Cultural Revolution In The Red Years, By Ji Xianlin

The first article, “The Red Years,” describes the uprising of the Cultural Revolution and the toll it took on China. Once Mau and the Communist party came to power in China, some serious changes started to occur. Mao wanted the class enemies within the nation to be punished, and so he started recruiting the young people to stand up against them in a Cultural Revolution. At this point, the class system was flipped around. Those from a low class background became the new leaders, becoming “Red Guards.” In contrast, the people who came from a high class were now treated with extreme disrespect. The Red Guards would raid their homes and abuse them simply because they were seen as not being for the people. This is the excuse the Red Guards would use to do so much harm to the people of China. The Red Guards would go on to loot and pillage many Chinese citizens in the name of “revolution.” They would enter homes without permission, take any valuables …show more content…
The reason he did this was out of fear. He did not want to make it seem like he was getting revenge on people that persecuted him during the revolution. He says, “whenever I am tempted to get back at my persecutors, I think back to the atmosphere on campus during the Cultural Revolution, when anyone who joined a faction seem to have drunk personality-altering potion that alienated them from their own humanity and made them nonhuman” (Author’s Preface). Thinking back to the way things were during the Cultural Revolution brings up some bad memories for him. Hence, he was not ready to think back on his experience until sixteen years later. Additionally, he knew that some of his persecutors became victims as well. Even before he was being persecuted, he had been in favor of persecuting others. It was all just a part of the Cultural Revolution. Many victims had also victimized others, hence why he did not want