The Cultural Revolution was a movement that lasted a decade from 1966-1976 led by Chairman Mao Zedong of China in order to regain authority of the communist party (CCP) as he felt as if the current leaders were going in the wrong direction, favoring more capitalistic and western ideas. In addition, Mao’s ideology, in regards to a social context, was to mitigate the class differences between the proletariat and the bourgeois (whom he believed to be a part of the capitalistic ideals that was holding China back) by mobilizing and significantly influencing/ empowering the proletarian class to have effective control and eliminate the bourgeois and bourgeoisie attitudes and behaviors. Mao’s ideology quickly caught on with Chinese youth as he tailored his ideas to speak to them; they soon became the driving force of spreading the ideals and enforcement and making sure people followed Maoism (as they believed it to be for the good of China as a whole), and purging/ beating people who didn’t conform to Mao endorsed proletarian belief. In a social context, many schools past the elementary schools were closed, which then led Maoism to be extremely popular with Chinese youth, allowing them to become Red Guards. Red Guards were endorsed by Chairman Mao to which they were key enforcers of pushing his ideas. They would frequently tackle and assess professors, politicians, opponents of Maoism, and suspects of having any bourgeoisie items or anything remotely Western, and not conforming to Mao’s society. They would beat them, persecute them, or kill them if they were not conforming to society’s standards of Maoism, as they believed that they were harming the country of China as a whole. In addition, they were also in charge of removing China’s traditional history as Mao believed it  “ as a tool of the bourgeoisie class to subjugate the proletariat. Removing old customs, culture, habits, beliefs, and replacing them with new Mao centered beliefs was their primary goal.  In this period, many books, paintings, architecture, temples, religious artifacts were collected and burned while increasing pressure from Mao advocated/forced those to follow the doctrine that Mao outlined for the “betterment of China” or be labeled as a counter-revolutionary which very much meant being jailed or killed. Widespread massacres and household ransacking by the Red Guard were common in the process of purging “old society” with the Red August Massacres in Beijing as a prominent example.  Over 1000 people were killed by the Red Guard in their quest to purge old society, citing propaganda of laying down their lives to uphold Maoism. At the end of the Cultural Revolution, it is estimated that between 1 million to 20 million died.

As it relates to perception and aesthetics, these effects and results that stemmed from the advocation of widespread collectivism and conformity help shift the perception of collectivism from its inherently good-sounding theoretical version. While people working collectively to uphold the good of society sounds and is a noble gesture when collectivism is bolstered through the wrong leader or exacerbated to an extremist point (purging society of "for the betterment of society") it has the ability to bring about death, suffering, and overall destruction of society in at least some elements. This realization is ironic from what collectivism initially sets out to do.

Phillips, T. (2016, May 11). The Cultural Revolution: All you need to know about China's political convulsion. Retrieved October 12, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/11/the-cultural-revolution-50...

Phillips, T. (2016, May 13). 'What mistake did we make?' Victims of Cultural Revolution seek answers, 50 years on. Retrieved October 12, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/13/victims-cultural-revolutio...