Question

The Cultural Revolution ended by the early 1970s. In which two ways did it cause devastation in China?

Answer 1

A.) Ancient cultural artifacts and historical buildings were destroyed.

I think...

Answer 2

The correct choices for devastation caused by the Cultural Revolution:

Ancient cultural artifacts and historical buildings were destroyed.  

The education of millions of youth in China was interrupted.

Mao Zedong began the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (its official name) in 1966.  A big part of the program was the closing of China's schools, because Mao saw the majority of educators as bourgeois types who were failing to support the communist revolution.  The Cultural Revolution was an insistence on loyalty to communist party ideology.  

The Red Guard was formed, which was made up of high school and college students (no longer attending school, since schools were shut down).  These radicalized students became militants for Mao over against those whom he considered not revolutionary enough.  The Red Guard destroyed historical artifacts and writings of the of China's former culture.  They also attacked persons who were seen to be resisting Chariman Mao's permanent revolution.

The Little Red Book (as it was called) of Quotations from Chairman Mao was originally published in 1964, prior to the launch of the Cultural Revolution. And the Little Red Book didn't produce devastation.  Similarly, posters of Mao plastered everywhere didn't cause devastation.  It was the attack on education and antiquities pursued by the Cultural Revolution that devastated China's historical heritage and intellectual depth.