In order to effectively argue the success or failure of the Chinese Cultural Revolution which began in the early 1960"s and endured until the death of Mao Tse-tung, one must travel into the past when the cultural arena of China altered drastically from its ancient agrarian system to one of modernity and acceptance by most of the other Westernized nations. However, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, at least in the eyes of the West, was a dismal failure, due to its adherence to communist principles and its inability to transcend the needs of the majority at the expense of the needs of the individual, meaning that the cultural revolution failed to grasp the ideals of freedom and democracy as they are practiced in the West where such ideals are held in very high esteem and serve as the basis for individuality and personal freedom. .

             With a recorded history of nearly four thousand years, Chinese civilization is one of the oldest and until modern times its development had been highly indigenous, due in part to the independent spirit of the Chinese people and China"s isolation from the other great civilizations. Yet with the beginning of the so-called "Age of Discovery," being the time in which China was visited by European explorers in the 16th century, the country began to shift from an ancient state into one of the most modern nations on earth. .

             This event and a whole collection of others were nothing less than epochal for China and its people, for they broke her age-old isolationist policies and began the long-held contact with the West which though weak and faltering at first was to expand to such force in the 19th century as to create a head-on collision between China and the West. Moreover, when viewed in the context of China"s domestic and cultural development, the arrival of the Europeans takes on added importance, for it coincided with the rise of the Manchus and the establishment of the alien Ch"ing dynasty.