Hong wei bing - The Red Guard Generation and Political Activism in China

TheRED GUARD GENERATIONandPOLITICAL ACTIVISMinCHINA

Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University

STUDIES OF THE WEATHERHEAD EAST ASIAN INSTITUTE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

The Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute of Columbia University were inaugurated in 1962 to bring to a wider public the results of significant new research on modern and contemporary East Asia.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Yang, Guobin.

Title: The Red Guard generation and political activism in China / Guobin Yang.

Description: New York : Columbia University Press, 2016. | Series: Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015039845 | ISBN 9780231149648 (cloth : acid-free paper) | ISBN 9780231520485 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Chongqing (China)Politics and government20th century. | Hong wei bingHistory20th century. | Hong wei bingBiography. | Political activistsChinaChongqingInterviews. | Social movementsChinaChongqingHistory20th century. | YouthPolitical activityChinaChongqingHistory20th century. | Political violenceChinaChongqingHistory20th century. | InterviewsChinaChongqing. | Urban-rural migrationPolitical aspectsChinaHistory20th century. | ChinaHistoryCultural Revolution, 19661976.

Classification: LCC DS796.C59257 Y36 | DDC 951/.38dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015039845

Cover Design: Alex Camlin

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To Lan and Jeff

This Book is Based on the analysis of three types of primary data collected over a period of almost twenty years. These are historical documents, retrospective documents, and interviews and life histories. Most of the interviews were conducted in 1998 and 1999 for my doctoral dissertation at New York University, which was completed in 2000. Since then, large volumes of new collections of Red Guard publications, memoirs, and scholarly monographs have become available, which I have made full use of. I also made new research trips to China, especially a trip to Chongqing in the winter of 2009 for archival research. Additional interviews were also conducted.

Historical Documents

My analysis of the Red Guard movement is based on Red Guard publications produced during the movement and official newspapers of that period. I examined all 148 volumes of Red Guard newspaper reprints now available. These are:

Hong wei bing zi liao [Red Guard publications]. 20 vols. Oakton, VA: Center for Chinese Research Materials, 1975.

Hong wei bing zi liao xu bian yi [Red Guard publications supplement 1]. 8 vols. Oakton, VA: Center for Chinese Research Materials, 1980.

Hong wei bing zi liao xu bian er [Red Guard publications supplement 2]. 8 vols. Oakton, VA: Center for Chinese Research Materials, 1992.

Xin bian hong wei bing zi liao [A new collection of Red Guard publications]. 20 vols., ed. Zhou Yuan. Oakton, VA: Center for Chinese Research Materials, 1999.

Xin bian hong wei bing zi liao II [A new collection of Red Guard publications, part 2: a special compilation of newspapers in Beijing area]. 40 vols., ed. Yongyi Song. Oakton, VA: Center for Chinese Research Materials, 2001.

Xin bian hong wei bing zi liao III [A new collection of Red Guard publications, part 3: a comprehensive compilation of tabloids in the provinces]. 52 vols., ed. Yongyi Song. Oakton, VA: Center for Chinese Research Materials, 2005.

In addition, I also made use of the Cultural Revolution electronic database edited by Yongyi Song in 2002.

For the Red Guard movement in Chongqing, I studied local archives in the fabulous Chongqing Library, which had gazettes of each district of the city and some factories, schools, and universities. Although many of these archives were not open to the public at the time of my visit in 2009, I was fortunate enough to gain access through the introduction of friends in Chongqing.

In addition, I consulted several hundred unpublished diaries and notebooks from the 1950s and 1960s among the Cultural Revolution Diaries, part of the East Asian Collection of the University of Melbourne Library, and the Yang Zhichao: Chinese Bible collection of the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation in Sydney curated by Dr. Claire Roberts.

Historical materials for the sent-down experiences include letters, diaries, poems, songs, and other works produced by sent-down youth during the period. Many of these were published in the decades since the end of the sent-down campaign. They are not listed in the bibliography unless they are cited.

The April Fifth movement, the Democracy Wall movement, and the democratic elections in universities in 1980 yielded many movement documents. The most comprehensive document collection of the Democracy Wall movement was the Ta lu ti hsia kan wu hui pien (Collection of mainland underground publications), published in Taipei between 1980 and 1984 in twenty volumes. Documents for the democratic elections in 1980 have been collected in KaituoBeida xueyun wenxian, edited by Hu Ping and Wang Juntao and published in 1990.

Retrospective Documents

These include book-length memoirs and short essays in collected volumes. Numerous memoirs about the Cultural Revolution are published in English and Chinese. I have mainly used Chinese-language rather than English-language memoirs, because English memoirs target specific kinds of audiences and have been subject to much critique. See, for example, Kong, Swan and Spider Eater in Problematic Memoirs of Cultural Revolution and Zarrow, Meanings of Chinas Cultural Revolution: Memoirs of Exile.

The study of factionalism in Chongqing is greatly facilitated by the many memoirs written by former rebel leaders and published in recent years outside of China. These include memoirs by Huang Lian, Huang Ronghua, Huang Zhaoyan, Li Musen, Li Zhengquan, Yang Zengtai, and Zhou Ziren. I have also read many of the memoirs by former rebels and Red Guards in other parts of the country, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Hunan. These are not listed in the bibliography unless they are cited.

The sent-down experiences are the subject of numerous volumes of retrospective essays published in collected volumes. I have a personal collection of over fifty volumes that were published in 1998 alone on the thirtieth anniversary of the beginning of the sent-down movement. Many more volumes have been published since 1998.

Since 2008, two online journals, Remembrance and Yesterday, have generated large volumes of both historical and retrospective documents about the Maoist erawell over ten thousand pages as of March 2015which I have made use of.

Interviews and Life Histories