Though I had read accounts of the Cultural Revolution while it was occurring, I really didn't appreciate the disaster it was until the early 1980's. One evening in Washington, DC, a long-time Chinese friend introduced me to a newly arrived Chinese "student," one of the first allowed to study in the U.S. after normalization. This student was probably around sixty years of age and was simply a career academic. Over dinner, I somewhat casually mentioned the Cultural Revolution, but wasn't prepared for the response. He immediately teared up and had difficulty talking, but I did learn that he and his family has suffered terribly, simply because he was a career academic. A couple years later, I had occasion to spend time with the son of a high ranking cadre and mayor of a major Chinese city who related to me how he and his wife had been banished to the countryside to herd sheep and be "reeducated"and how his wife had finally committed suicide by drinking pesticide. Because of those, and other such incidents, I became aware that most in the West never really appreciated the sheer terror of the Cultural Revolution, simply because its so unfathomable to the West. Ji Xianlin's "The Cowshed, Memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution." vividly brings home the savagery of the ten years between 1966-1976.
Ji was a peasant by birth who had been basically "given" to an uncle who ensured he would be educated. While having disdain for Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang government, Ji was essentially apolitical. He was a true intellectual. For ten years he lived in Germany, away from his wife and family, during the period of World War II, where he marveled at the cult that developed around Adolph Hitler, assuming that could never happen in China. It was ironic though, that years later, Ji himself became part of the cult around Mao Zedong, attending the large rallies, shouting Mao's slogans and embracing the Communist cause, even becoming a member of the Chinese Communist Party. Then the Cultural Revolution erupted and the Red Guards (Hongweibing) began their terrible reign of terror, urged on by Jiang Qing, Mao's wife and member of the infamous Gang of Four, as well as Peking University professor, Nie Yuanzi, derisively referred to by Ji as the "Empress Dowager," in reference to a despicable character in Chinese history. Ji was initially (somewhat) supportive of the Cultural Revolution, but at one point, he was critical of Nie, resulting in his being targeted by her New Beida faction of the Reg Guards. Ji even joined the Jinggangshan Red Guard faction as a means of protection against New Beida reprisals, but that failed. He was visited by Red Guards, priceless artifacts destroyed and his personal papers and past writings reviewed. This resulted in Ji being taken before large groups of students where he was beaten, spit upon and subjected to having to stand in the "airplane position." Later, he was assigned to The Cowshed on the campus of Peking University, but only after surviving harsh treatments on the countryside, etc. At one point, Ji was even prepared to commit suicide, but the Red Guards arrived to take him away for another session. Finally, Ji determined that he would survive the Red Guards and the Cultural Revolution, a story of personal courage and perseverance. At times Ji interjected rather caustic humor in his observations, i.e. he noted that to his knowledge the airplane position had never been patented and how some students calligraphy had actually improved by their writing the large posters where he and other intellectuals were denounced. But that humor does not take away from the vivid account of the savagery of his treatment from the Red Guards.
Ji seemed to be at something of a loss as to how the Cultural Revolution occurred. But he did not discount the prospects of another Cultural Revolution occurring in the future, mainly because China's government has largely repressed any airing of that decade of Chinese history. Indeed, some may argue the current repressive government in China, where even the slightest hint of dissent is considered intolerable, there is a current Cultural Revolution ongoing, though in a different form.
This is a highly readable and important contribution to the history of the People's Republic of China and the repressiveness of the current government, that is neither the peoples or a republic, but instead, an intolerant police state.
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Amazon Customer
A book showing the strength of the human spirit in the face of horrifying adversity
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 28, 2016
Vigilantius
Harrowing account of a thuggish era under brutal Mao
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 24, 2016