During this course we have examined the Cultural Revolution through various means. One of the tools we used to gain insight into the specific chronological chain of events is the historical monograph called Mao’s Last Revolution. This is a large book consisting of specific accounts of events in a structured factual manner. This is an advantage if you are interested in a specific event in the Cultural Revolution. When information on the Red Guards is needed you can open up this book and find the chapter that deals exclusively with the Red Guards. This is convenient when you need to reference a specific detail, but the information is not elaborated in anyway. For example in the Red Guards chapter it says, “The prime task laid down in the
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The use of fiction in a history class may seem counter intuitive, but trust me it is not. In this class we were required to read a fictional book that was based in the Cultural Revolution. The book, called Serve The People, depicts a forbidden love affair between a division commander’s wife and her house servant. This kind of recourse is surprisingly effective in helping the reader understand what life was like working for the government during the Cultural Revolution. This is a major advantage because during this class the material has had a straightforward approach in the way it presents the information, but this straightforward approach leaves the reader in the dark when it comes to the context of what the time period truly resembled. For example, in the book Serve The People when Wu Dawang accidentally drops a plaster statue of chairman Mao it says, “However, as he opened the door, an accident of incalculable counter-revolutionary enormity occurred – one that threatened the very fabric of society and state; something far more serious then stamping on one of chairman Mao’s quotations” (Yan, P.132). This kind of information on how taboo the relics, specifically the smashing, of Mao truly would be unknown with out the representation that fiction can bring to the table. One disadvantage that fiction can have is that if the reader has no previous knowledge on the subject matter, such as the Cultural Revolution, then the reader will not fully understand the story being told. If the reader had no clue who chairman Mao was then the quote about smashing his quotes would mean nothing at all to the
The use of fiction in a history class may seem counter intuitive, but trust me it is not. In this class we were required to read a fictional book that was based in the Cultural Revolution. The book, called Serve The People, depicts a forbidden love affair between a division commander’s wife and her house servant. This kind of recourse is surprisingly effective in helping the reader understand what life was like working for the government during the Cultural Revolution. This is a major advantage because during this class the material has had a straightforward approach in the way it presents the information, but this straightforward approach leaves the reader in the dark when it comes to the context of what the time period truly resembled. For example, in the book Serve The People when Wu Dawang accidentally drops a plaster statue of chairman Mao it says, “However, as he opened the door, an accident of incalculable counter-revolutionary enormity occurred – one that threatened the very fabric of society and state; something far more serious then stamping on one of chairman Mao’s quotations” (Yan, P.132). This kind of information on how taboo the relics, specifically the smashing, of Mao truly would be unknown with out the representation that fiction can bring to the table. One disadvantage that fiction can have is that if the reader has no previous knowledge on the subject matter, such as the Cultural Revolution, then the reader will not fully understand the story being told. If the reader had no clue who chairman Mao was then the quote about smashing his quotes would mean nothing at all to the