Dear Comrades,
I know you all haven’t heard from me for a while, but I need to update you of the impact of the Cultural Revolution. It is 1977, and the revolution has come to an end, and I am in tears that our beloved Chairman Mao has passed away. In his book, Son of the Revolution, Liang Heng discusses the changes caused from the Cultural Revolution. Although I strongly suggest everyone read this book, to quickly grasp the meaning of this revolution, I will provide you all with this single quote.
The reading describes the event when Heng’s father frantically defended himself in an argument with his son, saying: “It’s because I’m none of those things that I believe the Party and Chairman Mao. I’ve done nothing to wrong you. You can continue to participate in the Revolution. If you want to, you can break off with me. Go live at school if you like. But I’ll tell you one thing. No matter how you hate me, I’ve always been loyal to Chairman Mao. And I’ve always supported the Party and Socialism.”
It is this quote that sums up the Cultural Revolution. From an emotional standpoint, this quote outlines the feelings the revolution incited, including fear, guilt, and betrayal etc. Fear of being labeled a rightist, or a defector of the party. Guilt, as in this case the father was guilty about his past statements about the party. The son demanding answers is also guilty about a member of his family having a troubled past, and if he is a reflection of his fathers outrageous bourgeoisie actions. This also reaffirms the increase for the emotion of betrayal, in the sense of betraying the traditional family unit, and relationships. The father here, understands that his son is considering moving out, and cutting off all contact with his father. This was a period of great uncertainty, where even one’s closest people around them were not to be trusted, which led to feelings of betrayal becoming contagious.
This quote also emphasized the meaning of a revolution. Revolution stems from revolutionary, a descriptive word for producing of immense change. The immense change, was the separation from the Confucius ideas of respecting your elders, maintaining a close family unit, instead it introduced the concept that the party is always the priority, being you are a shell of the party. Individualism no longer existed, and everyone was expected and needed to be loyal to the party, and that meant commonly betraying others, living in fear, being guilty for past actions or actions of others close to you etc. Indeed, This was a true revolution.
Interesting quote. I disagree with your last statements on individualism. If the Party truly succeeded in creating a conformist culture, there would have been no need for the Cultural Revolution, and if it succeeded there would have been no backlash against the Gang of Four, and there would have been no reason to allow criticism in the aftermath of it. Liang Heng’s story demonstrates what it is like to be an individual during a period of social upheaval. After all, Liang never lost his individuality as seen in the last chapters of his memoir.
I think the Cultural Revolution begs the question if people disagreeing with the Party makes them capitalists, rightists, etc. or if they’re doing so because the Party has warranted this dissent. Maybe the people targeted during the Cultural Revolution weren’t actually “guilty” of anything, rather, it was those who targeted people, like the Gang of Four, who were guilty of acts that warranted this resistance and dissent.
I think you chose an interesting quote. It encapsulates the desperation many people felt in a time of immense stress and chaos. Many innocent, devoted members of the Party were targeted for counter-revolutionary ideologies that seemed arbitrary and false.