red Guards?

    Model answer

    Groups of students and school pupils, mostly teenagers, who organised from mid-1966 to defend Mao's revolution.

  2. 2

    Why were young people so willing to answer Mao's call?

    Model answer

    They had been raised on his cult and taught his thought at school, and he offered them power over their teachers and parents.

  3. 3

    Describe the rallies held in Beijing in the second half of 1966.

    Model answer

    Mao appeared eight times in Tiananmen Square before crowds of a million young people who chanted and waved the Little Red Book.

  4. 4

    What did Mao's own wall poster of August 1966 tell the Red Guards to do?

    Model answer

    To bombard the headquarters, meaning that they should attack senior party leaders and not only ordinary class enemies.

  5. 5

    What part did Jiang Qing play in the movement?

    Model answer

    Mao's wife, a former actress, directed the campaign against culture and encouraged the Red Guards to denounce leading party officials.

  6. 6

    What were the 'four olds' the Red Guards set out to destroy?

    Model answer

    Old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits.

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