Why would Chinese children support the Cultural Revolution? It might have been because of Propaganda. Rebellion. Fear. Anger. They might have felt important. Powerful. Influential. To support the Cultural Revolution Chinese children would join the red guards. The red guards were groups of Chinese youth issued by Mao Zedong to weed out anti-revolutionaries. Mao Zedong was the leader of communist China. The Chinese youth supported the Cultural Revolution because they were influenced by the propaganda and because it gave them a chance to rebel against the authorities.

Propaganda is the first reason Chinese youth would strongly support the Cultural Revolution. From birth, Chinese children were exposed to communist propaganda that supported the Cultural Revolution and the Red Guards. In Fan Cao’s memoir Under the Red Sun, she states that “We worshiped Mao the same way pious Christians worship their God.” as a demonstration of how propaganda influenced the Chinese children. Mao was seen as a god at the time. If he was spearheading the Cultural Revolution they would support him. Thanks to the propaganda, all children would be completely devoted to Mao’s cause.

Another reason Chinese youth would support the Cultural Revolution is because they would get a chance to rebel against the authorities. In Rae’s memoir At the Center of the Storm she talks about why she joined the Red guards and states that “As a student, the first authority I wanted to rebel against was the Teacher Lin, our homeroom teacher.” Rae and many other children joined the Red Guards because they wanted to rebel against the authorities, and joining the Cultural Revolution as a Red Guard gave them a chance to do that.

Chinese youth would support the Cultural Revolution because propaganda encouraged them to rebel against the authorities. Rebellion against the authorities is something that every child desires and would have pushed children into joining the Red Guards. The Red Guards were a higher authority than all adults, and telling other adults what do would seem fun. Propaganda and a desire for rebellion are the main reasons that children would support the Cultural Revolution in China.