China and the Cultural Revolution and the weird stuff that survived:

Back when I was a kid, China was as closed off as North Korea is today. We heard the phrase "great Leap forward", but had only an inkling of the mass famine in the 50's. We heard about the Red Guard, but it is only occasionally that the true horror of that time emerges. I have to admit, I get my impression of those times largely through fiction.It may be that only fiction can convey the disaster as it struck individual persons and families.


So, here's my question:

China has gone through a real horror show since the fall of the Manchu dynasty. More than once, the Communist Party attempted to obliterate traditional ways of doing things. How is it then, that practices such as collecting bear bile and eating shark fin soup have survived?

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0425-09.htm

I mean, there were people rampaging around, killing teachers and burning books, musical instruments, paintings, etc. They even destroyed mummies in their attempt to wipe out the past

http://zbohy.zatma.org/Dharma/zbohy/chinese_text/platform/index.shtml

So how did the bear farms survive?

e.g. feudalism, gender oppression, illiteracy, etc. what a horror show that's been.

just like in any country in any time throughout history

a doctor from China though she does not practice in the US. She went to medical school and then specialized in Traditional Chinese Medicine (her siblings opted for specialties in Western medicine). TCM was all there was until the opening of the China to the West. According to her, the standard for medicine now is the Western version - surgery and pharmaceuticals. But TCM is highly regarded. I would imagine that the older people and those living in rural areas still rely on TCM.

I recall in a book I read about the Cultural Revolution that the doctors were replaced by uneducated people who tried to practice TCM. They were really after destroying the class of people - the intellectuals. Of course the ruling class had access to actual doctors.