Another Cultural Revolution Story

In 1965, a Hunanese writer Zhou Libo wrote what had been described as "a rather pedestrian and in places inaccurate account" of Mao Zedong's (毛泽东) 1959 visit to Shaoshan (韶山).

The article was published in a provincial newspaper, and included a one-line reference to Mao's visit to his parents' tomb.

But a year later the Cultural Revolution erupted, and the article was denounced by the national secret police chief Kang Sheng (康生) as a "Great Poisonous Weed which Slandered the Brilliant Image of our Great Proletarian Leader".

Even though Zhou defended himself by asking "don't communists have parents too?", he was severely beaten by the Red Guards for daring to reveal that Mao had indulged in this "feudal" custom.