Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution

[More Fire for the People]

I'm in need of a reliable source on the Great Leap Forward and the Chinese Cultural Revolution that lists the progressive or "good" aspects of both of these. Any help you all could provide would be great. Thanks mates. ;)

[Janus]

Can you read simplified Chinese? I know of some good sources on these topics but they're in Chinese.

Here are some English sources that I dug up.

Mao's Crusade : Politics and Policy Implementation in China's Great Leap Forward

CHINA'S CULTURAL REVOLUTION, 1966-1969: Not a Dinner Party.

Mao's China and After : A History of the People's Republic

THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD: IMPACT AND CONSEQUENCES (http://www.mindground.net/glp.html)

Hope this helps.

[Ian]

Is it hard to learn to read simplified chinese, I'm thinking about doing it next semester

[Janus]

Is it hard to learn to read simplified chinese
Reading it? It's a little bit easier than reading traditional Chinese as words have less signs. However, the written form of Chinese is the hardest part as it doesn't correlate to the spoken form. That is, you can't tell how to pronounce a character or its definition by simply looking at it as you can in English.

Speaking it is easier. However, pronounciation is key as there are 4 different intonations in Mandarin and 7 different intonations in Cantonese. Therefore, even speaking it is quite difficult.

[Ian]

I've heard that in principle it's not difficult to learn to read chinese, just hard to remember the characters, it is sort of appealing because I'm thinking of majoring in Chinese Studies.

[Janus]

I've heard that in principle it's not difficult to learn to read chinese, just hard to remember the characters
That's what reading it is all about. You have to memorize the characters and their meanings in order to understand it. Beginners now start out with pinyin though.