Factories were run by three-in-one committees of workers, technicians and administrators; in hospitals the committees were made up of doctors, workers and patients' representatives; and so on. As Mao predicted, when the role the workers played in production was revolutionized, when they began to act as thinkers and administrators and not just as pairs of hands, and when everyone's thinking was further revolutionized, then production too was liberated.

Millions of educated youth went to take the Cultural Revolution to the countryside. Many stayed there permanently. City people who did not usually work with their hands also went for periods of time to work on the farms, to get to know the peasants and better understand their needs and to help transform their own outlook. Teaching was completely overhauled. Universities were set up in the countryside, so that teachers and students could learn from each other and from the people.

China's cultural activities - films, plays, opera, books - were a remnant from the old society. Chiang Ching came forward as a major Party leader in her own right. She made a particular contribution to the revolution in culture. Opera was extremely popular in China and yet still needed to be transformed. In a meeting with 5,000 representatives of opera companies from across the country, she provocatively asked whether they wanted to serve the interests of the common people or the handful of capitalist roaders who represented the persistence of the evils of the old society. "The grain we eat is grown by the peasants, the clothes we wear and the houses we live in were all made by the workers, and the People's Liberation Army stands guard at the fronts of national defense for us, and yet we do not portray them on the stage. May I ask which class stand you take?"