Revolution impact for generation

“Time cannot efface the impact of the cultural revolution to people,” said the people who were the casualties of the Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution might sound unfamiliar for most people, especially for the young people. It broke out more than 58 years ago in China. During the ten year Cultural Revolution, all schools in the country didn’t allow students to enroll, university entrance exams were canceled, teachers were publicly humiliated and cursed, and people become selfish. Finally, there was economic stagnation. The revolution not only affected the people who were hurt during it, but also affected my family. My grandmother and her family are the revolution victims because the revolution caused a lot of negative impacts in the human nature, education, and the economy.

During this time, many people suffered mental torture, and they became more and more selfish and impersonal. My grandmother had seven siblings. One of her sisters was a student during the revolution, and one of her brothers was a teacher. My grandma’s sister started a fight about my granduncle because my granduncle was a teacher. In addition, my grandma’s sister was devoted to the revolution so she wanted to do something to testify her loyalty to it. My granduncle was humiliated and cursed and became sick for his whole life. Because of the fight, my grandma’s sister was commended by the people who advocated the revolution. My grandma’s sister felt happy because she testified herself responded to the revolution, and didn’t feel sorry about my granduncle. My grandmother said that my granduncle died and her sister didn’t attend his funeral and even felt happy. My grandma’s sister’s children eventually inherited her thoughts and character. Today, they are selfish. They don’t think we are part of whole family, and they even reject us.

Another consequence was that the education was not important to the new social policy. A lot of people dropped out of the school, and they were driven to the countryside to work in agriculture. All the teaching and research work had all stopped. My grandmother was a university student and she was forced into drop out of school. Her education wasn’t respected. At that time, it is really hard for intellectuals who was reading books all the time worked in the field when they were delegated physical exertion. Some scholars could not tend to bear the humiliation of not being respected and having to work like a dog, many even chose to commit suicide. In addition, my mother was in primary school at that time, but she had to drop out the school and follow the large-scale production team to work in the field. Even though she was a seven year old child, she had to work with the team. My mother loved reading. If the revolution advocator found that you were reading books, you would be punished because studying at that time violated the revolution rule. It was not like the famous people said knowledge is wealth, at that time the revolution embracers thought that work is the wealth.

In addition, the economy was also affected by the Cultural Revolution, and it directly or indirectly affected all of China's populace. Especially the squirearchy, who were against the proletariat, was directly affected by the revolution. My grandmother’s parents were squirearchy, and they were driven to the countryside. The revolution advocator confiscated their property. At that time, they were in trouble; one of my grandmother’s siblings starved to death. Our whole family became poor at that time. The proletariat was working hard in the field, and the bourgeoisie enjoyed the fight between proletariat and the squirearchy because they could get a lot of profit from it. During this time, most economic activity was halted because most of the people followed the revolution’s rules and the economy became paralyzed.

The revolution affected the people’s thoughts and characters and changed the original human nature. The education of a generation fell behind and the economy was in stagnation. The revolution already made a huge effect to my family. However, it also became a good experience to show the descendants about what is wrong and what is right. We cannot change history, but we can restrain it from happening again. The Cultural Revolution is not only an instruction, but also a milestone in China because as the people said “time could not efface impact to people from it;” however, we can learn from the impact.