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Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution
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About This Book
"It is impossible to understand China today without understanding the Cultural Revolution," Tania Branigan writes. During this decade of Maoist fanaticism between 1966 and 1976, children condemned parents, students condemned teachers, and as many as two million people died for their supposed political sins, while tens of millions were hounded, ostracized, and imprisoned. Yet in China this brutal and turbulent period exists, for the most part, as an absence; official suppression and personal trauma have conspired in national amnesia. Red Memory uncovers forty years of silence through the stories of individuals who lived through the madness. Deftly exploring how this era defined a generation and continues to impact China today, Branigan asks: 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?
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Reviews
"This is essential reading for China watchers."
"This is a book about their search for meaning, even when the search comes up short ..."
"Stunning, profound and gorgeously written, "Red Memory" is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding China today."
"Branigan ends with an excellent analysis of how contemporary Chinese politicians seek to mimic the Cultural Revolution while following very different paths ..."
"The result is a survey of China's invisible scars that makes essential reading for anyone seeking to better understand the nation today."
"This communal trauma is where the simultaneous aggression and insecurity that shape Chinese policy come from; it's the malaise driving this powerful nation."
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