Sent-Down Youth Movement

Policy and Scale

Between 1968 and 1980 approximately 16 million urban young people — the majority of the Red Guard generation — were ordered to leave cities for rural villages and border regions under Mao Zedong's directive to "receive re-education from the poor and lower-middle peasants." The policy served multiple purposes: defusing the dangerous energy of the Red Guards after factional fighting had destabilized cities, relieving urban unemployment, and ideologically tempering youth through physical labor.

Experience of the Sent-Down Youth

Conditions varied enormously. Some youth found meaning in rural service and formed lasting bonds with local communities. Many others suffered severe hardship: grueling agricultural labor, malnutrition, isolation from families, sexual exploitation of women, and denial of educational opportunities. Medical care was minimal in remote locations. Letters home were censored. Some young people remained in the countryside for over a decade, missing the formative years of their education.

Return and Generational Legacy

Following Mao's death and the Third Plenary Session of 1978, the policy was wound down and most sent-down youth were allowed to return to cities by the early 1980s. Many found they had missed the opportunity to receive a formal education and faced bleak employment prospects. This cohort — sometimes called China's "lost generation" — went on to play significant roles in the reform era. The experience shaped the pragmatic, market-oriented instincts of many who later became entrepreneurs, officials, and intellectuals during China's economic opening.