Fragmented Memories
of the Chinese Cultural Revolution
To continue the discussions about
the Cultural Revolution generation I started here last week, I’d like to
mention today that memories of the Cultural Revolution are fragmented by genres
and social groups. Here is an incomplete list:
a)
Official narratives (e.g. Jin Chunming’s Short
History of the Cultural Revolution and officially endorsed memoirs).
b)
Narratives by victims of the Cultural
Revolution, mostly high-level officials and intellectuals. These appeared
mostly in the 1980s in the years immediately after the Cultural Revolution.
c)
“Memoirs of exile”: These are English-language book-length
memoirs published outside of China including such titles as Wild Swans.
d)
Literature of “the wounded” in the late 1970s
and early 1980s. These include both prose, fiction, poetry, film, and drama.
e)
“zhiqing” (educated youth) literature of the
1980s. Overlaps with “root-seeking literature” of the type written by Ah Cheng
(my favorite is Chess King).
f) Nostalgic reminiscences of zhiqing in the 1990s.
These are collections of short personal stories in Chinese. Numerous volumes
were published in the late 1990s, when many members of the Cultural Revolution were
laid off in the process of the privatization of state-owned enterprises.
g) Memoirs by former rebel leaders. After the
Cultural Revolution, many were indicted and served time in prison. Those who
wrote memoirs (e.g. Nie Yuanzi and Kuai Dafu) defended their behavior in the CR.
h) Documentary films about victims of the Cultural
Revolution, such as Hu Jie’s Though I Am Gone (我虽死去)
and Searching for Lin Zhao’s Soul (寻找林昭的灵魂).
i) Web sites (blogs, online forums, etc)
about the Cultural Revolution.
j) Virtual museums of the Cultural Revolution (e.g. here).
If you think of others, please let
me know.
Sociologists often talk about
collective memory, but it’s hard to talk about collective memories of the Cultural Revolution. There are really only
fragmented memories. They differ by genre, social group, and even time. For
example, memories of Cultural Revolution in the 1980s were different from the 1990s,
partly reflecting what was politically permissible and partly because people’s
memories of the past are shaped by their present experiences and concerns.
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