Cultural Revolution Madness
The following snippets of Cultural Revolution madness came from Jan Wong's Red China Blues.
In 1973, a former Red Guard reportedly took a university entrance exam. He showed up late for the exam and scrawled across the top of his test paper that "life is too hard in the countryside - I had no time to prepare for the exams." Then he handed in a blank piece of paper.
The student was later dubbed a hero, by Madame Mao (江青).
Renowned Chinese director Chen Kaige (陈凯歌, pictured), whose evocative Farewell My Concubine won the 1993 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, was said to have betrayed his father - also a successful movie director - during the Cultural Revolution.
At a mass rally, Chen denounced his father, shoved him around, then stood by as his Red Guard classmates ransacked the family home and burned their books.
As Wong wrote: "Chen's three-hour epic, about the tragic fate of three actors during the Cultural Revolution, was partly intended as a tribute - and an apology - to his father."
In 1973, a former Red Guard reportedly took a university entrance exam. He showed up late for the exam and scrawled across the top of his test paper that "life is too hard in the countryside - I had no time to prepare for the exams." Then he handed in a blank piece of paper.
The student was later dubbed a hero, by Madame Mao (江青).
Renowned Chinese director Chen Kaige (陈凯歌, pictured), whose evocative Farewell My Concubine won the 1993 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, was said to have betrayed his father - also a successful movie director - during the Cultural Revolution.
At a mass rally, Chen denounced his father, shoved him around, then stood by as his Red Guard classmates ransacked the family home and burned their books.
As Wong wrote: "Chen's three-hour epic, about the tragic fate of three actors during the Cultural Revolution, was partly intended as a tribute - and an apology - to his father."
posted by Maria Siow @ 7:11 PM
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