- Much of the cultural damage came from the abolition of the "four olds", specifically a lot of old books, paintings, and art in general. - Additionally, many

- Much of the cultural damage came from the abolition of the "four olds", specifically a lot of old books, paintings, and art in general. - Additionally, many religious artifacts (statues, murals, temples) were affected (vandalized to completely destroyed). Most of these being classified as backwards superstition artifacts. - This also extended to banning of religious customs (holidays, festivals, practices) and modifying aspects of language (e.g. honorifics and Confucian terms were largely removed from the language, with many only living on today in Cantonese or other languages like Japanese or Korean). The actual impacts were a mixed bag though. A lot of the movement centered around destroying core parts of Chinese cultural heritage in favor of adopting progressive western ideas. Many irreplaceable historic artifacts and buildings were forever destroyed, leading to, ironically, a lot of the preserved stuff being what was plundered by the British or moved to Taiwan as part of the Nationalist retreat. On the other hand, the wholesale denouncing of traditional values in favor of progressivism also had positive aspects, like furthering gender equality (the abolition of many traditional sexist practices) and breaking down the traditional rigid structures of power in the family, giving more agency to younger generations (e.g. freedom of choosing marriage partners). Finally, one must also not forget that Taiwan also does not capture a particularly "pure" lineage of Chinese culture either. The long Japanese occupation (that only ended after WWII) also came with a concerted effort by the Japanese to assimilate Taiwan (such as forbidding education of the Chinese language). Compared to the occupation of the mainland which focused more on feeding the war effort, Taiwan was treated as a permanent possession which meant the assimilation efforts were much more thoroughly executed.