Done by Li Lidao 09, Tan Yi Zhao 24, Loke
Hsien Jie 12 and Glen Mun
Topic: Education in Communist
China and The Little Red Book
Brief introduction on education at
that time
Length of education was reduced
 Primary and secondary: from 6 to 5 years
 Colleges: from 4 or 5 to 31/2 years
Curriculum of education was modified
 Focus on political studies and skills which were more practical (for
example: agriculture studies to increase crop production).
 Stress on analytical, critical and creative ability
Admission policy was changed
 No more entrance exams.
 Based on the recommendations of the revolutionary committee at their
work place (factory/ commune)
Governance of schools
 School was also governed by local peasant, workers or soldiers instead of
intellectual bourgeois. More schools were also built in rural areas
Top priority
Political studies
Working with
peasants, factory
workers or training
with soldiers
Academic
Subjects
Action taken
reason
• Abolished exams
• students complained
that it was unfair as
what was tested was
only a little bit of what
they should know
• Academic is not the
top priority
• Mao felt that students
should be involved in
other activities such as
working with peasants,
factory workers or
training with soldiers
Political education (part 1)
Aim
 To instill principles of communism into the younger
generation.
 To nurture them into devoted followers of the
communist party
Content of political education
 Includes memorising Mao’s little red book
 Teachers criticising politicians who’s anti-communism
in front of them (for example Confucius and Lin biao)
 Told how fortunate they are and all the benefits of the
communist party ruling the country and how hard life
was in other countries
Political education ( part 2)
 Students were also told to get involved in
rallies of the party and shout slogans.
 Students also learnt slogans under their
Chinese curriculum such as: long life
chairman Mao, rebel is justified or support
agriculture on a great scale.
 As they were not being exposed to anything
which contradicted to what was taught, the
political education was a great success.








It’s official name is: Quotations from Chairman
Mao
Contains quotations from chairman Mao
The aim of the book is to transform the china society using
Maoism or Mao’s ideology
The little red book was first published in April 1964 and stopped
publishing in 1976
The people at the workforce had to study the book during working
hours as it was said that the understanding of Mao’s quotes would
bring enlightenment to the work unit.
Students were told to bring the book everywhere they go
Students were tested on how well they have memorized the book
It contains 33 chapters, each chapter describes a value they were
supposed to have
Effects of Mao´s political education
 All students followed and believed what was taught and
wanted to be a red guard as well.
 The red guards followed the orders and destroyed old
books, artworks, heritage sites and temples. Some even
captured “anti-communism” individuals, brought them to a
firing square and occasionally given the authority to shot
them to death.
 Innocent students carrying out such unimaginable acts
further proves the devastating effect of Mao's political
education on students.
 Since most of the time at school was spent on political
studies, and entry exams were abolished, students did not
achieve much academic progress. Not putting academic at
the top priority also gave students such a impression that
studying is useless.
LINK BETWEEN CHINESE LANGUAGE AND
POLITICAL STUDIES
Although most of the time in school was reserved
for political studies, however, students still learnt
math and Chinese language.
 Some passages in their Chinese textbook was used
to facilitate political studies.
Slogans of the

communist
party
Lower
primary
textbook
Upper
primary and
secondary
text
Other stories
not related to
political
science
Inspiring stories of the red army
fighting fearlessly against the
Japanese or guomindang regime,
politicians contributing selflessly
and how hard life was in Taiwan
or other countries not ruled by
communists
Acknowledgements
• fcis.oise.utoronto.ca/~daniel_sc/assignment1/1966chinarev.html
•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Guards_(People's_Republic_of_Chin)
•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Red_Book
•zhidao.baidu.com
•www.wyzxsx.com
•http://www.google.com.sg/images?q=culture%20revolution&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IESearchBox&oe=&rlz=1I7GFRC_en&um=1&ie=UTF8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1419&bih=756
K
W
L
What I know
What I want to know
What I learned
I learnt how the education structures had
I know that the ultimate goal of the Firstly, I want to know how
changed during the culture revolution and the
education at that point of time was to different is the Chinese textbook
today from the Chinese textbook negative effects of the culture revolution.
nurture devoted followers of the
Academic subjects was used to be at the first
during the culture revolution.
priority was placed at the third priority after
communist party of China. To achieve
this goal, they taught students of the Secondly, I want to know what political studies and working with peasants,
factory workers, or training with soldiers. Thus,
party. The passages of their Chinese negative effects of the culture pupils spent less time studying every day. With
this kind of education structures, many talented
textbooks were also mainly about
revolution has on China.
students was not discovered. This eventually
people in the party contributing
led to a economic depression.
Thirdly,
I
also
want
to
know
more
selflessly to the country or soldiers
about the educational structures I also learnt that Mao’s little red book contains
fighting bravely against either the
at that point of time.
quotations from chairman Mao.
Japanese or the goumindang regime.
To prevent students from supporting Fourthly, I want to know more I had also learnt that the Chinese textbook at
other politicians against communism, about the little red book. I
that time mainly focus on describing how
soldiers fought fearlessly against their enemies
teachers also criticized those
know that it contains values
or politicians contributing selflessly to the
politicians in front of them. Since they they should follow, but I don’t country or how hard life was in those countries
know what exactly was inside not ruled by communist.
have the full control of the media,
Through this project, I had learnt about how life
students will learn and believe what the book. (Quotations?
Stories?)
was like in China during the culture revolution.
they were taught, as they were not
Chinese textbook today have more stories not
exposed to anything against
related to political science and also stories
about heroes in other countries
communism.
K
W
L
What I know
What I want to know
What I learned
The education in
communist china is very
thin as compared to the
present and it focuses
more on the views of Mao
Zedong. While The Little
Red Book is carried by
the people everywhere
they went and it is like a
bible to them.
Done By: Tan Yi Zhao 24
I want to know more of
the differences between
the education in
communist china and
the present education. I
would also like to learn
more about what is
written in The Little
Red Book.
I have learnt about the
how the educational
structure was like and the
importance of the
subjects at that time. I
also realised that The
Little Red Book was
mainly made up of
quotations from Mao
ZeDong.
K
What I know
The education in communist
china teaches students about
Maoism by using the little red
book The students also learn
ordinary subjects
Glen Mun
W
What I want to know
The content of the little red
book, Maoism
L
What I learned
The education system in
communist china, the little red
book contents (quotations of
Mao Zedong)
Political education in china
K
What I know
I know a little about communism, as
I learnt about it in primary school. I
have heard of stories of the red book
and Mao Zedong from my parents. I
know that during the times when
chairman Mao is reigning over
china, people who are caught not
having the book with them at
anytime of the day, was punished
severely. The students in school
usually study the speeches and
quotes from chairman Mao in the
book. This is also applied to people
in the workplace. The education
level of the young children were not
high as most of them were quite
poor.
Loke Hsien Jie 12
W
What I want to know
L
What I learned
I want to know what made chairman
Mao decide that communism was
best for his nation. Why he thought
that communism would supply
families ample food for survival. I
also want to know how he was so
influential on the citizens. I would
like to find out not only his flaws,
but also his good leadership
qualities, after all, he gained
millions and even billions of
people’s trust. I want to know more
about the book and some of its
quotes, was it really to instill trust
of Chairman Mao in the people that
reads it, or was it a manipulation?
There are so many questions and I
can’t wait to find out the answers.
I learnt that, teamwork is an
absolute must throughout or lifes.
We must learn to co-operate with
others. Without co-operation with
my teammates, I would never be
able to finish my project at such a
level of information. I even learned
more about not only more about ’s
rich history, but also realized my
weaknesses. I learnt more about my
friends and created a tighter bond, I
believe we have lots of teamwork
and I believe that we had cut off
unnecessary time arguing and the
project went smoothly. I leant that
the red book is also used to educate
the younger generations about
communism and its benefits, I also
realized that the book never
mentioned about communism flaws.
I found out that, shockingly, schools
don’t focus on academics, instead
they study politics!