/lit/ - Literature

>>19601293
The Cultural Revolution destroyed much of the traditional culture but it needed to be destroyed for Deng's reforms to be possible. For instance, both the nationalists and communists prior to 1949 forced women in their governing regions giving up foot-binding. The oriental world was left far behind the western world in terms of modernization. There didn't have hundreds of years to waste to let the traditional culture slowly proceed into the modernized one. Like the USSR in the 20s-30s, the PRC in the 50-60s needed to initiate the largest industrialization in the history of the world in a short period of time at any cost, squeezing centuries of industrialization and the accumulation of capital the West experienced into 10 years or less without letting the "colonial subjects pay for it" in order to survive from the two great superpowers in the Cold War.

Materially, the primary thing that needed to be done for industrialization was the land reform, redistributing 90% of the land of the country controlled by 10% of the population to the peasants or use for industrialization to turn the peasants into workers. This was not enough, though, as feudalism was deeply rooted in the mindset of the majority. Many peasants, for instance, were generational "serfs" for centuries. Women weren't allowed to work and study. And many temples were controlled by male elites who monopolized "divine powers" against anyone who disobeyed them.

Hence, to correspond with and also accelerate that great transformation, a relatively violent and radical crackdown on the traditional culture built upon feudalism, social oppression and patriarchy was the only way out for the country's future. Angry and oppressed peasants released their anger fully on the landlord and "rich peasant" class.

This movement was too radical and lots artifacts with significant historical value were destroyed. But everything has two sides. The movement, after all, liberated many Chinese from the feudal ideology and backward social structure.

That may be a disaster for the backward cultural traditions, but it also clears the way for the new culture to be created and the reborn of the good old ones. Once the "traditions" were broken down into atoms, they got decodified by society. Since 1976, many newly "discovered" traditions were liberated from dogma and formalism, given new values/meanings, reentering the stage of developing rather than stagnating, no longer standing in the way but accelerating modernization. Those are the traditions beneficial to the society, not "Confucius once said," "ancestor's law can't be changed," or "obeying your parents."

https://youtu.be/cYfTlpDvqMQ

Hey comrades, I had a question concerning literature in socialist countries. Are there any memorable works of fiction? Which would you recommend? I notice that there's an astonishingly low amount of mass media in socialist nations such as the USSR, Cuba or the DPRK. Or am I wrong and simply haven't looked hard enough?

>Maoist here; not trying to discredit socialism, just honestly curious

>>6315012
The text of this one is great (in the file name)