In this episode we discuss the Socialist Education Movement (SEM), a campaign conducted in the Chinese countryside from 1962-1966 in order to restore socialist values and purge pernicious 'capitalist tendencies' that had reemerged after the Great Leap Forward. The period 1962 to 1965 generally saw Mao attempt to regain control over the cultural and ideological spheres in both the countryside and the cities, but ultimately these attempts failed to make a lasting impact. They were likely instrumental in encouraging Mao to stop relying on the Party cadres and intellectuals to continue as the vanguard of the revolution, and instead launch the Cultural Revolution to reinvigorate socialism in China and boost the prestige of his own cult of personality.

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