The Daunting Red Guards

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, beginning as a campaign targeted at removing Chairman Mao Zedong's political opponents, was a time when practically every aspect of Chinese society was in pandemonium. From 1966 through 1969, Mao encouraged revolutionary committees, including the red guards, to take power from the Chinese Communist party authorities of the state. The Red Guards, the majority being young adults, rose up against their teachers, parents, and neighbors. Following Mao and his ideas, The Red Guard's main goal was to eliminate all remnants of the old culture in China. They were the "frontline implementers" who produced havoc, used bloody force, punished supposed "counter revolutionists", and overthrew government officials, all in order to support their "beloved leader".

"Red Guards" was a title given to people belonging to many different social groups: workers, peasants, demobilized soldiers and students. A vast majority of the people in this group were youngsters in their mid-teens, who were summoned at their middle schools by Mao. The Red Guard youth soon turned from obedient to rebellious students. Red Scarf Girl is a novel based on truth, terror and courage during the Cultural Revolution. The following excerpt discusses about the hundreds of wall posters the young Red Guard's wrote, which discriminated against teachers, and members of their community.

"Sheet after sheet, article after article, each da-zi-bao was a bitter accusation. One was titled, "Teacher Li, Abuser of the Young." The student had failed to hand in her homework on time, and Teacher Li had told her to copy the assignment over five times as punishment. Another student said his teacher had deliberately ruined his students' eyesight by making them read a lot, so they could not join the Liberation Army. Still another accused Teacher Wang of attempting to corrupt a young revolutionary by buying her some bread when he learned that she had not eaten lunch." (42)

With the incentive of being promoted, the youth set out to change the whole educational system. The students denounced the old curriculum and lessons, which taught abstract ideas not pertaining to the revolution. They vilified respectable administrators, whose only intentions were to educate children and turn them into intelligent young adults. This disruption in the education system set back China's development, and encouraged a new generation of ignoramus people. The youth soon moved from their school to the streets, by making posters, speeches, and committing violent acts in the name of the Cultural Revolution.

The role of Red Guard was mainly to attack the "four olds" of society, as well as purging all bourgeois elements within the government. The following excerpt, from an interview between an ex-red guard father and his daughter, explains what the four olds were:

"We were told to destroy four types of things: 1 ~ anything of the old feudal culture (relics, statues, monuments); 2 ~ anything connected to capitalism; 3 ~ anything related to the development of the mind (libraries, old university buildings, art, classical musical instruments); 4 ~ traditional Confucian customs, symbols, philosophy and education." (Interview with Mr. Nie)

The Red Guards used the four olds as a basic guideline on what to attack and not to attack. Another standard, which all revolutionary efforts were to be judged by, was from Mao's ideas found in his little red book of quotations. The little red book was a collection of quotations taken from Mao's past speeches and publications.

The Red Guards' actions were a reflection of Mao's policy of revamping passion, and destroying counter-revolutionary symbols. "They named and renamed street signs and buildings, and ransacked museums and destroyed old books and works of art. Many famous buildings like temples and shrines and heritages were destroyed. 4,922 out of a total 6,843 were destroyed." (Encarta). Squads of Red Guards formed, and began to go from house to house, searching for any possible example of corruption, which sometimes included the homes of teachers, relatives, and even their own families. When the houses were raided and ransacked, anything that was considered "contraband" was destroyed-- at all costs. The Red Guards' allegations against their victims were becoming more and more outrageous and ridiculous. One example of this was that a person could be charged and punished if they didn't own an extra volume of Mao's publications. Along with ransacking houses, they also held public executions for supposed "counter revolutionists" and killed and tortured their relatives.

In one of Mao's teachings, he expressed the vitality of everyone being equal in society. "We would never wear anything bright except the [red] armband and tried to look all the same in dress" (interview with Mr. Nie). This showed how Mao wanted everyone to look uniform, and if anyone wore any "foreign" style of clothing or bold colors, they were considered upper class, and labeled a counter revolutionist. Mao stressed the importance of eliminating all bourgeois elements. In the novel "Life and Death in Shanghai", a young woman was thrown into jail, because she was under suspicion of being a spy for a foreign government. These charges were outrageous, because the only reasoning they had was because she had friends from work that were from a different country. But, since she was considered a "threat", she was imprisoned, and spent 7 years in an execrable prison. This was just one example of the millions of people who were imprisoned during this time. Mao also introduced the concept of being considered rich a shameful act. People wearing or showing any sort of rich item was considered bad, and a counter-revolutionist. Anyone owning any sort of valuables was also seen as rich and cruel. According to Ji Li Jiang in the novel "Red Scarf Girl", her family had to destroy their precious family heirlooms by painting over them. They also had to throw away priceless silk dresses, or be faced with awful punishments.

The Red Guards used many different methods of punishment to "teach" the criminals of society not to make the same mistake again. One form of punishment was to throw the prosecutor in prison. As mentioned in the novel Life and Death in Shanghai, by Nien Cheng, the prisoners were beaten, malnourished, disease-stricken, and few survived the experience. There were also many other cruel punishments. Some victims were forced to chew on shattered