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Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China's Cultural Revolution
A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEKAn indelible exploration of the Cultural Revolution and how it shapes China today, Red Memory uncovers forty years of silence through the rarely heard stories of individuals who lived through Mao's decade of madness.'Very good and very instructive.' MARGARET ATWOOD'Written with an almost painful beauty.' JONATHAN FREEDLAND'Took my breath away.' BARBARA DEMICK'Haunting.' OLIVER BURKEMAN'A masterpiece.' JULIA LOVELLA 13-year-old Red Guard revels in the great adventure, and struggles with her doubts. A silenced composer, facing death, determines to capture the turmoil. An idealistic student becomes the 'corpse master' . . .More than fifty years on, the Cultural Revolution's scar runs through the heart of Chinese society, and through the souls of its citizens. Stationed in Beijing for the Guardian, Tania Branigan came to realise that this brutal and turbulent decade continues to propel and shape China to this day. Yet official suppression and personal trauma have conspired in national it exists, for the most part, as an absence.Red Memory explores the stories of those who are driven to confront the era, fearing or yearning its return. What happens to a society when you can no longer trust those closest to you? What happens to the present when the past is buried, exploited or redrawn? And how do you live with yourself when the worst is over?
296 pages, Hardcover
First published February 2, 2023
301 people are currently reading
7,153 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 217 reviews
February 15, 2023
"Totalitarianism's reach to all parts of society, even the family, is frightening. But what's truly terrifying is that it extends to all parts of the subject, including the unseen: the soul, the psyche, the heart. It seeks to control not just your external life (what job you do, whom you marry, what you say), not just your beliefs, but even your emotions....it was an age of betrayal, of political choices fuelled by fear, idolatry, adolescent rage, marital bitterness and self-preservation. What surprised me was how many had stood firm." (page 216)
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I was drawn to this book about China's Cultural Revolution when I read the blurb - what happens to a society when you can no longer trust those closest to you? What happens to the present when the past is buried, exploited or redrawn? And how do you live with yourself when the worst is over?
I knew very little about China's Cultural Revolution, which took place from 1966-1976, but little wonder when it's a period of Chinese history that has been all but erased for Chinese people themselves.
During this ten year period, China was riven with violence and suspicion. Chairman Mao unleashed a mob of teenage Red Guards to attack those who he perceived as his enemies. It resulted in the murder of at least a million scholars, entertainers, academics and "elites" (a term that has become all too prevalent in the modern age), many of whom were brutalised and tortured.
Tania Branigan, a former Beijing correspondent for the Guardian, arrived in China in 2008 at a time when people were willing to open up to her and discuss the past. She spent hundreds of hours interviewing perpetrators and victims, distilling their testimony into this book, and interspersing it with her own astute observations on Chinese history, the Chinese psyche, the concept of memory itself and its abuses and distortions by the Chinese government.
If Branigan tried to write this book now she could not, such is the cult of personality that the current leader Xi Xinping (himself a victim of the Cultural Revolution) is cultivating.
There has been no period of truth and reconciliation for China, and discussion on the Cultural Revolution has once again been shut down in the digital age.
The book is a fascinating insight into a hidden period of history. There are parallels that can be drawn with abuses in other parts of the world and Branigan draws these - though such abuses are seen through a very different prism when you consider the privilege it is to know and understand history, and the importance of ensuring future generations understand it, not something that can be assured for Chinese people unfortunately.
I know this book won't be for everyone. It is detailed, it is complex, and it makes for traumatic and disturbing reading at times but I would highly recommend it if you enjoy non fiction and social history. 5/5 stars
---
I was drawn to this book about China's Cultural Revolution when I read the blurb - what happens to a society when you can no longer trust those closest to you? What happens to the present when the past is buried, exploited or redrawn? And how do you live with yourself when the worst is over?
I knew very little about China's Cultural Revolution, which took place from 1966-1976, but little wonder when it's a period of Chinese history that has been all but erased for Chinese people themselves.
During this ten year period, China was riven with violence and suspicion. Chairman Mao unleashed a mob of teenage Red Guards to attack those who he perceived as his enemies. It resulted in the murder of at least a million scholars, entertainers, academics and "elites" (a term that has become all too prevalent in the modern age), many of whom were brutalised and tortured.
Tania Branigan, a former Beijing correspondent for the Guardian, arrived in China in 2008 at a time when people were willing to open up to her and discuss the past. She spent hundreds of hours interviewing perpetrators and victims, distilling their testimony into this book, and interspersing it with her own astute observations on Chinese history, the Chinese psyche, the concept of memory itself and its abuses and distortions by the Chinese government.
If Branigan tried to write this book now she could not, such is the cult of personality that the current leader Xi Xinping (himself a victim of the Cultural Revolution) is cultivating.
There has been no period of truth and reconciliation for China, and discussion on the Cultural Revolution has once again been shut down in the digital age.
The book is a fascinating insight into a hidden period of history. There are parallels that can be drawn with abuses in other parts of the world and Branigan draws these - though such abuses are seen through a very different prism when you consider the privilege it is to know and understand history, and the importance of ensuring future generations understand it, not something that can be assured for Chinese people unfortunately.
I know this book won't be for everyone. It is detailed, it is complex, and it makes for traumatic and disturbing reading at times but I would highly recommend it if you enjoy non fiction and social history. 5/5 stars
June 16, 2023
First. I noticed many of the 5 star reviews were from people who indicated that this was the first and only book they have read on the subject. I encourage you to read a first hand account. Red Scarf Girl. Life and Death in Shanghai. Both excellent.
Now, the book.
It was difficult to tell, throughout the book, when the observations or thoughts were the author's and when they belonged to her interviewees. That really bugged me.
The author indicated at the beginning how offensive it was to compare the cultural revolution with today's happenings, then went on to do so herself several times. Her political bias was very obvious.
I had a very hard time with the author pretending that the us and the uk not prioritizing their historical sins was the same as the ccp simply not allowing its citizens to remember the sins of their past at all.
In the early chapters, she seemed almost to be a fan of mao, and indeed throughout, she seemed to really gloss over the details of the horror. Perhaps that was just a side effect of her being so detached from the events - she didn't experience them, and those she interviewed were circumspect, traumatized, and relying on old memories.
Overall, I didn't hate this book, but I certainly didn't like it that much. If you want to learn about the cultural revolution, you could do much better. I chose this book wanting to learn about how it continues to impact Chinese citizens to this day, and it did fulfill that purpose, if only in vague ways.
I would have loved a comparison to other countries/people who've gone through similar experiences - Russia during the gulag era, jews in German occupied territory, but alas, that didn't come up. (This wasn't the purpose of the book, so its omission is understandable.)
Of the several (6?) books I have read on the subject, it's my least favorite.
Ch 4
Youquin - "i understand why Chairman Mao began the cultural revolution in schools. You kill teachers, you destroy schools- you can destroy much more: traditions, ideas, values. Destroy schools and you destroy civilization." yup. Revolution starts in schools. Let's not pretend that marxists don't still know this.
Now, the book.
It was difficult to tell, throughout the book, when the observations or thoughts were the author's and when they belonged to her interviewees. That really bugged me.
The author indicated at the beginning how offensive it was to compare the cultural revolution with today's happenings, then went on to do so herself several times. Her political bias was very obvious.
I had a very hard time with the author pretending that the us and the uk not prioritizing their historical sins was the same as the ccp simply not allowing its citizens to remember the sins of their past at all.
In the early chapters, she seemed almost to be a fan of mao, and indeed throughout, she seemed to really gloss over the details of the horror. Perhaps that was just a side effect of her being so detached from the events - she didn't experience them, and those she interviewed were circumspect, traumatized, and relying on old memories.
Overall, I didn't hate this book, but I certainly didn't like it that much. If you want to learn about the cultural revolution, you could do much better. I chose this book wanting to learn about how it continues to impact Chinese citizens to this day, and it did fulfill that purpose, if only in vague ways.
I would have loved a comparison to other countries/people who've gone through similar experiences - Russia during the gulag era, jews in German occupied territory, but alas, that didn't come up. (This wasn't the purpose of the book, so its omission is understandable.)
Of the several (6?) books I have read on the subject, it's my least favorite.
Ch 4
Youquin - "i understand why Chairman Mao began the cultural revolution in schools. You kill teachers, you destroy schools- you can destroy much more: traditions, ideas, values. Destroy schools and you destroy civilization." yup. Revolution starts in schools. Let's not pretend that marxists don't still know this.
Want to read
November 10, 2023Nature's short review, 4/28/23:
"Up to two million people died during the Chinese Cultural Revolution of 1966¨C76, in which Mao Zedong sought to bolster communism. Among them were many teachers killed by students as part of an anti-intellectual movement. Education could mean ¡°ruin¡±, writes Tania Branigan, a journalist in China in 2008¨C15, in her riveting portrait of the revolution, based on interviews with survivors. Officials today remain almost silent about persecutors and victims ¡ª who included Chinese President Xi Jinping, then a teenager, whose father was purged."
Mao Zeodong, it should be recalled, is the leader Xi Jinping seeks to emulate! Many readers here remark that this book makes for difficult reading. Yet we must understand such horrors, lest they happen again . . .
Per Wikipedia, "Death toll estimates from different sources vary greatly, ranging from hundreds of thousands to 20 million."
There doesn't seem to be a consensus. Given the CCP's notorious secrecy about unpleasant facts during their watch (most recently, their ongoing COVID coverups), we are unlikely to ever know the total death toll. The damage to the national psyche seems unlikely to fade while victims are still living.
The WSJ's review is here:
(Paywalled. As always, I'm happy to email a copy to non-subscribers)
Excerpt:
"The reporting in this book was gathered between 2008 and 2015, when Ms. Branigan was a Guardian correspondent in China. Poignantly, she observes that she could not have conducted such interviews today. In the past several years, even greater pressure has come down on those who wish to remember a past the Party wants to forget. People who spoke freely with her 10 years ago might not risk doing so today."
Grim stuff. Maybe??
"Up to two million people died during the Chinese Cultural Revolution of 1966¨C76, in which Mao Zedong sought to bolster communism. Among them were many teachers killed by students as part of an anti-intellectual movement. Education could mean ¡°ruin¡±, writes Tania Branigan, a journalist in China in 2008¨C15, in her riveting portrait of the revolution, based on interviews with survivors. Officials today remain almost silent about persecutors and victims ¡ª who included Chinese President Xi Jinping, then a teenager, whose father was purged."
Mao Zeodong, it should be recalled, is the leader Xi Jinping seeks to emulate! Many readers here remark that this book makes for difficult reading. Yet we must understand such horrors, lest they happen again . . .
Per Wikipedia, "Death toll estimates from different sources vary greatly, ranging from hundreds of thousands to 20 million."
There doesn't seem to be a consensus. Given the CCP's notorious secrecy about unpleasant facts during their watch (most recently, their ongoing COVID coverups), we are unlikely to ever know the total death toll. The damage to the national psyche seems unlikely to fade while victims are still living.
The WSJ's review is here:
(Paywalled. As always, I'm happy to email a copy to non-subscribers)
Excerpt:
"The reporting in this book was gathered between 2008 and 2015, when Ms. Branigan was a Guardian correspondent in China. Poignantly, she observes that she could not have conducted such interviews today. In the past several years, even greater pressure has come down on those who wish to remember a past the Party wants to forget. People who spoke freely with her 10 years ago might not risk doing so today."
Grim stuff. Maybe??
February 8, 2023
An extraordinary, profound and moving book. Tania Branigan has achieved a near-impossible feat: that of making something as vast and sweeping as Mao's Cultural Revolution understandable to the lay reader. Drawing on fifteen years as a journalist in China, and a lifetime of China-watching, she gives a harrowing portrait of the unfathomable suffering that the Chinese people endured, through multiple interviews with survivors of the Cultural Revolution ¨C both those who suffered and those who inflicted suffering.
Forcefully yet delicately written, with beautiful passages which offer extraordinary revelations, this is an important book on an important subject.
Very highly recommended.
Forcefully yet delicately written, with beautiful passages which offer extraordinary revelations, this is an important book on an important subject.
Very highly recommended.
June 3, 2023
fact: due at the library, I didnt give it enough time.
this is a sad and disturbing book, and challenging for westerners who aren't facile with recent Chinese history. it is also helpful for contemplation of what is currently happening in China with Xi Jinping. Also not happy, also disturbing.
worth covering.
this is a sad and disturbing book, and challenging for westerners who aren't facile with recent Chinese history. it is also helpful for contemplation of what is currently happening in China with Xi Jinping. Also not happy, also disturbing.
worth covering.
April 26, 2024
This book was a bit of a disappointment for me.
First off, the good stuff. Branigan¡¯s research is clearly extensive. She's got a knack for digging up personal stories that illustrate the larger, often horrifying, picture of what went down during that tumultuous period. The chapters that delve into the lives of individuals who lived through the Cultural Revolution are compelling and emotionally charged. There's this one section where she describes a family torn apart by political loyalty that's particularly gut-wrenching.
However, the problem for me really starts when Branigan tries to weave these personal narratives into a broader historical analysis. It feels like she's biting off more than she can chew. The transitions between personal accounts and historical exposition are clunky at times, making the read feel disjointed. Instead of a smooth narrative flow, I often found myself re-reading paragraphs to understand the shift from a personal anecdote to a general historical overview.
Another issue is the tone of the book. Branigan occasionally slips into a somewhat preachy mode, which can be off-putting. It's like, I get it, the Cultural Revolution was a complex and tragic chapter in human history, but the moralizing tone she adopts at times doesn't really add to the discussion. It feels like being hit over the head with how I should feel about the events described, rather than allowing the facts and stories to speak for themselves.
The pacing is also a bit erratic. Some sections are so packed with information that they're overwhelming, while others drag on with what feels like unnecessary detail. This inconsistency made it hard for me to stay engaged. I found myself occasionally checking how many pages were left in a chapter, which is never a great sign when you¡¯re supposed to be lost in a book.
On a positive note, the photographs and personal artifacts included in the book are a powerful touch. They bring a haunting visual element to the stories told and help anchor the reader in the reality of those experiences. It's one thing to read about the Cultural Revolution, but seeing a faded, creased photo of a young student wearing a Red Guard armband really brings the history to life.
This whole book feels a bit like a missed opportunity. It could have been a more cohesive and engaging read if the structure and tone were tightened up. I wouldn't say it's a complete pass, especially for those deeply interested in Chinese history, but go in prepared for a bit of a bumpy ride.
First off, the good stuff. Branigan¡¯s research is clearly extensive. She's got a knack for digging up personal stories that illustrate the larger, often horrifying, picture of what went down during that tumultuous period. The chapters that delve into the lives of individuals who lived through the Cultural Revolution are compelling and emotionally charged. There's this one section where she describes a family torn apart by political loyalty that's particularly gut-wrenching.
However, the problem for me really starts when Branigan tries to weave these personal narratives into a broader historical analysis. It feels like she's biting off more than she can chew. The transitions between personal accounts and historical exposition are clunky at times, making the read feel disjointed. Instead of a smooth narrative flow, I often found myself re-reading paragraphs to understand the shift from a personal anecdote to a general historical overview.
Another issue is the tone of the book. Branigan occasionally slips into a somewhat preachy mode, which can be off-putting. It's like, I get it, the Cultural Revolution was a complex and tragic chapter in human history, but the moralizing tone she adopts at times doesn't really add to the discussion. It feels like being hit over the head with how I should feel about the events described, rather than allowing the facts and stories to speak for themselves.
The pacing is also a bit erratic. Some sections are so packed with information that they're overwhelming, while others drag on with what feels like unnecessary detail. This inconsistency made it hard for me to stay engaged. I found myself occasionally checking how many pages were left in a chapter, which is never a great sign when you¡¯re supposed to be lost in a book.
On a positive note, the photographs and personal artifacts included in the book are a powerful touch. They bring a haunting visual element to the stories told and help anchor the reader in the reality of those experiences. It's one thing to read about the Cultural Revolution, but seeing a faded, creased photo of a young student wearing a Red Guard armband really brings the history to life.
This whole book feels a bit like a missed opportunity. It could have been a more cohesive and engaging read if the structure and tone were tightened up. I wouldn't say it's a complete pass, especially for those deeply interested in Chinese history, but go in prepared for a bit of a bumpy ride.
February 5, 2023
Red Dragon is, in my view, a masterpiece. Eloquent, well paced and filled with detail it¡¯s a well researched and honest account of modern China. As a teenager in the 1960s, I was fascinated by Chairman Mao and his little red book. A school headmaster used to extol the virtue of his wisdom and looking back, was quietly grooming children towards communism. China is a mystery to most of the West. For centuries, the Forbidden City and the hidden Emperors were at the heart of the country. There were opium wars and in the 1930s, The Long March after which Mao¡¯s particular brand of communism was embedded. China accounts for something like a fifth of the world population. And that¡¯s despite the fact that tens of millions died from famine or were put to death by the regime as part of The Great Leap Forward. This aimed to make China a dominating world power and move from an agricultural nation to an industrial nation. The Cultural Revolution was an excuse to turn the entire country into the most unimaginable dystopia.
It¡¯s difficult to understand what it must be like to live in a country where thoughts are controlled. Opinions are not allowed and The Party way is the only way. To challenge means death. Violent, immediate and often for no reason. And now, 50 or so years after Mao¡¯s death and many of his supporters discredited, China remains largely mysterious and often threatening. It¡¯s a country totally shaped by its past but many elements of control remain. Social media is censored, emails may be censored and the author recounts being followed and photographed when she went to visit a museum, one which mysteriously closed just as she arrived.
Tania Brannigan has spoken to individuals who took a direct part in the Cultural Revolution. The young Red Guard on the cover was thirteen at the time. Proud to wear the uniform, she also denounced her teacher and was present when the teacher¡¯s hair was cut and she was savagely beaten in the class by her pupils. Hers is first hand witness account if the reality of this appalling regime. It¡¯s not light reading and some of the accounts are harrowing and disturbing, but that doesn¡¯t make them any the less true. it¡¯s challenging to realise that current attitudes are shaped by recent events and the past is being wiped out, or ignored under the rule of False Memory.
This is a very readable account; considered, articulate and intelligent and I¡¯d urge anyone with an interest in social history to read it and recommend it. We need a better understanding of atrocities rather than ignorance and acceptance and this is a brave publication.
My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.
It¡¯s difficult to understand what it must be like to live in a country where thoughts are controlled. Opinions are not allowed and The Party way is the only way. To challenge means death. Violent, immediate and often for no reason. And now, 50 or so years after Mao¡¯s death and many of his supporters discredited, China remains largely mysterious and often threatening. It¡¯s a country totally shaped by its past but many elements of control remain. Social media is censored, emails may be censored and the author recounts being followed and photographed when she went to visit a museum, one which mysteriously closed just as she arrived.
Tania Brannigan has spoken to individuals who took a direct part in the Cultural Revolution. The young Red Guard on the cover was thirteen at the time. Proud to wear the uniform, she also denounced her teacher and was present when the teacher¡¯s hair was cut and she was savagely beaten in the class by her pupils. Hers is first hand witness account if the reality of this appalling regime. It¡¯s not light reading and some of the accounts are harrowing and disturbing, but that doesn¡¯t make them any the less true. it¡¯s challenging to realise that current attitudes are shaped by recent events and the past is being wiped out, or ignored under the rule of False Memory.
This is a very readable account; considered, articulate and intelligent and I¡¯d urge anyone with an interest in social history to read it and recommend it. We need a better understanding of atrocities rather than ignorance and acceptance and this is a brave publication.
My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.
April 30, 2023
I¡¯m fascinated by the Cultural Revolution, in part because I knew nothing about it while it was happening. I found the individual stories fascinating. My biggest problem with this book is the lack of organization. It jumped all over the place and I felt it needed a better structure or some serious editing. Sometimes including everything, even the kitchen sink, is a disservice to the reader who would benefit with some constraints.
January 26, 2023
I read this book after reading The Three-Body Problem to gain more understanding about the Cultural Revolution that is mentioned in that novel. The author does a great job capturing all the feelings and criticisms that surround this event in China's history while doing well to illustrate that it was a complicated time with various perspectives. I would read more from this author.
November 15, 2023
The subject matter of this book is the main reason I read and enjoyed it. I was not overly impressed by Branigan¡¯s style of writing - she dwells too much on her meeting with the interviewees rather than the content of their interviews - i.e., it¡¯s a bit too much about her, which is not the reason I wanted to read this book. I also do not like how often she chooses to criticise the West (eg ¡®Trump is a demagogue¡¯ - an unoriginal childish trope - not coming from a Trump supporter but I thought it was a pointless addition) - it detracts from the message of the book and I didn¡¯t think was necessary and only serves to alienate readers. I preferred Wild Swans or Frank Dikotter for this content.
April 6, 2024
Some of the passages about the psychological impact of the cultural revolution and the collective trauma were interesting, but overall this book was way too chaotically written, lacking structure. The tone was also often weird, heightened by the audiobook narration style.
February 18, 2023
4.5 rounded down
June 1, 2024
Read for the BTP / Quarterfinals Nonfiction. Rating to come once the judging has been finalized (end May).
August 20, 2024
Using the memories of the Chinese who lived through Chairman Mao¡¯s Cultural Revolution and how they¡¯ve dealt with the impact of that decade, Branigan delivers on her promises, in particular, ¡°how we collectively choose our narratives, what we include and discard, consciously and otherwise, what we emphasise [sic] or elide.¡±
You do get an instructive overview of 20th-century Chinese history, but if you¡¯re like I was and looking for a deeper dive into the Cultural Revolution, Red Memory is not the place to begin. Fortunately, Branigan provides a lengthy list of sources with recommendations for more traditional histories and first-hand accounts.
You do get an instructive overview of 20th-century Chinese history, but if you¡¯re like I was and looking for a deeper dive into the Cultural Revolution, Red Memory is not the place to begin. Fortunately, Branigan provides a lengthy list of sources with recommendations for more traditional histories and first-hand accounts.
June 7, 2023
This book offers first-hand accounts of people who lived through the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of the 60s and 70s. The author weaves a narrative around the interviews she conducted. I read three reviews of this book before checking it out of the library. I can't say I was as impressed with the book as the reviewers were.
It wasn't as detailed a history as I had hoped it would be. However, the interviews with survivors have importance and significance, especially now, given what's currently happening in China. She makes it clear you can't understand current China without understanding the nature and impact of the 20 year span.
The parallels between blind obedience to a demagogic leader in 1960s China and those present in many Western governments are eerie. Think this area needed a deeper dive to round out her narrative. What lessons can we in the West learn from this experiment in China 50+ years ago, and how might those lessons relate to the current political upheavals in Europe and the US?
To me, the main weakness with the narrative was that she left China in 2015; all her interviews were conducted before then. Not sure why she waited so long to complete her book. So much has happened in China over the last eight years. Branigan spends time in the last chapter making a comparison of Mao's cult of personality, the zenith of which was in the GPCR, with what Chairman Xi has done/is currently doing as leader of the PRC. That summation was one of the strengths of her book.
Would have like to see some fresher/updated analysis of what the people interviewed in the book think about the current state of affairs, i.e, how similar is what they are experiencing now to what they experienced in the 60s and 70s? Realize that might not have been feasible given the current state of affairs in the PRC.
The violence perpetrated by the PRC government is decidedly less onerous (murderous) now. However, given modern surveillance technology, the current Chinese state invades just about every element of its citizens lives in ways it was not able to during the GPCR.
Is the current level of government invasion into private lives worse, better or the same as the violence meted out during the GPRC in the government's name? If you're a Uighur, the answer is clear. Updated interviews with the principals might have given Branigan the opportunity to address this issue, which seems like the pressing question her story begs.
This was an interesting book; enjoyed the chapter about the mental health aspect of the victims/survivors and the country's mental health practitioners' - a small group relative to the size of the population - efforts to address them. Also enjoyed her chapter following those who impersonate many of the key figures in the GPCR at weddings, business meetings, birthday parties, etc..
It wasn't as detailed a history as I had hoped it would be. However, the interviews with survivors have importance and significance, especially now, given what's currently happening in China. She makes it clear you can't understand current China without understanding the nature and impact of the 20 year span.
The parallels between blind obedience to a demagogic leader in 1960s China and those present in many Western governments are eerie. Think this area needed a deeper dive to round out her narrative. What lessons can we in the West learn from this experiment in China 50+ years ago, and how might those lessons relate to the current political upheavals in Europe and the US?
To me, the main weakness with the narrative was that she left China in 2015; all her interviews were conducted before then. Not sure why she waited so long to complete her book. So much has happened in China over the last eight years. Branigan spends time in the last chapter making a comparison of Mao's cult of personality, the zenith of which was in the GPCR, with what Chairman Xi has done/is currently doing as leader of the PRC. That summation was one of the strengths of her book.
Would have like to see some fresher/updated analysis of what the people interviewed in the book think about the current state of affairs, i.e, how similar is what they are experiencing now to what they experienced in the 60s and 70s? Realize that might not have been feasible given the current state of affairs in the PRC.
The violence perpetrated by the PRC government is decidedly less onerous (murderous) now. However, given modern surveillance technology, the current Chinese state invades just about every element of its citizens lives in ways it was not able to during the GPCR.
Is the current level of government invasion into private lives worse, better or the same as the violence meted out during the GPRC in the government's name? If you're a Uighur, the answer is clear. Updated interviews with the principals might have given Branigan the opportunity to address this issue, which seems like the pressing question her story begs.
This was an interesting book; enjoyed the chapter about the mental health aspect of the victims/survivors and the country's mental health practitioners' - a small group relative to the size of the population - efforts to address them. Also enjoyed her chapter following those who impersonate many of the key figures in the GPCR at weddings, business meetings, birthday parties, etc..
July 29, 2023
This book took me a while to get through because of how brutal and confronting many of the stories were -- but then again I find the most compelling nonfiction books to be the ones that make me the most uncomfortable. Branigan lived in China for almost a decade between the late '00s and mid '10s and sought out to interview as many individuals involved in the Cultural Revolution as she could find. This proved to be a daunting task, as many did not want to talk about their involvement (largely due to China's current political climate), some expressed remorse, and some feigned remorse or displayed confusing affectations. I think Branigan described this phenomenon well early in her work, when she talked about how it's impossible to truly understand modern China without understanding (or attempting to understand) the Cultural Revolution, just like how it's impossible to understand the United States without understanding the American Civil War, its root causes, and its long-lasting repercussions that linger to this day. My only criticism of Red Memory is the narrative arc wasn't particularly linear (to be fair, neither was the Cultural Revolution), and the chapters felt meandering and somewhat repetitive at times.
Further reading:
We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China's Surveillance State by Kai Strittmatter (2018)
The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity by Amy Webb (2019) -- particularly its focus on Chinese tech companies that enable the current surveillance state
Further reading:
We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China's Surveillance State by Kai Strittmatter (2018)
The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity by Amy Webb (2019) -- particularly its focus on Chinese tech companies that enable the current surveillance state
February 4, 2024
Poor writing, lack of clear structure, lack of depth in historical depth and its analysis, as well as the authors constant passive criticism made it difficult to get through this book and feel engaged.
The authors self righteous tone and constant insertion of her own judgment were a constant annoyance. This was an era of unfathomable turmoil and great injustices, but the human condition is also complex, and this needs to be dealt with in a delicate and balanced way. The book does not appreciate or respect this, particularly as historical facts and its assessment are lacking. As other readers have pointed out, there are other history books that would provide more insight and learning, with less self righteous judgment.
The authors self righteous tone and constant insertion of her own judgment were a constant annoyance. This was an era of unfathomable turmoil and great injustices, but the human condition is also complex, and this needs to be dealt with in a delicate and balanced way. The book does not appreciate or respect this, particularly as historical facts and its assessment are lacking. As other readers have pointed out, there are other history books that would provide more insight and learning, with less self righteous judgment.
August 23, 2023
This book gives a more qualitative outlook on the Cultural Revolution by looking at the past and applying its current implications on the Chinese people now. I can appreciate the authors different approach but it was not my style. I think if she told less stories and more general implications of the Cultural Revolution the book would have been better. A problem that I had with this book is that there is no specified Chapter and Sub Chapter names, which make the progress of the book confusing. Lastly, I listened to this book on Audiobook, and regardless it was hard to follow along what time period she was speaking in the book most of the time.
May 28, 2024
Bust.
A collection of stories weaved together by a journalist with all the overly descriptive writing that usually implies.
A collection of stories weaved together by a journalist with all the overly descriptive writing that usually implies.
September 6, 2024
"China was driven in the truest sense: propelled into the future by the forces at its back - and by one above all. Hundreds of millions lived out its consequences (broken families and broken minds; an individualistic urge for survival; the rust to cut-throat capitalism; deep cynicism) without ever discussing it. Many of those were unborn when the movement ended. It existed for the most part as an absence, like its victims, making itself evident in what was not said."
Since reading Madeleine Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing it's been a bit of a personal mission to educate myself better on the history of China, particularly The Cultural Revolution and I don't think I could have chosen a better book to allow me - so firmly an outsider looking in - to understand and understand that it perhaps isn't possible to understand at all. Branigan herself was that outsider working as a correspondent, gradually piecing together how fundamentally The Cultural Revolution continues to be woven into Chinese society, politics and individual lives. This continuing existence sits uncomfortably, often silently and yet is seemingly increasingly drawn on as a mentality to cement power.
So often in studying historical atrocities there is a separation that we allow to exist in our minds (if only in ours minds) between the abstract of "power" and of individual lives. What makes The Cultural Revolution so fundamentally uncomfortable, so horrifying and so devastating is that that separation ceased to exist. It was a volatile call to arms of each member of society who would single out their friends, neighbours and even families and could just so easily be singled out themselves. In piecing together this history, drawing heavily on interviews of wildly varying experiences and perspectives, Branigan handled the subject so incredibly sensitively - often openly struggling for perspective herself, such was the enormity of the subject that she was dealing with - but searingly.
Since reading Madeleine Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing it's been a bit of a personal mission to educate myself better on the history of China, particularly The Cultural Revolution and I don't think I could have chosen a better book to allow me - so firmly an outsider looking in - to understand and understand that it perhaps isn't possible to understand at all. Branigan herself was that outsider working as a correspondent, gradually piecing together how fundamentally The Cultural Revolution continues to be woven into Chinese society, politics and individual lives. This continuing existence sits uncomfortably, often silently and yet is seemingly increasingly drawn on as a mentality to cement power.
So often in studying historical atrocities there is a separation that we allow to exist in our minds (if only in ours minds) between the abstract of "power" and of individual lives. What makes The Cultural Revolution so fundamentally uncomfortable, so horrifying and so devastating is that that separation ceased to exist. It was a volatile call to arms of each member of society who would single out their friends, neighbours and even families and could just so easily be singled out themselves. In piecing together this history, drawing heavily on interviews of wildly varying experiences and perspectives, Branigan handled the subject so incredibly sensitively - often openly struggling for perspective herself, such was the enormity of the subject that she was dealing with - but searingly.
February 3, 2024
Really interesting analysis of China¡¯s past and present. Looks into the country¡¯s collective trauma and amnesia from events like the ¡®Great Leap Forward,¡¯ where as many as 45 million are thought to have died, as well as Mao¡¯s ¡®Cultural Revolution,¡¯ weeding out anyone from landlords to school teachers to curb the rise of capitalism.
¡°For a nation, as for the people who comprise it, identity is memory - a partial accumulation of events and the stories we tell about them. But memory, of course, is a work in progress: What we need in the present is constructed selectively by our reading of the past, wrote Fei Xiaotong. We try to smooth these facts and instincts into some kind of coherence, tangling over the inevitable questions of what we remember, and when, and why, and who gets to decide.
What happens reverberates into our pasts as well as into our future.
To change our understanding of what has gone before, as events often do, is to change ourselves.¡±
¡°For a nation, as for the people who comprise it, identity is memory - a partial accumulation of events and the stories we tell about them. But memory, of course, is a work in progress: What we need in the present is constructed selectively by our reading of the past, wrote Fei Xiaotong. We try to smooth these facts and instincts into some kind of coherence, tangling over the inevitable questions of what we remember, and when, and why, and who gets to decide.
What happens reverberates into our pasts as well as into our future.
To change our understanding of what has gone before, as events often do, is to change ourselves.¡±
June 14, 2023
Tania Branigan's Red Memory is a book I've been needing to read my whole life without realizing how much I needed it. The Cultural Revolution, which officially lasted from 1966-1976, is an event that's at once deeply personal for me and shrouded in mystery. Like many who have roots in China, the scars left by this period are deeply etched into my family history, but I've always sensed that they're still too painful to be talked about. My grandfather was driven nearly to suicide by Red Guards and their brutal struggle sessions. My aunt had only a middle school education when she was sent, without her family, to labor in the rural countryside. My mom's childhood was shaped by famine and fear, and I never really understood her seemingly obsessive need to never waste food or throw anything away until I began to learn more about what life was like in China during this formative decade. Now I can't read about the Cultural Revolution without wondering which of the accounts from other survivors were things that my family also experienced.
The Cultural Revolution is a complex and difficult topic to tackle. As Branigan writes, "In other catastrophes the line between victims and perpetrators was clearer. When the target was defined not by race or custom but by what was purportedly in hearts and minds; when what was right today was wrong tomorrow; when the means of destruction was mass participation ¨C then certainty, like innocence, was an impossibility." Each chapter of this book thoughtfully presents a different facet of the Cultural Revolution with profiles of the people who lived through it. I came to understand how Mao's uninformed and misguided policies directly caused the famine that killed tens of millions of people. I learned more about the factors that contributed to his rise to power and the cult of personality that led young students to turn violent against their teachers. I gained insight into what the urban youths sent into rural farming communities experienced. There is no shortage of horrors to recount in covering this period, but it was the second to last chapter, which delves into generational trauma and how those who lived through the Cultural Revolution often unwittingly transmit their pain to their children, that brought tears to my eyes.
One of the people Branigan interviewed stated, "Even though I have a huge amount of materials, the more I read about the Cultural Revolution, the more confused I become. Because it¡¯s still quite fresh, to understand this history I think you need to stand back from a distance." Another expressed similar thoughts: "It can¡¯t be described in a few words. For foreigners, looking at the Cultural Revolution is like reading a difficult book. It¡¯s really hard to understand." Chinese people who lived and suffered through these turbulent years are also just tired and frustrated of foreigners explaining reductive takes on their own history to them, and rightly so. Branigan, a British journalist whose mother's family is Thai-Chinese and who spent many years in Beijing reporting for the Guardian, is perhaps perfectly situated to tell the story. She captures the nuances of Chinese perspectives and preserves the complexity of the multitude of narratives but has enough distance to afford her objectivity. Her writing is profound and compelling, and she reconstructs the events of these years admirably considering the general unwillingness to speak up, or sometimes, even to remember.
The Cultural Revolution is a complex and difficult topic to tackle. As Branigan writes, "In other catastrophes the line between victims and perpetrators was clearer. When the target was defined not by race or custom but by what was purportedly in hearts and minds; when what was right today was wrong tomorrow; when the means of destruction was mass participation ¨C then certainty, like innocence, was an impossibility." Each chapter of this book thoughtfully presents a different facet of the Cultural Revolution with profiles of the people who lived through it. I came to understand how Mao's uninformed and misguided policies directly caused the famine that killed tens of millions of people. I learned more about the factors that contributed to his rise to power and the cult of personality that led young students to turn violent against their teachers. I gained insight into what the urban youths sent into rural farming communities experienced. There is no shortage of horrors to recount in covering this period, but it was the second to last chapter, which delves into generational trauma and how those who lived through the Cultural Revolution often unwittingly transmit their pain to their children, that brought tears to my eyes.
One of the people Branigan interviewed stated, "Even though I have a huge amount of materials, the more I read about the Cultural Revolution, the more confused I become. Because it¡¯s still quite fresh, to understand this history I think you need to stand back from a distance." Another expressed similar thoughts: "It can¡¯t be described in a few words. For foreigners, looking at the Cultural Revolution is like reading a difficult book. It¡¯s really hard to understand." Chinese people who lived and suffered through these turbulent years are also just tired and frustrated of foreigners explaining reductive takes on their own history to them, and rightly so. Branigan, a British journalist whose mother's family is Thai-Chinese and who spent many years in Beijing reporting for the Guardian, is perhaps perfectly situated to tell the story. She captures the nuances of Chinese perspectives and preserves the complexity of the multitude of narratives but has enough distance to afford her objectivity. Her writing is profound and compelling, and she reconstructs the events of these years admirably considering the general unwillingness to speak up, or sometimes, even to remember.
August 6, 2023
Red Memory provides interviews, insights, and reflections of people with various backgrounds who survived the Cultural Revolution. This book brings out a much more human element of this point of Chinese history that most formal narratives lack. Despite the horrors and hardships that Chinese society faced, there are many different and conflicting opinions about this period of time.
One thing that stood out to me was that the discussion around the Cultural Revolution is always evolving and depends of the whims of the Chinese government. The narrative of this time period can easily be changed or silenced based on Communist Party's agenda. While the country as a whole has moved passed this tragic event, there is still a lot of unresolved issues for millions of people.
A basic understanding of current and recent events in China is necessary to follow all of the topics discussed. Even with this knowledge, the content can still be a bit difficult to follow as the author jumps back and forth between topics in each chapter.
The last aspect that I didn't care for was the author's tendency to use a literary style prose throughout her writing. A lot of this arose when she was describing the contemporary environment of the people she was interviewing. Learning that the author was able to smell the pineapple being sold in the public park where she was doesn't better help me understand how impact the Cultural Revolution had on the person she is talking to.
I did learn a few things about the more personal side of the Cultural Revolution. However, the writing style and organization of content doesn't make me inclined to recommend this book.
One thing that stood out to me was that the discussion around the Cultural Revolution is always evolving and depends of the whims of the Chinese government. The narrative of this time period can easily be changed or silenced based on Communist Party's agenda. While the country as a whole has moved passed this tragic event, there is still a lot of unresolved issues for millions of people.
A basic understanding of current and recent events in China is necessary to follow all of the topics discussed. Even with this knowledge, the content can still be a bit difficult to follow as the author jumps back and forth between topics in each chapter.
The last aspect that I didn't care for was the author's tendency to use a literary style prose throughout her writing. A lot of this arose when she was describing the contemporary environment of the people she was interviewing. Learning that the author was able to smell the pineapple being sold in the public park where she was doesn't better help me understand how impact the Cultural Revolution had on the person she is talking to.
I did learn a few things about the more personal side of the Cultural Revolution. However, the writing style and organization of content doesn't make me inclined to recommend this book.
July 5, 2023
Red Memory successfully brings the stories of the cultural revolution and its aftermath to life, but it isn't quite the book I was hoping it would be. I'd describe the book as "neither here nor there"¡ªnot firmly committing to any one approach.
First: the book mixes the author's opinion, interviewees' storytelling, and historical explanations without clearly delineating what's what. It isn't always clear whether the author is sharing her opinion, the interviewee's experience, or a historical fact. The lines blur together. The informal approach gives the book the ?vibes? of literary fiction, but it loses something as a piece of nonfiction.
Second, it has a curious amount of historical context. I would have understood if the author simply shared interviewees' stories¡ªlet them stand on their own for the reader to piece together. I also would have understood if the author had structured the book with a lot of historical context for people not already familiar with 20th century Chinese politics/history. Instead, she chose a middle approach: bits and pieces of history tucked into the chapters in an unclear order. I got confused, went and read a history textbook, and then came back.
I think I wanted a version of this that was just the interviewees' stories, presented as a first person narrative and without additional opinions mixed in (like a set of nonfiction short stories).
First: the book mixes the author's opinion, interviewees' storytelling, and historical explanations without clearly delineating what's what. It isn't always clear whether the author is sharing her opinion, the interviewee's experience, or a historical fact. The lines blur together. The informal approach gives the book the ?vibes? of literary fiction, but it loses something as a piece of nonfiction.
Second, it has a curious amount of historical context. I would have understood if the author simply shared interviewees' stories¡ªlet them stand on their own for the reader to piece together. I also would have understood if the author had structured the book with a lot of historical context for people not already familiar with 20th century Chinese politics/history. Instead, she chose a middle approach: bits and pieces of history tucked into the chapters in an unclear order. I got confused, went and read a history textbook, and then came back.
I think I wanted a version of this that was just the interviewees' stories, presented as a first person narrative and without additional opinions mixed in (like a set of nonfiction short stories).
August 11, 2024
I was excited to read this book. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed. Although there is a lot of interesting information, the manner of presenting is journalistic rather than integrated and argumentative. I was left feeling that the whole aftermath of the Cultural Revolution is as foggy and impenetrable as before I picked up the book. Still, the artists and groups highlighted are drawn fully. Also, it was interesting to hear about the places that tried to save some of the artefacts of history in a country whose government would like to forget that the Cultural Revolution ever happened.
February 2, 2024
This book left me cold. The Cultural Revolution is so fascinating, but this book never really seemed to dig into it properly. The author overwrote and included far too much of herself in the book. Would not recommend, especially if you're looking to learn about this period of Chinese history.
April 14, 2023
This remarkable book tells the stories, whilst people could still tell them, about Chinese history during the Cultural Revolution which lasted from the period between 1966-76. Ever since I read ¡®wild swans¡¯ by Jung Chang and travelled through China, I have been fascinated by China's history and how much we never have been told or taught, and when we consider the 20th century and how the first part with characterised by two great world wars that caused so much suffering and then the second half which was dominated by 2/3 of the world been by the Cold War under communist rule, and how it was all behind a curtain that no one could penetrate or know about to understand the immense suffering and pain caused to people who lived under Stalin and Mao, I've always been keen to know more.
- China is currently revisiting its history of yesterday, transforming it into a new narrative. But the Cultural Revolution, which resulted in students and the young butchering and torturing their teachers and parents with a new political indoctrination mastered by Mao. Young students were so proud of being a part of the Red Army but unlike student revolutions occurring in the West, the young were killing the old. In fact the Cultural Revolution only ended after Mao Zedong¡¯s death. It was a savage, unrelenting and extraordinary destructive period of violence. They killed many leaders and thinkers due to the emperor's ruthless assertion of power. He destroyed opposition within the party and began an ideological crusade to drive and reshape China's hearts and souls as Mao transformed its politics and economy. It is impossible to understand China nowadays without understanding both the ¡®Great Leap Forward¡¯ and the ¡®Cultural Revolution¡¯.
- China has had a dramatic history during the 20th century. In the Taiping rebellion over 20 million people were killed. This was followed by a brutal Japanese occupation of the 1930s which would lead to 15 million deaths. Between 1958 and 61 the Great Leap Forward caused possibly 40 - 50 million or more deaths through famine brought in by China's desire to build an economy that would equal the West through its obsession with making steel. As all the farmers and everybody else embarked on this scheme, crops and farms lay waste and this resulted in mass famine and starvation.
- In the world there are many cruel and callous people everywhere and there will be no shortage of them in a country of 1.4 billion. However, Mao Zedong was a tyrant and sadistic psychopath and yet he is revered still throughout China. His corpse lies in glass in Beijing and when I saw him, there were many Chinese still marking their respects (this was in 2001). They refer to the ¡®great leap forward¡¯ as the ¡°difficult three years¡±, quite an understatement when you've killed millions of your own people. And yet, four years later, he managed to come up with the Cultural Revolution, where revolutionary thought dictated by Mao to rewrite thought and reality by ordering his citizens to throw off the four olds of old thinking, old culture, old customs, and old habits. It resulted in many people's lives being left in ruin overnight and those who resisted were attacked by an army of purifiers called the red guard who went around the country making the young torture and bludgen intellectuals, teachers and parents, resulting in possibly 2 million Chinese citizens deaths. People were shamed, put on mock trials, executed and tortured. Shame permeates these people's stories as they lost or turned on loved ones and others. Even President Xi was treated poorly but learnt nothing when he came to power other than to use similar ideologies to tell a new narrative of the Chinese past and to promote an amnesia with the past. A decade later and nearly all university education was put on hold, hospitals could barely function and chaos reigned which helped Mao Zedong take back control of the Communist Party after the disaster of so many millions lost a few years earlier with the ¡®great leap forward¡¯. And the Chinese people believed it, followed it and were imprisoned and entrapped by these horrific stories.
- As the author mentions at the end of the book, ¡°this book could not be written if it were to begin today.¡± People are no longer being allowed to tell these stories, the Internet is being controlled, Muslims are being put into concentration camps and re-educated. People are certainly more wealthy than they were in the past in China, but it was a low bar to start with. The Chinese government is hellbent on control, and telling the people their lives will improve but that government should be left to the people in charge. But at what price and consequences.
- The book also looks at how this can be compared to acts going on today. There is a great video of Bill Mayer (USA talk show host and comedian) who compares the new woke agenda and cancel culture occurring in the west with many of the parables of the Cultural Revolution applying to the west. It's also very funny and insightful - ¡°...the revolutionaries get so drunk on their own purifying elixir they imagine they can reinvent the very nature of human beings. Communists thought selfishness could be cast out of human nature ¡ the problem with communism and with some very recent ideologies here at home is that they think you can change reality by screaming at it, that you can bend human nature by holding your breath but that's the difference between reality and your mommy. ¡ Yesterday I asked ChatGPT if there are any similarities between today's woke revolution and Chairman Mao's cultural revolution of the 1960s and it wrote back, "how long do you have?" Because in China we saw how a revolutionary thought could do a page one rewrite of humans. Mao ordered his citizens to throw off the four olds, old thinking, old culture, old customs, and old habits so your whole life went in the garbage overnight and those who resisted were attacked by an army of purifiers called the red guard who went around the country putting dunce caps on people who didn't take to being a new kind of mortal being. A lot of pointing and shaming went on resulting in about a million dead and the only way to survive was to plead insanity for the crime of being insufficiently radical and then apologise and thank the state for the chance to see what an arsehole you are and of course submit to re education or as we call it here in America freshman orientation.¡± Find it on YouTube by searching ¡®Bill Mayer woke culture red army¡¯ - it's worth a view.
- The author tries to bring all of these points together to also explain these things could happen anywhere, and we can see some of this with both the UK and American government, certainly with republicans and their love for Trump and their cognitive dissonance between pro-life and anti-abortion stances and their love of capital punishment and of guns that are killing their own citizens and their children.
- Many in China don't even know about Tiananmen Square, where young students were either imprisoned or lost their lives, and they certainly don't understand their own history as it is slowly being rewritten, and many who do remember are now being silenced.
- So thank you for this wonderful book which shows how easily it can be to slip into authoritarian rule and the consequences that it brings. The story certainly makes you think what would happen to you or I if these things occurred again. In Europe we are much more focused and recall the world wars or the Holocaust and try to remind ourselves to be vigilant but we often so know so little about many of the countries involved in the Cold War and the terror that occurred in the second part of the 20th century under Stalin and Mao, so it's good the books like this continue to tell that story said that we can at least remember, even if we don't do anything about it. Hopefully some knowledge has some power. This is a book I would certainly highly recommend.
- Many of the stories on here are heartbreaking but are so worth knowing. Even when people as young as children who are now in their 60s apologise for what they¡¯ve done.
- The rather incredible thing about students was that the same youthful rebellion happened in the USA and Europe, but what is different about the Cultural Revolution was that the young turned on their own old guard and elders and began to torture and kill even their own parents. This is the story of how it's possible to manipulate and brainwash anybody in through the totalitarian regime that was communism and infect in the minds to actually kill people around you and thousands died.
- There is a story about a young man, who, along with his father, shopped his mother for being an anti-revolutionary and that when they told on her, it resulted in her execution. How and what would we do in this scenario. Stanley Milgram's experiments on obedience showed that we think we can make different choices, but don¡¯t be so sure. It's only when you hear some of the stories that show that you really can make someone actively evil and turn against their own family in the name of some stupid ideology, which is exactly what the cultural revolution did.
- There's an interesting story, then if you have two dogs one where one dog will attack everything and the other is submissive, that under the cultural Revolution, the dog that attacks will die and the one who's submissive will survive, though what this does to people's mental health afterwards, especially when you can¡¯t talk about all of these things must cause great trauma.
- It's interesting that now that China has a new leader called president Xi and he is also now replacing religious ideology, and they have his portraits everywhere. Almost as if he is the same cultural leader and chairman now providing stability, but also making sure that no one else has that kind of leadership quality, and he is now a leader for life. And now promotes collective amnesia and its ideology of not knowing what happened in its past, and its history is being written with a new leader, a father to the country and an ideology almost revering him as a God.
- When you now look at the current crackdown of dissent and people seeking some sort of freedom in Hong Kong, Tibet and the concentration camps for Muslims, what¡¯s going on in the South China seas and Taiwan, it¡¯s important to know where this can lead.
- China is writing its own narrative to re-frame the past, and it's currently that China will stand on its feet, has stood up to the world, and that its became rich, and under Xi¡¯s presidency it has become strong.
- The book finishes with knowledge that many of the stories that are told and now being shut down and silenced as children carry pictures of president Xi who they have been told is like their grandpa who will look after them and they believe this from the early age, its like how we come to believe in religion being from a religious family and it's very difficult to get out or change they way you believe the world is.
- I used to joke that real communism exists more in our country than in China, and here hospitals and education are free. "China is the world's second largest economy but 85% of ordinary people can't afford to buy a home or get medical care or education. Officials don't treat people as the owners of the country, they treat themselves as the owners. They're corrupt. They don't care about morality or humanity. What they want is money. People call officials ¡°boss¡± - it's the same as capitalism!¡±. ... There are oppressors and then there are people who are oppressed. In Mao's era it was totally different.¡± .. I judged it best not to mention the old joke - under capitalism man exploits man, under communism it's the other way round.¡±
- We can learn a lot from history, but in China 'no one looks back¡¯.
- China is currently revisiting its history of yesterday, transforming it into a new narrative. But the Cultural Revolution, which resulted in students and the young butchering and torturing their teachers and parents with a new political indoctrination mastered by Mao. Young students were so proud of being a part of the Red Army but unlike student revolutions occurring in the West, the young were killing the old. In fact the Cultural Revolution only ended after Mao Zedong¡¯s death. It was a savage, unrelenting and extraordinary destructive period of violence. They killed many leaders and thinkers due to the emperor's ruthless assertion of power. He destroyed opposition within the party and began an ideological crusade to drive and reshape China's hearts and souls as Mao transformed its politics and economy. It is impossible to understand China nowadays without understanding both the ¡®Great Leap Forward¡¯ and the ¡®Cultural Revolution¡¯.
- China has had a dramatic history during the 20th century. In the Taiping rebellion over 20 million people were killed. This was followed by a brutal Japanese occupation of the 1930s which would lead to 15 million deaths. Between 1958 and 61 the Great Leap Forward caused possibly 40 - 50 million or more deaths through famine brought in by China's desire to build an economy that would equal the West through its obsession with making steel. As all the farmers and everybody else embarked on this scheme, crops and farms lay waste and this resulted in mass famine and starvation.
- In the world there are many cruel and callous people everywhere and there will be no shortage of them in a country of 1.4 billion. However, Mao Zedong was a tyrant and sadistic psychopath and yet he is revered still throughout China. His corpse lies in glass in Beijing and when I saw him, there were many Chinese still marking their respects (this was in 2001). They refer to the ¡®great leap forward¡¯ as the ¡°difficult three years¡±, quite an understatement when you've killed millions of your own people. And yet, four years later, he managed to come up with the Cultural Revolution, where revolutionary thought dictated by Mao to rewrite thought and reality by ordering his citizens to throw off the four olds of old thinking, old culture, old customs, and old habits. It resulted in many people's lives being left in ruin overnight and those who resisted were attacked by an army of purifiers called the red guard who went around the country making the young torture and bludgen intellectuals, teachers and parents, resulting in possibly 2 million Chinese citizens deaths. People were shamed, put on mock trials, executed and tortured. Shame permeates these people's stories as they lost or turned on loved ones and others. Even President Xi was treated poorly but learnt nothing when he came to power other than to use similar ideologies to tell a new narrative of the Chinese past and to promote an amnesia with the past. A decade later and nearly all university education was put on hold, hospitals could barely function and chaos reigned which helped Mao Zedong take back control of the Communist Party after the disaster of so many millions lost a few years earlier with the ¡®great leap forward¡¯. And the Chinese people believed it, followed it and were imprisoned and entrapped by these horrific stories.
- As the author mentions at the end of the book, ¡°this book could not be written if it were to begin today.¡± People are no longer being allowed to tell these stories, the Internet is being controlled, Muslims are being put into concentration camps and re-educated. People are certainly more wealthy than they were in the past in China, but it was a low bar to start with. The Chinese government is hellbent on control, and telling the people their lives will improve but that government should be left to the people in charge. But at what price and consequences.
- The book also looks at how this can be compared to acts going on today. There is a great video of Bill Mayer (USA talk show host and comedian) who compares the new woke agenda and cancel culture occurring in the west with many of the parables of the Cultural Revolution applying to the west. It's also very funny and insightful - ¡°...the revolutionaries get so drunk on their own purifying elixir they imagine they can reinvent the very nature of human beings. Communists thought selfishness could be cast out of human nature ¡ the problem with communism and with some very recent ideologies here at home is that they think you can change reality by screaming at it, that you can bend human nature by holding your breath but that's the difference between reality and your mommy. ¡ Yesterday I asked ChatGPT if there are any similarities between today's woke revolution and Chairman Mao's cultural revolution of the 1960s and it wrote back, "how long do you have?" Because in China we saw how a revolutionary thought could do a page one rewrite of humans. Mao ordered his citizens to throw off the four olds, old thinking, old culture, old customs, and old habits so your whole life went in the garbage overnight and those who resisted were attacked by an army of purifiers called the red guard who went around the country putting dunce caps on people who didn't take to being a new kind of mortal being. A lot of pointing and shaming went on resulting in about a million dead and the only way to survive was to plead insanity for the crime of being insufficiently radical and then apologise and thank the state for the chance to see what an arsehole you are and of course submit to re education or as we call it here in America freshman orientation.¡± Find it on YouTube by searching ¡®Bill Mayer woke culture red army¡¯ - it's worth a view.
- The author tries to bring all of these points together to also explain these things could happen anywhere, and we can see some of this with both the UK and American government, certainly with republicans and their love for Trump and their cognitive dissonance between pro-life and anti-abortion stances and their love of capital punishment and of guns that are killing their own citizens and their children.
- Many in China don't even know about Tiananmen Square, where young students were either imprisoned or lost their lives, and they certainly don't understand their own history as it is slowly being rewritten, and many who do remember are now being silenced.
- So thank you for this wonderful book which shows how easily it can be to slip into authoritarian rule and the consequences that it brings. The story certainly makes you think what would happen to you or I if these things occurred again. In Europe we are much more focused and recall the world wars or the Holocaust and try to remind ourselves to be vigilant but we often so know so little about many of the countries involved in the Cold War and the terror that occurred in the second part of the 20th century under Stalin and Mao, so it's good the books like this continue to tell that story said that we can at least remember, even if we don't do anything about it. Hopefully some knowledge has some power. This is a book I would certainly highly recommend.
- Many of the stories on here are heartbreaking but are so worth knowing. Even when people as young as children who are now in their 60s apologise for what they¡¯ve done.
- The rather incredible thing about students was that the same youthful rebellion happened in the USA and Europe, but what is different about the Cultural Revolution was that the young turned on their own old guard and elders and began to torture and kill even their own parents. This is the story of how it's possible to manipulate and brainwash anybody in through the totalitarian regime that was communism and infect in the minds to actually kill people around you and thousands died.
- There is a story about a young man, who, along with his father, shopped his mother for being an anti-revolutionary and that when they told on her, it resulted in her execution. How and what would we do in this scenario. Stanley Milgram's experiments on obedience showed that we think we can make different choices, but don¡¯t be so sure. It's only when you hear some of the stories that show that you really can make someone actively evil and turn against their own family in the name of some stupid ideology, which is exactly what the cultural revolution did.
- There's an interesting story, then if you have two dogs one where one dog will attack everything and the other is submissive, that under the cultural Revolution, the dog that attacks will die and the one who's submissive will survive, though what this does to people's mental health afterwards, especially when you can¡¯t talk about all of these things must cause great trauma.
- It's interesting that now that China has a new leader called president Xi and he is also now replacing religious ideology, and they have his portraits everywhere. Almost as if he is the same cultural leader and chairman now providing stability, but also making sure that no one else has that kind of leadership quality, and he is now a leader for life. And now promotes collective amnesia and its ideology of not knowing what happened in its past, and its history is being written with a new leader, a father to the country and an ideology almost revering him as a God.
- When you now look at the current crackdown of dissent and people seeking some sort of freedom in Hong Kong, Tibet and the concentration camps for Muslims, what¡¯s going on in the South China seas and Taiwan, it¡¯s important to know where this can lead.
- China is writing its own narrative to re-frame the past, and it's currently that China will stand on its feet, has stood up to the world, and that its became rich, and under Xi¡¯s presidency it has become strong.
- The book finishes with knowledge that many of the stories that are told and now being shut down and silenced as children carry pictures of president Xi who they have been told is like their grandpa who will look after them and they believe this from the early age, its like how we come to believe in religion being from a religious family and it's very difficult to get out or change they way you believe the world is.
- I used to joke that real communism exists more in our country than in China, and here hospitals and education are free. "China is the world's second largest economy but 85% of ordinary people can't afford to buy a home or get medical care or education. Officials don't treat people as the owners of the country, they treat themselves as the owners. They're corrupt. They don't care about morality or humanity. What they want is money. People call officials ¡°boss¡± - it's the same as capitalism!¡±. ... There are oppressors and then there are people who are oppressed. In Mao's era it was totally different.¡± .. I judged it best not to mention the old joke - under capitalism man exploits man, under communism it's the other way round.¡±
- We can learn a lot from history, but in China 'no one looks back¡¯.
February 22, 2024
I knew nothing about the Cultural Revolution before this book. All I knew was that Mao Zedong, during his years as the Chairman of the Communist Party, had, along with his close-knit cohort, created a cult of personality in China. But I didn't know it had been one so total as to somehow upend the enlightened Confucian philosophy so deeply rooted in the soil of the country for almost two millenia.
Prior to this revolutionary period, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had made a push for rapid economic growth, known as the Great Leap Forward. Through a combination of rigorously enforced, industrialising policies, it led to one of the largest famines in human history. Between 15 and 50 million are estimated to have died, some as a result of killings. It's telling that today, in China, this period is still referred to euphemistically as the Three Years of Difficulty. That sense of tentatively acknowledging but obscuring the past is an attitude, a behaviour and a position that you see throughout Tania Branigan's book, in light of the mass violence, familial betrayals and almost sadistic levels of cruelty that would follow in Mao's Cultural Revolution.
Red Memory takes a very human look at the revolution and its legacy, focusing on the lived experience and memories of its perpertrators and victims. Many of the people Tania Branigan interviews had some part to play or role to fulfill in the revolution. Many of them were very young, just teenagers when some were swept into the stormy world of the Red Guards, Mao's Hitler Youth. Re-educated to despise a new kind of oppressor, they would turn on their teachers, family members, wealthy peasants, traditional local officials, even each other. As a rebellious, malleable teenager, this must have been pure punk. You're given a mandate from some mystic, god-like figure to stick it to the authorities. In reality, teachers, parents and relatives were being turned into the revolutionary authorities as counter-revolutionary. Children had now found themselves immune from immediate consequences should they torture or beat to death such a perceived enemy.
There's a lot of this kind of shocking confessional testimony and reporting throughout the book, but the overall tone is measured and reflective. Branigan's insights, as a journalist who worked in China for seven years, are wise and sensitive. You get the sense of a highly complex older generation with so much still to say, yet so much it can't or won't. Some people obscure their own personal traumatic histories, others yearn for a return to the past.
I think what makes this a patricularly interesting book is the perspective and biases you bring to it.The madness and confusion of the years in China from 1966-76 made an impression on me, a 21st century white westerner in a liberal democracy, as wildly abstract. One person's perpetrator may be another's victim, and vice versa. It's a book that brings up more and more questions than answers, and that was partly what made it so compelling.
Prior to this revolutionary period, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had made a push for rapid economic growth, known as the Great Leap Forward. Through a combination of rigorously enforced, industrialising policies, it led to one of the largest famines in human history. Between 15 and 50 million are estimated to have died, some as a result of killings. It's telling that today, in China, this period is still referred to euphemistically as the Three Years of Difficulty. That sense of tentatively acknowledging but obscuring the past is an attitude, a behaviour and a position that you see throughout Tania Branigan's book, in light of the mass violence, familial betrayals and almost sadistic levels of cruelty that would follow in Mao's Cultural Revolution.
Red Memory takes a very human look at the revolution and its legacy, focusing on the lived experience and memories of its perpertrators and victims. Many of the people Tania Branigan interviews had some part to play or role to fulfill in the revolution. Many of them were very young, just teenagers when some were swept into the stormy world of the Red Guards, Mao's Hitler Youth. Re-educated to despise a new kind of oppressor, they would turn on their teachers, family members, wealthy peasants, traditional local officials, even each other. As a rebellious, malleable teenager, this must have been pure punk. You're given a mandate from some mystic, god-like figure to stick it to the authorities. In reality, teachers, parents and relatives were being turned into the revolutionary authorities as counter-revolutionary. Children had now found themselves immune from immediate consequences should they torture or beat to death such a perceived enemy.
There's a lot of this kind of shocking confessional testimony and reporting throughout the book, but the overall tone is measured and reflective. Branigan's insights, as a journalist who worked in China for seven years, are wise and sensitive. You get the sense of a highly complex older generation with so much still to say, yet so much it can't or won't. Some people obscure their own personal traumatic histories, others yearn for a return to the past.
I think what makes this a patricularly interesting book is the perspective and biases you bring to it.The madness and confusion of the years in China from 1966-76 made an impression on me, a 21st century white westerner in a liberal democracy, as wildly abstract. One person's perpetrator may be another's victim, and vice versa. It's a book that brings up more and more questions than answers, and that was partly what made it so compelling.
February 7, 2024
Red Memory provides a fascinating exploration of the memory of the Cultural Revolution in today's China. Tania primarily interviewed survivors, participants, prepetrators, and victims of the CR - with there often being no clear line between the two - to write this book, arguing that it is impossible to understand contemprary China without understanding the CR.
Unfortunately, Red Memory does not provide a comprehensive overview of the history of the CR; history is lacking in this book, providing only a basic overview of the events of the CR. Though it would have been better to have more overview of the CR, this is not the books focus: memory is. Indeed, her insights on the memory and aftereffects of the CR are highly compelling, with the CR straddling a strange grey zone in Chinese official and collective memory.
Individually and collectively, the CR remains a deep trauma for its survivors, and indeed, the children of survivors. Officially, the CR is a relatively taboo topic, largely absent from official discourse, yet not entirely effaced (like the 1989 massacre), so that its history emerges within small islands of memory amidst a sea of official vacuity - to rephrase a quote from the book.
As Tania argues, the CR was the hinge through which China entered its modernity. Not just politically and economically with the rise of Deng Xiaoping and his economic reforms, but pyschologically for the population at large. Family bonds were shattered and social structures were upturned as a generation was sucked into the whirlwind of mass hysteria, denouncements, and paranoia; characterstic of a revolution devouring its own children. Through this, Tania argues, has emerged the dizzying pace of modern life in China, the growth of individualism, economic inequality, and the CCP dedicated to maintaing its political power through societal stability.
All these are fascinating theses, and I wish the book was longer to explore them in more detail. Branigan also has a brilliant writing style, both accessible and precise, free from academic jargon and highly insightful. Nevertheless, it is her first book, and some of this shows in the books organization and flow. Overall though, an amazing read that has me wanting to learn much more about Chinese history.
Unfortunately, Red Memory does not provide a comprehensive overview of the history of the CR; history is lacking in this book, providing only a basic overview of the events of the CR. Though it would have been better to have more overview of the CR, this is not the books focus: memory is. Indeed, her insights on the memory and aftereffects of the CR are highly compelling, with the CR straddling a strange grey zone in Chinese official and collective memory.
Individually and collectively, the CR remains a deep trauma for its survivors, and indeed, the children of survivors. Officially, the CR is a relatively taboo topic, largely absent from official discourse, yet not entirely effaced (like the 1989 massacre), so that its history emerges within small islands of memory amidst a sea of official vacuity - to rephrase a quote from the book.
As Tania argues, the CR was the hinge through which China entered its modernity. Not just politically and economically with the rise of Deng Xiaoping and his economic reforms, but pyschologically for the population at large. Family bonds were shattered and social structures were upturned as a generation was sucked into the whirlwind of mass hysteria, denouncements, and paranoia; characterstic of a revolution devouring its own children. Through this, Tania argues, has emerged the dizzying pace of modern life in China, the growth of individualism, economic inequality, and the CCP dedicated to maintaing its political power through societal stability.
All these are fascinating theses, and I wish the book was longer to explore them in more detail. Branigan also has a brilliant writing style, both accessible and precise, free from academic jargon and highly insightful. Nevertheless, it is her first book, and some of this shows in the books organization and flow. Overall though, an amazing read that has me wanting to learn much more about Chinese history.
January 18, 2024
I remember learning about the Cultural Revolution back in my high school history classes, but never considered it from a lens of memory and transgenerational trauma. Branigan¡¯s exploration of this violent period in China¡¯s history helps us to better understand China¡¯s current political climate.
China¡¯s policing practices of using facial recognition technology and social credit systems (where you rate your neighbors for their public virtue) are just 21st century solutions taken straight out of Mao¡¯s playbook, aimed at severing familial bonds and inciting suspicion within communities.
It was shocking to learn that children, called the Red Guards, were the ¡°soldiers¡± enlisted to carry out Mao¡¯s bidding during the Cultural Revolution. The quote, ¡°The teenagers doing the killing were not feral as much as well drilled,¡± perfectly encapsulates the role of children and teenagers during this turbulent time.
Even more terrifying, are the parallels Branigan makes between Trump and Mao, ¡°Donald Trump, with his love of disruption and discord, his ability to channel the public's id, was in that regard a more Maoist leader¡± (247).
Impactful quotes -
- ¡°History, in China, sometimes feels like a war¡± (75).
- ¡°I wondered how the young were supposed to understand what they weren¡¯t allowed to know¡± (190).
- ¡°In the West, a universe away, it was the year of Twiggy and Blow-Up; of Revolver, Pet Sounds and Blonde on Blonde; of acid, Andy Warhol and Haight-Ashbury¡± (63).
- ¡°It was the decade that cleaved modern China in two; the pivot between socialist Utopianism and capitalist frenzy, between merciless uniformity and pitiless individualism¡± (17).
China¡¯s policing practices of using facial recognition technology and social credit systems (where you rate your neighbors for their public virtue) are just 21st century solutions taken straight out of Mao¡¯s playbook, aimed at severing familial bonds and inciting suspicion within communities.
It was shocking to learn that children, called the Red Guards, were the ¡°soldiers¡± enlisted to carry out Mao¡¯s bidding during the Cultural Revolution. The quote, ¡°The teenagers doing the killing were not feral as much as well drilled,¡± perfectly encapsulates the role of children and teenagers during this turbulent time.
Even more terrifying, are the parallels Branigan makes between Trump and Mao, ¡°Donald Trump, with his love of disruption and discord, his ability to channel the public's id, was in that regard a more Maoist leader¡± (247).
Impactful quotes -
- ¡°History, in China, sometimes feels like a war¡± (75).
- ¡°I wondered how the young were supposed to understand what they weren¡¯t allowed to know¡± (190).
- ¡°In the West, a universe away, it was the year of Twiggy and Blow-Up; of Revolver, Pet Sounds and Blonde on Blonde; of acid, Andy Warhol and Haight-Ashbury¡± (63).
- ¡°It was the decade that cleaved modern China in two; the pivot between socialist Utopianism and capitalist frenzy, between merciless uniformity and pitiless individualism¡± (17).
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