The first blog entry

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (Simplified Chinese: 无产阶级文化大革命; Traditional Chinese: 無產階級文化大革命; Hanyu Pinyin: Wúchǎn Jiējí Wénhuà Dà Gémìng; literally "Proletarian Cultural Great Revolution"; often abbreviated to 文化大革命 wénhuà dà gémìng, literally "Great Cultural Revolution", or even simpler, to 文革 wéngé, "Cultural Revolution") was a period of social chaos and political anarchy in the People's Republic of China which greatly affected every part of the country and the livelihood of the people, in addition to altering the country's moral, historical, and social perceptions in their entirety.

It was launched by Communist Party of China Chairman Mao Zedong on May 16, 1966, officially as a campaign to rid China of its "liberal bourgeoisie" elements and to continue revolutionary class struggle. It is widely recognized, however, as a method to regain control of the party after the disastrous Great Leap Forward led to a significant loss of Mao's power to rivals Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, and would eventually manifest into waves of power struggles between rival factions both nationally and locally.

Although Mao himself officially declared the Cultural Revolution to have ended in 1969, the term is today widely used to also include the period between 1969 and the arrest of the Gang of Four in 1976.