Due to the fail of the “Great Leap Forward”, no one followed Mao’s strict socialist ideas anymore. Farmers would live in their own home and sell crops, and factory workers would fight for promotion to get more money. In 1966 Mao decided to revive the revolution by having China’s young people to help him. What this means is that he told all highschool and college students (all who doesn’t remember the famine cuz they only drank milk) to “learn revolution by making revolution.” The students then left their classrooms and formed militia units called Red Guards. What they did was brainwashing all to think that being a peasant was equivalent to be being a hero; and that being intelligent, artistic, and such was devilish. To force people to be dumb, the Red Guards shutdowns schools. Whoever they thought was smart, had to work extra hard in the farm to be dumbified. By 1968, there was a shortage of food, and many factories closed up. Mao himself said this had to stop, so Zhou Enlai, one of the Chinese communist founders from 1949, took over.
