East and Southeast Asia · Empire
1949-1992 CE · China
The Chinese Communist Party founded the People's Republic in 1949. Mass campaigns followed, including the Great Leap Forward, whose famine killed tens of millions, and the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76. After Mao's death, reforms led by Deng Xiaoping from 1978 opened the economy to markets and foreign investment.
Collective farms and communes, steel furnaces in villages, mass rallies and posters, then special economic zones, factories and rapidly growing coastal cities.
Agent citation
CIT-ESA-BRITANNICA-GREAT-LEAPCIT-ESA-BRITANNICA-CULTURAL-REVOLUTIONCIT-ESA-BRITANNICA-DENG
Setting and material context · 3 registered source URLs · registration is not semantic proof · audit HEM-AUDIT-20260812
Rural households were organized into communes; urban youth were 'sent down' to the countryside; after reform, decollectivized farming and migration to cities transformed family life.
Agent citation
CIT-ESA-BRITANNICA-GREAT-LEAPCIT-ESA-BRITANNICA-CULTURAL-REVOLUTIONCIT-ESA-BRITANNICA-DENG
Lifeways and community · 3 registered source URLs · registration is not semantic proof · audit HEM-AUDIT-20260812
Planned industry and collective agriculture gave way to the household responsibility system, township enterprises and export manufacturing.
Agent citation
CIT-ESA-BRITANNICA-GREAT-LEAPCIT-ESA-BRITANNICA-CULTURAL-REVOLUTIONCIT-ESA-BRITANNICA-DENG
Work, tools and exchange · 3 registered source URLs · registration is not semantic proof · audit HEM-AUDIT-20260812
Religious practice was restricted and, during the Cultural Revolution, temples, churches and mosques were attacked; limited religious activity revived after 1978 under state control.
Agent citation
CIT-ESA-BRITANNICA-GREAT-LEAPCIT-ESA-BRITANNICA-CULTURAL-REVOLUTIONCIT-ESA-BRITANNICA-DENG
Belief, ritual and evidence limits · 3 registered source URLs · registration is not semantic proof · audit HEM-AUDIT-20260812
Historical geography
The local map uses modern coastlines only for orientation. The marker identifies this record's geographic anchor, not the full reach of a community or polity.
Map geometry loads only when requested. Modern outlines are orientation only; historical geography and identities changed through time.
Agent citation
CIT-ESA-BRITANNICA-GREAT-LEAPCIT-ESA-BRITANNICA-CULTURAL-REVOLUTIONCIT-ESA-BRITANNICA-DENG
Historical-geography anchor and stated limits · 3 registered source URLs · registration is not semantic proof · audit HEM-AUDIT-20260812
Evidence register
Each registered source ID is paired with its institutional URL for independent checking. Source count is transparent, and duplicate URLs count only once.
CIT-ESA-BRITANNICA-GREAT-LEAP
https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Leap-Forward
Encyclopaedia Britannica
CIT-ESA-BRITANNICA-CULTURAL-REVOLUTION
https://www.britannica.com/event/Cultural-Revolution
Encyclopaedia Britannica
CIT-ESA-BRITANNICA-DENG
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Deng-Xiaoping
Encyclopaedia Britannica