i heard people attribute that to Mao who explicitly encouraged the younger generation to challenge established authority (which was a way to turn and use them against the rest of the state and the Party power who became critical of Mao blaming him for the failures and disasters of the Great Leap Forward) as part of the Cultural Revolution.
The Cultural Revolution was highly anti intellectual. Academics and artists were imprisoned, or even killed. In 1956 Mao did start the Hundred Flowers Campaign, which encouraged criticizing the government. But that was followed in 1957 by a campaign targeting people who had the wrong opinions.
i heard people attribute that to Mao who explicitly encouraged the younger generation to challenge established authority (which was a way to turn and use them against the rest of the state and the Party power who became critical of Mao blaming him for the failures and disasters of the Great Leap Forward) as part of the Cultural Revolution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution#Red_Guards...
"At the Red Guard rallies, Lin Biao also called for the destruction of the "Four Olds"; namely, old customs, culture, habits, and ideas.".