Update: Here is what we have so far on storybubble for this article.
Feel free to help out
http://www.storybubble.com/mobile/Article/ReadStory.aspx?SID=11&FromUID=106
RousseauX, the answer to your question about how China would not have become a super power is discussed in this article. Your idea about how China's markets were slowed down was shared by someone else and I ended up voting for that version instead of my own because the logic made good sense.
What if the Cultural Revolution Never Happened?
Summary
The effects of the Cultural Revolution are still impacting China today. This is a collaborative effort that invites all perspectives in order to create a more accurate result. This Alternative History focuses on the people, the economy, the education and less on the political-military aspects. After our collaboration is complete we will post the finished work back to the thread.
Participants
Lefty, Lola, Jane and Steve Trevorson (published article on February 07, 2012)
Chapter 1 - The Economy
Part 1
Without the CR, the Chinese economy would be much worse off today. The problem with western policy making is that it takes so long. In China, this was not the case. They didn’t consider the best interests of the people, but of the nation. And its people supported that notion. This is also due to the one-party political system. There are no popular votes that need to be obtained, no safety standards that needs to adhered to. Everything is done in the name of national progress.
Part 1 Comments
Jane
Lol, the chinese goverment acknowledged the damage CR caused. The political system is much open and tranparent than before although it still has a long way to go
12 hours ago
Lefty
I do, however, agree with her conclusion.
18 hours ago
Lefty
If they read Jane's version in China---they may not let her back in!!!
Part 2
(Voted into story by Steve) [Jane:] Without CR, people would have pursued normal socialvalues, which is to improve their own economic status, rather than honoringpoverty. Because of the CR, China missed the opportunity to build a robusteconomy. (many countries developed their economies quickly after wars)Therefore, without CR, the chinese economy would have developed better and theeconomic gap between China and western world would be smaller.
Part 2 Comments
Steve Trevorson
Jane, I voted for your version because it considers the cost of what 'didn't happen' during the course of the CR. I was looking at it a little differently, but I also agree with this approach.
7 hours ago
Chapter 2 - Education and Arts
Part 1
Education (Voted into story by Steve) [Jane:] and arts were abig mess during CR. Schools was closed due to political fighting. All of the teachers, professors, experts were required to cleanse their "capitalism ideology". Young red guards could denounce and beat them in public. Many of them were tormented physically and mentally to disability or even death. The impact of CR on education had caused a sharp decline in the quality of education. The criteria of school admission depended on your family background (working/peasant classes) rather than academic achievement/motivation. It is estimated that during the decade of CR, the country had missed the opportunities to cultivate 100,000 graduate level students and 100 million undergraduates, which had caused a negative impact on the economy, society in a long-run.
Part 2
Art also had to tow the party line. Paintings, poems, music during the CR all had to reflect the sentiment of the communist rhetoric. This resulted in mainstream, non-provocative art. Not much to speak of. I feel this could be why in China, copying other’s work is not considered a bad thing, but a compliment. Firstly, the value of an individual’s work is not placed very high, so it doesn’t seem like a crime. Secondly, the communist party has told its people to do what their leaders do and they will be rewarded. So copying is a result of that attitude.
Part 3
Without the CR, independent thinking would have been valued much higher. Innovation that challenged the status quo would have been rewarded. There would have been the music and art, according to this alternate history, would have influenced other parts of the world. Also there would be laws protecting the works of individual’s creativity and innovation. Without the CR, I think that piracy issues in China would be non-existent today.
Chapter 3 - Nationalism and the treatment of fellow man
Part 1
The CR used all media platforms to propagate the love for the country. People united around a common goal, communism, and the fight against the west. Natural or brainwashed, it was a real feeling. Without the CR, China would be more like India today. It would be less unified in many ways. National highways would not have been built for decades later. Language would not have been standardized (maybe ever?). These 2 factors would have kept China more factionalized like small islands rather than one nation with a common set of values.
(A different version of the part above has been proposed by Jane, but has not been voted into the story)
Part 2
Cultural Revolution taught people to only trust their country, not their neighbors. It also killed off thousands of religious leaders, seen as threats to the communist belief system. People were rewarded for telling on a neighbor who had a little too much rice, even though it meant that neighbor may disappear forever. Today, there are many instances in China where people are dying in the street from an accident, and no one helps. As a remnant of the CR, little social moray remains which relates to the westerner’s “golden rule”. Without the CR, China would have had religions or other belief systems to instill values such as these.