Born Red: A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution, by Gao Yuan(1987)

(1987)

Stanford University Press

(Memoir)

Gao recalls his experiences as a schoolboy between the spring of 1966 and 1969. At the time, he was in middle school, and he and his fellow students were swept up in the furor of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Initially, they watched as teachers and administrators turned on themselves, denouncing one another as landlords and “capitalist roaders.” Soon, the students were inspired to “make revolution” themselves and began accusing their teachers of betraying Maoist thought. Mr. Gao and his peers became members of the Red Guard and witnessed and participated in “struggle sessions” where adults were publicly humiliated and physically abused. Eventually, the students split into factions and prepare to go to war against one another until their conflict is put down by the arrival of the military.  As their world spirals out of control, Mr. Gao finds safety by enlisting in the People’s Liberation Army. Later, he attended Stanford University, where he composed his recollection of these turbulent three years.

Although this “chronicle” is not strictly historical, Mr. Gao’s account brings to life the real-life consequences of the Cultural Revolution. His descriptions of the treatment of those accused of being “bourgeois reactionaries” evoke both horror and sympathy, while his portrayal of middle school cliques empowered by militaristic fervor put anything from The Lord of the Flies or Fahrenheit 451 to shame.

“In the meantime, Weiha worked as a volunteer in the county bookstore. Each day, he brought home outdated picture books that he had rescued from the trash heap—a children’s version of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and other vestiges of the Four Olds. I attended to Grandpa, whose bronchitis worsened again as the cold weather set in. He stayed on the kang all day, choking and sputtering. I made him tea, which he drank right from the spout of a small porcelain teapot. Sometimes he would ask me to go out and buy cigarettes to make him cough so he could clear his throat, despite the doctor’s orders not to smoke.”  (345 “The Irretrievable Past”)