Effects of the Politicization of Culture Contributes to the Chinese Communist Parties Consolidation - Report Example

345351 – Bottom of Form 3 In what ways and with what effects did the politicisation of culture contribute to the Chinese Communist Party’s consolidation of power between the 1940s and the mid-1970s? Contents Introduction Chapter 1- The Gaining of Power Chapter 2 - The Consolidating of Power Conclusions Introduction The following will debate and discuss the ways in which the politicisation of Chinese culture contributed to the Chinese Communist Party’s consolidating its political position between the 1940s and the mid 1970s. The evaluation will discuss whether the politicisation of Chinese culture by the Chinese Communist Party from the start of the 1940s and the mid 1970s proved to be beneficial for the party’s efforts to consolidate its political pre-eminence within China itself. The Chinese Communist Party had deliberately set out to politicise Chinese culture for the reasons examined below. Strong arguments can be made to support the notion that the consolidation of political power by the Chinese Communist Party via its policies to complete the politicisation of culture in China. Chapter 1 – The Gaining of Power To a very large extent Chinese culture was notable for the way in which the politicisation that had taken place had eluded the great majority of the Chinese masses by the early decades of the twentieth century. Any of the politicisation that had taken place was confined to the intelligentsia, the middle classes, and in urban areas.1 However the great bulk of the Chinese population remained uneducated and illiterate peasants. The vast majority of Chinese peasants stayed living in rural areas with little effort by the political parties to cultivate their support or manipulate their opinions to stop the country being so backward as well as overwhelmingly rural.2 For thousands of years the Chinese governments, the country’s ruling classes, and also its intelligentsia had paid little or absolutely no attention to the culture, education, or social attitudes of the peasants that were the majority of the population.3 No attention was paid because the peasants were not considered to be of any kind of significance when it came to the social, political, cultural, or indeed the economic development of China.4 Generations of Chinese governments regarded the peasants as only being suitable for paying taxes, and occasionally serving in the army if wars were being fought or seemed likely to be fought. For the Chinese government, its land-owning classes, its middle classes, and later the majority of political parties and movements there seemed to be very little point in politicising in national culture.5 Politicisation should not take place, as it would in fact not be beneficial for the social, economic, and most importantly the political status quo of the country. Politicised culture would turn out to be politically damaging for China.6 To put it basically the general apathy and the high level of ignorance of national and international politics in Chinese popular culture certainly suited the ruling classes as well as the social and economic elites. The only way in which the Imperial dynasty and the subsequent Kuomtang regime had aimed to even vaguely politicise Chinese popular culture was to promote a strong sense of nationalism.7 The only political party or movement in China that deliberately and methodically set out to politicise popular and mass culture was the Chinese Communist Party. As far as the Chinese Communist Party was concerned politicising popular Chinese culture was actually the best means of obtaining over all power right across the whole of China and would then allow them to consolidate their hold on power.8 The strategy of politicising mass culture in China to gain and then consolidate power was actually developed by the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Zedong.9 Originally the Chinese Communist Party had hoped that it could take power in China by gaining the support of the urban proletariat. Using the urban proletariat it was anticipated as being essential to gaining power, as Karl Marx had predicted that would be the way in which communist regimes would be established and consolidated across the globe. However, even in countries that had high numbers of the urban proletariat such as Britain and Germany had not gained power at all, let alone with the ease that Marx and Engels had predicted. China was certainly not the country that was expected to install a communist regime as a result of a revolution or a coup, not unless the Chinese Communist Party could achieve the impossible. The Chinese Communist Party looked for inspiration and guidance from the Soviet Union, the world’s first communist state which had attempted to carry out massive social, economic, political as well as cultural changes. In Russia, Lenin had taken power via a coup, as the urban proletariat had not been in a position to carry out a successful revolution. The Soviet Union had attempted to create communism at the same as it created increasing numbers of the urban proletariat. The Soviet regime had also sought to politicise the culture of the state as a means of consolidating its hold on power. Karl Marx had never expected for a revolution to successfully occur in somewhere as backwards as Russia instead of advanced capitalist countries such as Britain, France, Germany, and the United States. Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party were faced with the mission of gaining and then consolidating power in a country that was very backwards politically, culturally, and economically, even in comparison with the Russia of 1917.10 Chapter 2 - The Consolidating of Power For Mao Zedong and also for the Chinese Communist Party the campaign to politicise Chinese culture can be traced back to the late 1920s when the party leadership began its efforts to politicise the Chinese peasants in order to undermine and eventually overthrow the Kuomtang regime. China was actually too backward to have an urban proletariat so as far as the Chinese Communist Party was concerned politicising the peasants was the only way forward in their efforts to gain and consolidate power. Given the extraordinarily high levels of illiteracy and ignorance inside the country the Chinese Communist Party had to educate the peasants before it was able to politicise their culture and transform their political behaviour.11 The Chinese Communist Party had to defeat two enemies before it was able to gain power in China, the Japanese, and the Kuomtang. For a time the Kuomtang had co-operated with the Chinese Communist Party yet that did not last long. The Chinese Communist Party had to take drastic action through the Long March to survive the onslaught of the Kuomtang. Mao changed tack after the Long March; the road to power depended upon the politicisation of the Chinese peasants. The politicisation of the peasants by the Chinese Communist Party helped them to defeat the Japanese, and then assisted their victory in the resulting civil war. The Chinese Communist Party had only been able to politicise culture in the provinces that it had controlled. Winning the civil war meant that its leadership was able to politicise culture across the whole of the country. For the Chinese Communist Party there were sound ideological and political reasons for politicising the national culture within China. As already noted the Chinese Communist Party gained power by winning the Chinese civil war. However winning the civil war did not automatically mean that the party had consolidated its power over the whole of China. Mao and the Chinese Communist Party wanted to politicise Chinese culture in order to vindicate and justify their seizure of power. However in the 1940s the majority of the Chinese population did not seem to understand the aims and the objectives of the Chinese Communist Party to transform China into a Maoist state. After all Mao regarded the politicisation of Chinese culture as being essential if the population was to fully participate in the transformation of China into a Marxist state that was both modernised and secure. Politicising Chinese culture was used to reinforce the impact and the influence of the Chinese Communist Party policies and also its propaganda. Politicisation consolidated the Chinese Communist Party’s position as it made it easier for the party to indoctrinate the Chinese population.12 Conclusions The politicisation of Chinese culture enabled the Chinese Communist Party to legitimate its claims to govern the country from one generation to succeeding generations between the 1940s and the mid 1970s. Although the Chinese Communist Party politicised the culture of China to increase its hold over the entire population it also meant that the party was linked with its Chairman, Mao. For the politicised population Mao was the Chinese Communist Party as well as being their leader whose thoughts and guidance were always available within his little red book. The Chinese Communist Party managed to portray Mao as being the all-powerful and the all-knowing leader of the Chinese people. Politicisation succeeded in making the Chinese people regard Mao as being the architect of communist China as well as modernising the country and ridding it of mass ignorance. Bibliography Hobsbawm, E (1994) Age of Extremes, the Short Twentieth Century 1914-1991, Michael Joseph, London Lenman B P, (2004) Chambers Dictionary of World History - 2nd edition, Chambers, Edinburgh Roberts J A G (2003) the Complete History of China, Sutton Publishing, London Woodruff W, (2005) A Concise History of the Modern World, Abacus, London http://cid-a2584c236d1c21b2.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Study%20Area/Introduction%20to%20Contemporary%20Chinese%20Societies%20and%20Cultures Read More