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AllAfrica
6 days ago
- Politics
- AllAfrica
Learning from Mao's ‘nightmare' youth revolution in China
In the 1960s and 70s, the youth of the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia rebelled by protesting against the Vietnam War, trying psychedelic drugs, embracing free love and discovering the Beatles. Meanwhile, what their contemporaries in China were getting up to was just as transformative. The key difference, as Linda Jaivin's book shows, is that the young Chinese rebels' actions had profoundly destructive consequences – and their senseless behavior was masterminded by their 'great leader,' Mao Zedong. Review: Bombard the Headquarters! The Cultural Revolution in China – Linda Jaivin (Black Inc.) Bombard the Headquarters! is a compelling but disturbing account of what happened in China during the Cultural Revolution. In just over 100 pages, alternating between broad brush strokes and a fine-grained touch, Jaivin's book takes the reader on a tumultuous journey through the political upheavals in China from 1966 to 1976. She is a consummate storyteller. This, when combined with an intimate knowledge of Chinese language and a solid grounding in existing scholarship on China, equips her well for the mammoth challenge of making sense of the most indelible national trauma of 20th-century China. The book starts with the years 1949–66, giving readers a taste of how Mao, motivated by political neurosis, set out to foment a new revolution. Having established the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, he became increasingly worried about the 'capitalist, feudalist and revisionist' elements he believed had infiltrated the PRC government and Chinese society. He wanted to ensure China did not stray from its socialist values. But he also wanted to remove his detractors from the Party ranks and reassert his authority. So he encouraged Chinese youth to take part in the struggle against the 'capitalists' and 'bourgeois.' This led to the emergence, in 1966, of a number of cultural and social features that later came to be uniquely associated with the Cultural Revolution. One was the Red Guard. Primarily high school and university students, these militant young people played a key role in carrying out Mao's mission to eliminate the perceived enemies of socialism and uphold proletarian ideology of class struggle, anti-intellectualism and the need for permanent revolution. The Red Guards attacked intellectuals, destroyed cultural artefacts and persecuted 'counter-revolutionaries' who held 'bourgeois' values such as individualism and cultural elitism. The Red Guards, workers and other rebel groups were prolific producers of dazibao , or 'big-character posters.' These posters were often written to denounce teachers, officials or anyone seen as opposing Mao Zedong's revolutionary ideals. Another social phenomenon was chuanlian : the widespread travel of Red Guards across China to exchange revolutionary ideas and spread Maoist propaganda. Endorsed by Mao himself, millions of young people used free train passes and government support to visit Red Guard groups in other major cities. Chuanlian led to widespread disorder, the disruption of transport systems and the escalation of violent confrontations between rival Red Guard factions. The years 1967–69 witnessed the most violent and chaotic phase of the Cultural Revolution. The movement spread from universities and the cultural realm to factories, rural areas and the public service sector in local governments. Jaivin takes readers to Shanghai, Wuhan, Inner Mongolia – and then back to the campus of Tsinghua University in Beijing. We learn that public humiliation, beatings, torture and forced confessions were common. Many people were imprisoned without trial, or were even driven to suicide. Violent clashes also occurred between rival Red Guard factions and later between civilians and the military, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of people. The following period, 1970–76, saw a number of transformative events, including the deaths of Premier Zhou Enlai in January 1976 and then Mao in September. In 1971, Lin Biao suddenly exited the Chinese leadership. A close ally of Mao during the early years, Lin later rose to become his designated successor. In 1971, however, Mao grew suspicious of Lin's ambition. Lin fell from power under mysterious circumstances, after allegedly plotting a coup. He died in a plane crash in Mongolia while reportedly fleeing China, and the Chinese government later denounced him as a traitor. Another turning point involved a curious encounter between some Chinese and American ping-pong players in 1971. This encounter led to the well-known ping-pong diplomacy that eventuated in the normalization of US–China relations, as marked by President Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972. In 1976, the Tangshan Earthquake, considered one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history, killed half of that city. Like a scriptwriter for an epic historical film with an innate sense of the dramatic, Jaivin conjures up these historical moments. The Cultural Revolution officially ended with the 1976 arrest of the 'Gang of Four.' This is a group of four political figures – one of them Jiang Qing, Mao's wife – who were closely aligned with Mao and played a key role in promoting his ultra-leftist radical politics. It has cast a long shadow. In the final pages of the book, Jaivin offers her summary of the Cultural Revolution this way: It was supposed to imbue the nation with such a strong ethos of egalitarianism and self-sacrifice that corruption, bureaucratism and 'bourgeois tendencies' would forever be banished from China. Instead, it has become a cautionary tale that cannot be told, a radioactive memory and a source of multi-generational trauma. And her assessment of Mao, the instigator of the Cultural Revolution, is equally concise: A complex, contradictory and often cantankerous figure, larger than life and all too human in his flaws, Mao was capable of the grandest revolutionary visions but also the pettiest manipulations. He was both an inspirational leader and a remorseless tyrant. One benchmark for the success of a short book on a 'devilishly complex' topic is whether readers are left wanting to know more. Measured against this benchmark, Jaivin has certainly succeeded. For this reader, the book provokes many questions. What was the psychology behind the mass hysteria of the Red Guards, and what led them to commit acts of violence that call to mind what Hannah Arendt dubbed 'the banality of evil'? What lessons can we learn about the dangers of personality cults and the worship of authoritarian dictators – which, in the case of Mao and numerous others throughout history, has enabled a single strong man (most often it is a man) to consolidate authority, suppress opposition and legitimise his dominance for many years? Another benchmark for the success of a book dealing with collective traumas with lasting impacts is whether readers can still enjoy reading the book, without being overwhelmed by its seriousness. Jaivin by no means makes light of the massive scale of violence, death and human suffering inflicted by the Cultural Revolution. But she approaches her topic as an epic tale featuring Mao as the central figure, with a big cast of characters including party leaders, the Gang of Four, the Red Guards and rebels and prominent victims. The human drama of the power struggles and power plays involving these characters is gripping and disturbing in equal measure. Jaivin has a gift for keeping her readers engaged. The book will appeal to a number of different readerships. For those in the Chinese diaspora who experienced the Cultural Revolution firsthand, it is a chance to relive the nightmare, but in the comfort of knowing it is now firmly in the past – as long we remain alert to the risk of history repeating itself. For non-Chinese readers, Jaivin's narrative flair and sense of drama give new life to what is almost certainly the sorriest period in recent Chinese history. Wanning Sun is a professor of media and cultural studies, University of Technology Sydney. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Irish Times
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Old Kiln by Jia Pingwa: An unforgettable masterpiece depicting rural China during the Cultural Revolution
Old Kiln Author : Jia Pingwa, translated by James Trapp, Olivia Milburn and Christopher Payne ISBN-13 : 978-1838905262 Publisher : Sinoist Books Guideline Price : £19.99 Jia Pingwa is one of the most respected and widely read writers in China . He is particularly associated with realist writing about rural communities in his home province of Shaanxi. Though several of his novels have been translated into English, he has not yet had the major breakthrough he deserves. Old Kiln adds to the growing list of contemporary Chinese fiction that explores Mao Zedong's disastrous Cultural Revolution, including works by Yan Lianke, Zou Jingzhi and Zhang Xianliang. Jia Pingwa was a teenager during that period and writes with both the authority of direct experience and the benefit of perspective. The novel is set in the remote village of Old Kiln, known in years past for its excellence in porcelain, but now a poor backwater relying on subsistence communal farming. The story focuses on young Inkcap, who was found in a river and adopted. He lives with his Gran who is considered a 'class enemy' owing to Inkcap's grandfather's ties to the nationalist Kuomintang army. READ MORE Bash is a charismatic local tough who becomes the leader of a violent faction at the vanguard of the Cultural Revolution. He is central to the bloody internecine struggles between rival factions in the village. Contrasting with Bash is Goodman, the village's unofficial spiritual guide and healer, whose world view is steeped in Daoism and Buddhism rather than Maoist ideology. This long novel moves at the slow pace of village life; however, it is brimming with vibrant characters, ribald humour and memorable anecdotes. It offers precision writing that re-creates the experience of living among uneducated people who have become infantilised and bewildered by successive waves of ideological reform. The translation has been split between three talented translators, and it is to their immense credit that the novel retains such unity of style and coherence of tone, without losing any of the comedy and tenderness that makes it so human. Old Kiln is quietly epic in its patient but unforgettable depiction of life in rural China under the tyranny of the Cultural Revolution. It is unquestionably a masterpiece and ought to consolidate Jia Pingwa's reputation as a writer of international importance.
Spectator
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
Maoist China in microcosm: Old Kiln, by Jia Pingwa, reviewed
Old Kiln is a novel spoken by the muse of memory but carved into shape by the fear of forgetting. Jia Pingwa (b.1952) wrote the first draft in 2009 after visiting his home village. Remembering a prolonged bloody conflict that tore the village apart during the Cultural Revolution, he was disturbed to find all traces of it gone – and the younger generation knowing nothing about either the violence or the Cultural Revolution itself. Old Kiln also confronts a similar amnesia afflicting the entire country. The fictionalised village is China writ small – its kiln that fires porcelain providing the book's title. Jia is superb at marshalling large-scale scenes of chaos and balancing them with quieter interiors. The novel revolves around two characters: the impish orphan boy Inkcap and his grandmother Gran, doddering yet gifted at paper-cutting and all sorts of folk traditions. Although both are considered 'bad elements' in Mao's class categories, Gran's skills make her indispensable, while Inkcap cheerfully runs errands for everyone. This little flunky is a child savant, able to commune with animals and smell the scent of looming death or disaster. Unlike conventional protagonists, however, the duo are mostly tangential to major events, as the novel shifts its focus to other characters. Spring returns at the end of the book and the Cultural Revolution rages on. Leaders on both sides are publicly executed, among them Bash, the handsomest man in the village. His illegitimate child is born; Inkcap survives; and Gran, now completely deaf, remains the old wise woman. When Inkcap's New Year's lantern burns out, she tells him: 'If you have a lantern, you can light the road ahead, but you can still go walking without one.' Inkcap wants to go to school, thinking that with an education he might indeed go walking one day without a lantern. Jia is Inkcap, who has seen too much but has understood little; he's also Gran, 'who used her eyes to take in the world, looking at all kinds of people and pigs and cows and dogs'. With a schoolteacher father persecuted during the Cultural Revolution, Jia has known political injustice firsthand and allows the details to tell the story: smouldering anger over poverty and corruption, ignited by Mao's radicalised anti-establishment politics, bursts into flames of self-destructive violence. Hatred is unleashed and base instincts are stirred, setting neighbour against neighbour and fracturing the community. 'Revolution' often serves as a flimsy pretext for revenge and an opportunity to exploit chaos for power. Old Kiln is not an easy read. It refrains from appealing to emotional sympathy. Details build concrete scenes yet tend to defuse the drama. Still, the vivid imagery, spare prose and sinuous structure are rewarding, and its publication is a small miracle. It's hard to imagine that such a novel could be written, let alone published, in China today. Once an open wound that every writer wanted to tear at (giving rise to the genre of 'scar literature' in the early post-Mao era), the Cultural Revolution is a taboo subject under Xi Jinping. Thanks to the efforts of three highly capable translators, Old Kiln now has the chance of a new lease of life.
Time of India
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
SHINee's Onew Redefines K-Pop with Groundbreaking Album 'PERCENT'
SHINee Onew The K-Pop world just witnessed something absolutely insane! SHINee's Onew didn't just drop another album - he literally threw down the gauntlet and challenged the entire industry's soul. "PERCENT" isn't just music; it's a full-blown revolution disguised as an album that's making everyone question what K-Pop even means anymore. The Great Escape_ Breaking Free from the Idol Machine While most K-Pop artists are trapped in this endless cycle of glossy perfection and manufactured personas, Onew said "screw it" and decided to get real - like, uncomfortably real. This isn't your typical dance-heavy, auto-tuned extravaganza. Instead, Onew served us raw vulnerability on a silver platter, and frankly, the industry doesn't know how to handle it. Think about it - here's a guy who's been in the spotlight for over a decade, and instead of playing it safe, he's out here talking about being incomplete, embracing imperfection, and literally howling like an animal. The audacity is absolutely unmatched! Cultural Revolution_ Redefining What It Means to Be a K-Pop Star This album is basically Onew's middle finger to the entertainment industry's impossible standards. In a world where idols are expected to be perfect 24/7, smile constantly, and never show any real emotion, "PERCENT" is like a nuclear bomb of authenticity. The timing couldn't be more perfect. With mental health conversations finally gaining traction among young people, Onew's message of "it's okay to be incomplete" hits different. This isn't just about music anymore - it's about giving an entire generation permission to be human. Onew didn't just participate in songwriting; he basically bled his soul onto every track. That's the kind of artistic integrity that makes other artists sweat nervously. The experimental nature of tracks like "PERCENT (%)" shows that Korean artists are finally ready to push boundaries and challenge Western music dominance. The album features 11 tracks that read like an emotional autobiography - from "Silky" celebrating the art of being lazy (honestly, a whole mood), to "Caffeine" delivering that addictive rush we all know too well. "Marshmallow" captures those butterflies-in-your-stomach moments when you're falling hard for someone, while "Confidence" showcases Onew's inner strength.
LeMonde
15-07-2025
- Politics
- LeMonde
Xi: The father, the son and the party
In the spring of 1967, the Cultural Revolution was in full swing in China. At a reeducation center for families of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cadres, a denunciation session targeted "black" individuals − those labeled as "bad elements" under the Mao era. Six people were targeted that day: five adults and one teenager, the son of Xi Zhongxun (1913-2002), the former propaganda chief and vice-premier who had fallen victim to a brutal purge. The humiliating metal dunce cap he was forced to wear, since his father had been accused of disloyalty to Mao Zedong (1893-1976), was so heavy that the 13-year-old boy had to hold it up with his hands. Facing him, the assembly, fists raised, shouted "Down with Xi Jinping!" and his mother had no choice but to follow suit. The boy was soon sent to a juvenile reeducation center. He had only summer clothes with no lining and slept directly on the freezing floor when winter arrived. He was covered in lice and was sick, later confiding that he wondered if he would survive.
