Cultural Revolution

American  

noun

1. a radical sociopolitical movement in China c1966–71, led by Mao Zedong and characterized by military rule, terrorism, purges, restructuring of the educational system, etc.

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Cultural Revolution British  

noun

1. Also called: Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.  (in China) a mass movement (1965–68), in which the youthful Red Guard played a prominent part. It was initiated by Mao Tse-tung to destroy the power of the bureaucrats and to revolutionize the attitudes and behaviour of the people

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Etymology

Origin of Cultural Revolution

Translation of Chinese wénhuà gémìng

Example Sentences

He entered a much more flexible job market in 1999 after a decade of reforms following the Cultural Revolution.

From Barron's • Jan. 9, 2026

One such plenum took place during Mao Zedong’s 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, while another occurred in the early post-Mao years, when the party was sidelining Maoist ideologues and reorienting itself toward economic development.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 23, 2025

Following the violent chaos of the Cultural Revolution, there was "a disbelief among many Americans - how could the Chinese be living in angry isolation?"

From BBC • Dec. 30, 2024

Chao plays the present-day Ye Wenjie, an astrophysicist whose experiences during the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the 1960s have shaped her views of humanity.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 25, 2024

With the start of the Cultural Revolution all the stamp shops were closed down, because stamp collecting was considered bourgeois.

From "Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution" by Ji-li Jiang