page_title: Red Guards
hierarchical_section_title: Red Guards
caption_attribution_description: 中文（台灣）‎: 文化大革命時期，在中華人民共和國上海市復旦大學，由紅衛兵製作的政治宣傳口號。…神，（復旦大學）中文系用鮮血和生命保衛黨中央！用鮮血和生命保衛毛主席！中文（中国大陆）‎: 文化大革命时期，在中华人民共和国上海市复旦大学，由红卫兵制作的政治宣传口号。…神，（复旦大学）中文系用鲜血和生命保卫党中央！用鲜血和生命保卫毛主席！English: During the Cultural Revolution, a political slogan by Red Guards on the campus of Fudan University, Shanghai, China....God, Department of Chinese language and Literature (of Fudan University).Defend Central Committee with (our) blood and life!Defend Chairman Mao with (our) blood and life!
context_page_description: Red Guards was a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted. According to a Red Guard leader, the movement's aims were as follows:
  Chairman Mao has defined our future as an armed revolutionary youth organization.... So if Chairman Mao is our Red-Commander-in-Chief and we are his Red Guards, who can stop us? First we will make China Maoist from inside out and then we will help the working people of other countries make the world red...and then the whole universe.
  Despite being met with resistance early on, the Red Guards received personal support from Mao, and the movement rapidly grew. The movement in Beijing culminated during the "Red August" of 1966, which later spread to other areas in mainland China. Mao made use of the group as propaganda and to accomplish goals such as seizing power and destroying symbols of China's pre-communist past, including ancient artifacts and gravesites of notable Chinese figures.
context_section_description: Red Guards (simplified Chinese: 红卫兵; traditional Chinese: 紅衛兵; pinyin: Hóng Wèibīng) was a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted. According to a Red Guard leader, the movement's aims were as follows:
  Chairman Mao has defined our future as an armed revolutionary youth organization.... So if Chairman Mao is our Red-Commander-in-Chief and we are his Red Guards, who can stop us? First we will make China Maoist from inside out and then we will help the working people of other countries make the world red...and then the whole universe.
  Despite being met with resistance early on, the Red Guards received personal support from Mao, and the movement rapidly grew. The movement in Beijing culminated during the "Red August" of 1966, which later spread to other areas in mainland China. Mao made use of the group as propaganda and to accomplish goals such as seizing power and destroying symbols of China's pre-communist past ("Four Olds"), including ancient artifacts and gravesites of notable Chinese figures. Moreover, the government was very permissive of the Red Guards, and even allowed the Red Guards to inflict bodily harm on people viewed as dissidents. The movement quickly grew out of control, frequently coming into conflict with authority and threatening public security until the government made efforts to rein the youths in. The Red Guard groups also suffered from in-fighting as factions developed among them. By the end of 1968, the group as a formal movement had dissolved.
caption: Political slogan by Red Guards on the campus of Fudan University, Shanghai, China says "Defend Central Committee with (our) blood and life! Defend Chairman Mao with (our) blood and life!"
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