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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?
Reviews
"A narrative account of the period that also doubles as a meditation on how suppressed memories and trauma can haunt a society that has never had a proper reckoning with the horrors of its past ..."
"Some of the profiles in the book thus feel a little thin, the key players in certain events either unwilling to share more and admit their culpability or suspiciously made unavailable at the last moment, almost certainly under state coercion."
"She wants to know what it all means, not just for the political future of China but also for understanding human nature and the place of memory in society."
"The result is a survey of China's invisible scars that makes essential reading for anyone seeking to better understand the nation today."
"At the heart of Branigan's book is a series of remarkable interviews which she says would not be possible to conduct under the more restrictive environment for reporters in Xi Jinping's China today ..."
"A heartbreaking, revelatory evocation."
"Particularly valuable is the author's perception of the absence of clearly demarcated good and evil ..."
"Their narratives are told with sensitivity, interspersed with eloquent ruminations on memory and political erasure ..."
"Wang's account of what happened during one of China's darkest moments is a powerful companion to Branigan's compelling account of why it still haunts the very different country of today."
"This is essential reading for China watchers."
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