Down to the Countryside Movement

The Down to the Countryside Movement was a government plan in China in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  During the Cultural Revolution, anti-bourgeois thinking was very common. Mao Zedong said that richer youth from the cities would be sent to mountains or farming villages so they could learn from the workers and farmers there.

Many fresh high school graduates were forced out of the cities. They had to stay in far away areas of China. They became known as the Rusticated Youth of China Many of them lost the chance to go university. Some call them China's "lost generation." Famous authors who have written about their experiences during the movement include Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, Jiang Rong and Zhang Chengzhi, both of whom went to Inner Mongolia.

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Category:History of the People's Republic of China