The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (Simplified Chinese: 无产阶级文化大革命, Traditional Chinese: 無產階級文化大革命, Pinyin: Wúchǎn Jiējí Wénhuà Dà Gémìng, literally: Proletarian Cultural Great Revolution); shortened in Chinese as 文化大革命 or 文革, also known simply as the Cultural Revolution, was a time of large cultural change in China, started by Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Communist Party of China. It happened from 1966 to 1976.