Mao Zedong's Educational Thoughts and China's Undergraduate Curriculum Reform : Focus on the Period of the Cultural Revolution

The 10-year Cultural Revolution brought about great changes in China's higher education. Mao Zedong's talks and speeches about education were taken as principles and guidelines for the educational reform. This paper examines how Mao Zedong's educational thoughts influence China's undergraduate curriculum reform during the Cultural Revolution period. It first introduces Mao Zedong's basic educational ideas such as "all-round development" and "unity of theory and practice", and then examines his representative educational thoughts during the cultural revolution, like May 7 directive and July 21 Directive. Then, it examines what changes occurred in the Chinese higher education system, teachers and students, and undergraduate curriculum under the guide of Mao's educational thoughts