The Cultural Revolution: A case history

1. Shen's early home life was marked by the shadow of the mid-1960s Cultural Revolution and Red Guard. His paternal grandparents, marked by envious bureaucrats as "antisocialist," committed suicide rather than be humiliated by the Red Guard (7). Although his parents had careers as teachers, when they resigned their posts in hope of getting better jobs in Beijing, they were assigned to a chemical factory (8). State housing obliged Shen's family to live in a rundown tenement, but Shen developed a love for books and traditional Chinese culture. His parents were educated and bookish and because his grandmother Nainai would teach him "in the old style" (10), with traditional stories and poetry. Even so, Shen's regular education also included Chinese propaganda against the West, which proved confusing when Deng Xiaoping began to open China to Western influences. Living near downtown Beijing and Tiananmen Square also exposed Shen to world events. He cites in particular the seeing foreign dignitaries pass by from time to time and the protracted mourning after the death of the progressive Zhou Enlai, which evolved into leafleting the square with attacks on the Cultural Revolution. The "Gang of Four" denounced and suppressed the activity as counterrevolutionary.

2. In China, access to higher education is a significant life-tracking device, but the path to higher education was dedication to the Chinese Communist Party. Thus because Shen was something of an irreverent rascal, he found h

Related Essays

The Technological Communications Revolution .... is that the electronic media revolution happened over .... A cultural studies approach (and he emphasizes that .... of his second significant case history, the broadcast .... (1547 6 )

The Cultural Revolution in China .... break with the past, shifting from the imperial history of China .... Take the case of my father. .... China is very much a product of the Cultural Revolution and its .... (2343 9 )

Life and Death in Shanghai .... most tumultuous time in China's recent history, yet in .... the targets of the propaganda of the Proletarian Cultural Revolution. .... the way to clear up her case (134 .... (1882 8 )

China and Revolution .... In the case of China, though, the migration is .... Many of the periods in Chinese history over the .... the West unprepared, among them the Cultural Revolution and the .... (2642 11 )

Modern China & Western Capitalism .... the many xenophobic periods throughout China's history ranging from .... Clearly, here is a case of profit motive .... children of the first Cultural Revolution sought a .... (2150 9 )

Category: Foreign - T