This meant that there was less for peasants to eat, and as a result, between 1959 and 1962, 20 million people died, probably half of whom were under the age of 10. Geez, Thought Bubble, that was sad. And then in happier news came the Cultural Revolution. Just kidding, it sucked. By the middle of the 60s, Mao was afraid that China's revolution was running out of steam, and he didn't want China to end up just a bureaucratized police state like, you know, most of the Soviet bloc. And the Cultural Revolution was an attempt to capture the glory days of the revolution and fire up the masses. And what better way to do that than to empower the kids?