Well goodness…who knew developing a topic would be so tough? I have been dwelling on this for a while now and have come up with few ideas. While the my topic is still in the “development” stages, my focus seems to be toward the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). I know it’s a broad subject and I’m trying to fine tune it into a research paper-worthy topic. I always found it interesting how people (the masses) could be “duped” into following leader so blindly. This has been the case throughout history; Hitler, Mao, Emperor Hirohito, etc. Mao however was different from the other two. While Hitler and Hirohito’s main focus was expanding their empires and defeating their enemies, their enemies were typically sovereign states. Mao focused his attention of the culture of China as a whole, and his countrymen and women followed him. Nearly half a million people died during this time, and production, railroads, and commercial industry came to a standstill, yet people followed the message of the wise Chairman Mao.
Furthermore, I believe it would be interesting to see how participants of the C.R. feel about the time and their actions 30-40 years later. I am unsure about how to write the paper though. Should it be narrative in nature focusing more on facts, or should the majority of the substance lay in the experiences and accounts of those who witnessed the CR?
I have several sources on the subject, and I don’t believe it would be very tought to find others.
Topic
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Keep working, I think you could go somewhere with it.
I’m working on a similar idea; how the party got people to follow the One-Child Policy of 1979? Like you said, very interesting how people get duped…how a law becomes something they don’t just follow but believe.
Anyway, good luck with narrowing. You could do something relating to the reading we just did for class- how they turned the media and arts into tools of their agenda.