The Tragedy

The tragedy was that according to a study done, a graph showed that before 1960 an average of 40 million people died each year but in 1960 the graph had a major incline, increasing up to 20 million people dying each year over a course of three years 1959-1961. On top of millions of people who died. On top of a large famine caused, many people who were teachers, bourgeois, or didn't have a high class status were criticized. Class status during the Cultural Revolution meant that their status was determined by their political behavior and thinking, and was usually determined on the dads side. If you had a "red" status it meant that people would see you as revolutionary and who would end up being successful. However if you had the "black" you were considered unreliable. People who had the "black" status were often criticized, which meant that they were humiliated and physically punished. Being criticized also meant being forced into "struggle meetings". Struggle meetings is were you would meet in a work unit to be publicly humiliated. Aside from millions of people dying in the famine and public humiliation, Mao controlled the way people thought. The people of China were so brainwashed that they didn't realize the terrible things chairman Mao has caused for the country. However the people who did know typically the ones who were constantly criticized, many of them had suicidal thoughts, and ended up killing themselves. The dead bodies were cremated and burned.