China’s Cultural Revolution
AP World History
Parker T. Jarnigan
This lesson is designed to give students access to new perspectives on the changing nature of the Chinese
revolutions of the 20th century, as well as facilitate the development of reading, listening, speaking, and
analyzing skills. As such, this lesson fulfills content and skill goals required by the Tennessee Department
of Education’s social studies curriculum and the College Board’s AP World History framework. The
majority of the lesson will be spent discussing the readings in partners.
Learning Standards
Tennessee World History Standard W. 59 – Analyze the Chinese Civil War, the rise of Mao Zedong, and
the triumph of the Communist Revolution in China
AP World Central Concept 6.3 – New Conceptualizations of Global Economy, Society, and Culture
Time Required
This lesson will take one 50 minute class period, as well as time outside of class for students to read
assigned materials prior to the lesson.
Student Objectives
SWBAT describe the events leading up to the Cultural Revolution in China
SWBAT assess the effectiveness of the Cultural Revolution.
SWBAT analyze the results of the Cultural Revolution
Procedures, overview
10 minutes of teacher lecture
15 minutes of partner discussion
15 minutes of group sharing
10 minutes of individual student written response
Procedures, detailed
First, the Teacher should teach this lesson at some point after having taught lessons on the fall of the
Qing, the establishment of the Republic, and the Chinese Civil War.
The day before this lesson, the Teacher should hand out one of two readings to all students, splitting up
the readings so that roughly half the class reads one document, and half the class reads the other. The
first is a well-known short story by the Chinese Communist author Cao Ming, “A Native of Yan-an.” In it,
the peasant Granny Wu is used as a device to represent the virtue of Mao Zedong’s idealized farmer versus
the nationalist opposition. In this particular excerpt, students will read of Granny Wu’s personal
transformation to a more revolutionary mindset as a result of her chance encounter with Chairman Mao.
The story is set in 1937, in the midst of the Chinese Civil War, but it was written and published in 1947,
just a few years before the victory of the Communists.
The second reading is an interview transcription with Dr. Juefei Wang, taken from the journal Social
Education. Dr. Wang is a Professor Emeritus at University of Vermont and Program Director for the
Freeman Foundation, a private group dedicated to strengthening relationships between the US and East
Asian countries. In the interview, Dr. Wang describes his personal experiences as a teenager growing up
during the height of the Cultural Revolution. Specifically, Dr. Wang details what happened when the antieducation, anti-four olds forces of the Cultural Revolution took root in his junior high school.
The day before the lesson, when the teacher distributes the two readings, the Teacher should use their
judgment as to whether to assign any short task or questions associated with the readings in order to
ensure that students read. This is not necessary for the lesson, but the decision should be made based
on Teacher knowledge of students as well as the standard class procedure established by the Teacher.
Students should bring their copies of the readings with them to reference in class the day of the lesson.
First thing day of the lesson, the teacher should introduce the day’s lesson topic and learning objectives
and then spend about 10 minutes to remind students of previous content and set the context for studying
the Cultural Revolution. This should include a very brief discussion of the results of the fall of the Qing,
the major conflicts of the Chinese Civil War before and after WWII, and the victory of the Communists in
1949. The teacher should then give students an overview of the basics of the Cultural Revolution, using
either PowerPoint and lecture or just oral description. The Teacher should focus on detailing when the
Cultural Revolution began and how long it lasted, the role of Mao in dictating the course of the Revolution,
a comparison of the legacies of the First Five Year Plan and the Great Leap Forward in shaping the Cultural
Revolution, and a description of how Mao’s personality cult grew in the 1950s and 60s. The Teacher
should point out that the Cultural Revolution was initially the project of Chinese youth inspired to
destruction by Mao’s “little red book.” Finally, the Teacher should use one or two anecdotes and some
statistics to give students an idea of the scope of the impact of the Cultural Revolution. Altogether, this
portion of the lesson should take no more than 10 minutes. Fitting all of this into 10 minutes will be easier
if the class has had lessons on the Chinese Civil War just prior to this lesson on the Cultural Revolution.
After this brief discussion, the Teacher should split the class up into pairs, with each pair having one
student that read either document. In the case of odd numbers or a student that was absent the day
readings were assigned, the Teacher can make a few odd groups, just so long as each group has someone
that read each article. The Teacher should first instruct the pairs/groups to share with one another as to
the details of the story they read. Specifically, they should share with their partners
1) Who are the subjects of the piece?
2) What is the historical time period documented in the piece?
3) What is the social position of the main subject in the piece?
4) How does the main subject interact with Mao?
5) How do the words/actions of Mao affect the subject
These prompts should be on the board/projector screen during discussion. The Teacher can and should
add to these suggestions based on feedback gathered while floating and monitoring pair discussion of the
documents. The Teacher should encourage the students to reflect with one another as to how the stories
compare and students should conjecture as to what accounts for the differences in the accounts. This
pair sharing portion of the lesson should take about 15 minutes.
After the pair discussion dies down, or after 15 minutes has expired, the Teacher should bring the class
together for large group discussion. This discussion can take a variety of forms and directions based on
Teacher judgment, but it should at least be focused around answering one major question: why is the
experience of Granny Wu different than that of Dr. Wang, and what does this tell us about how China
has changed from WWII to the Cultural Revolution? The Teacher might start by asking students to
volunteer simple differences they observed in the documents, or the Teacher could call on students to
answer some of the above questions for each document. Whatever choice, the Teacher should remind
students that the fictional account of Granny Wu was created in 1947, whereas Dr. Wang describes his
experiences immediately before and after the summer of 1966, and then guide discussion toward the
overarching question of how these two different stories reflect change over time as China transitioned
from a fractured country to one led by a megalomaniac leader like Mao Zedong. Including time for both
discussion and questions from the students, this portion of the lesson should take about 15 minutes.
To close out the lesson, the Teacher should reveal a short writing prompt that students will work on
individually and turn in at the end of class. This deliverable will be the primary means that the Teacher
assesses student attainment of the objectives. The prompt can vary, but it should refocus the students
to the overarching question dealing with change across time as evidenced by the documents. The prompt
might say Based on the two documents, answer the following question: How had Mao’s vision for China
changed from 1947 to 1966, and to what extent can this vision be said to be a success? Students should
write their short responses, probably in the form of long paragraphs, in class and turn them in at the bell.
Alternatively, this may be assigned as homework if time runs short due to vigorous discussion.
Evaluation
The Teacher will use the materials created by students in class as the primary means of assessing the
strength and success of the lesson in accomplishing the stated objectives. Success on the objectives will
be exemplified by a student response that makes at least one clear, defensible, falsifiable claim about the
experience of the Cultural Revolution as a manifestation of Mao’s vision for China.
Student handouts
The Teacher should prepare copies of the two readings for students, enough for half of students to have
one and half to have the other. The Cao Ming story is available in several source readers and can be found
online. The interview with Dr. Wang is behind a paywall available to subscribers of Social Education and
members of the National Council for the Social Studies.
Resources
Masalski, Kathleen Woods. “Juefei’s Story (Interview).” Social Education, 74, no. 1 (2010): 37-41. [Ideally,
this source would be reformatted with the sidebars, teacher questions, and activities from the
original periodical omitted for students.]
Ming, Cao. “A Native of Yan’an.” In The Human Record: Sources of Global History, Volume II, 5th ed.,
edited by Alfred J. Andrea and James H. Overfield, 461-465. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company,
2005.