I was reading about the history of Go (from the perspective of innovations and tactics on the board) and found that there were a number of high-profile games played in China in the 50s and 60s. What confuses me is how Go was able to survive the cultural revolution, especially considering how it had been an aristocratic game, as well as one played by the Japanese.
Most knowledge (and most people) survived the Cultural Revolution. People wouldn't magically forget how to play poker even if you burned 80% of the card decks in America. A lot of architecture and artifacts were destroyed, but people didn't revert to the "dark ages" or something.
The Qin policy of burning all of the Confucian classics and burying all of the scholars did almost nothing to destroy that philosophical tradition. You can't burn an idea. Or the rules of a board game apparently.
Like Fahrenheit 451 pointed out, the best way to make people lose their culture is to just make them stop caring.