Cultural Revolution vs. French Revolution

Perhaps it is because of my interest in China and Chinese history but I am rather familiar with the Cultural Revolution and consider it to be one of a series of tragedies that have occurred under the Communist Party. However, I find it particularly egregious that there has been very little in the way of official study that would allow for complete disclosure of the tragedy. Instead, it has been glossed over officially in China with no serious attempts at understanding what happened and why - and any attempts to do so are strongly dissuaded at best if not resulting in detention or worse. Surely the horrors, the breakdown of family and society, the destruction of historical sites and artifacts would all resonate with the victims and encourage some form of reflection to determine the causes and learn how to prevent a repeat action. Yet it is seemingly ignored in the official annals - perhaps with good reason on the part of the leadership.

After doing some reading lately on the French Revolution, I learned more of the events of that time and the horrors that were visited upon the French as a result. And what is frightening are the similarities between the French Revolution and the Cultural Revolution in China less than 200 years later. The tyranny of a few fighting for power and overthrowing the established order by seeking radically extreme views of constant revolution (Robespierre, Marat & Danton among others in Franch, Mao in China), the destruction of the monarchy in France and the rightists in China, and the breakdown of social order and its replacement by chaos and anarchy.

Yet the terror of the French Revolution is now condemned to history and its lessons learned by a population that has not repeated those mistakes. The problems of the Cultural Revolution are more known outside of China than they are in the country. There is uncertainty whether it could be repeated. Those who suffered during the Cultural Revolution either are unwilling to speak of it or are openly prevented from doing so - after all, it was in the past and "mistakes were made" but the implication is that China cannot move into the future unless it forgets the negative past. However, it is the very belief that the past should be forgotten in order to concentrate on the future that prevents China from attaining the prosperous future it foresees for itself. It is impossible to see the future and work hard to succeed when you cannot overcome the past. This is true for individuals and no less true for nations.

Unless and until China and its citizens are able to become more introspective and view their history in a more dispassionate manner - rather than the enforced, faux-positive nationalistic viewpoint supported by the Communist Party - there will be no way to overcome that past and move forward to attain the goals they have set for themselves.

Chinese Harmony

I was reading some things today and one of the things that caught my eye had to do with the Chinese desire for social harmony and how strongly the government argues that it cannot permit any protests or disagreement with its method of governance. Whenever an activist or dissident attempts to raise his or her voice about their concerns with things in China (and there is certainly no lack of things to worry or be upset about in China - much like anyplace else on Earth), they are typically hushed up either through intimidation or arrest. The reason for this is that the government is unwilling to tolerate any dissent and would prefer that everyone simply live in harmony with one another. After all, there has been enough chaos and anarchy in recent Chinese history and there is no need to repeat it according to the government.

What the government typically neglects to point out, however, is that all of the disharmony that existed in the recent past is due directly to the government and its actions - most notably by Mao. The Cultural Revolution was orchestrated and directed by Mao (vis-a-vis his intermediaries in the Gang of Four who were subsequently assigned all of the blame after Mao's death so as to preserve Mao's stature) and that is the most grievous example of the social disharmony brought on by the government. This does not include the student protests in 1976 after Zhou Enlai's death, the protests in 1989 after Hu Yaobang's death, the Hundred Flowers campaign and the Great Leap Forward in the 1950's or the numerous bloody purges that took place as a result of Mao's desire for constant revolution to weed out any potential opposition. Furthermore, it is the distinct lack of any critical review of those times, official or unofficial, within China that allows for the ability to learn from those mistakes. Instead, they are glossed over as an unfortunate period of time in which there was much chaos (without probing too deeply into the actual reasons why) and a deep desire to only move forward and develop a deep sense of nationalistic pride.

Unfortunately, the only way in which harmony can truly be achieved is to come to terms with the past and to be able to move past it. Possibly the best example of this would be post-apartheid South Africa which, while not perfect (but what ever is perfect?), offers the vision of what can be achieved when the aggrieved can have the opportunity to reconcile with the aggressors. Perhaps this can never be achieved (after all, one of Mao's stated objectives during the Cultural Revolution was to destroy all of the relationships upon which society was framed) but, if it is not even tried, there can be no hope of ever moving past it and it will forever stain the social fabric of China - let alone prevent any chance at the social harmony that the government preaches ad nauseam at the remotest threat of disagreement.

Lessons not learned

Of course I was 100 percent behind everything that happened in the Cultural Revolution — it was a terrific experience.

To offer some perspective for Americans (or other Westerners), the Cultural Revolution is a mix of the most radical aspects of the upheaval of the 1960's and 70's combined with some of the heartbreak that tore families apart during the Civil War (or the War between the States, as it is sometimes known). It would be useless to offer more substantive details when there are several books that detail that lost decade in Chinese history where the country essentially went crazy. A Google search is a good place to start. I would also recommend Nien Cheng's Life and Death in Shanghai, a very moving, personal tale of survival during the Cultural Revolution.

Regardless, I digress. The above quote is attributed to Joan Hinton, a physicist who helped to work on the Manhattan Project who grew disillusioned and subsequently moved to China. Reading the quote at the end of her obituary in the New York Times, however, floored me for two reasons. First, I find it hard to believe that anyone could see any good in the Cultural Revolution - particularly anyone forced to live through it. Second, for anyone to make a comment like that, regarding a decade-long event that ultimately cost the lives of untold numbers of millions and refashioned its survivors into the "Lost Generation", shows a glaring inability to rationalize the theoretical with the practical.

Rarely does anyone who lived through the Cultural Revolution have any desire to discuss it or its impact on their lives. The actions that people took during that time revealed the lowest depths to which people would sink in order to survive. If anything, the survivors have striven to forget. Ms. Hinton's comments reveal a shocking inability to relate to the horrors that others lived through. That Ms. Hinton should have so overtly praised an event (and its creator) that caused so much suffering to an entire nation is, well, mind-boggling. Further, they indicate that she is more tied to an abstract world of theoretical ideas than their impact on the real (and often practical) world and that the reality of the practical application of said ideas apparently held no burden for her whatsoever. While it is one thing to adhere to a particular ideological worldview, it is quite another to impose it upon others when the adherent is unwilling to participate in the suffering if (or, in this case, when) it should go awry. But to praise the Cultural Revolution in the face of overwhelming evidence of its terrible impact is evidence that the power of the idea was more important to her than its practical application.

And yet, it seems that she was more practical than such a comment would otherwise indicate. After all, though she spent most of her later years in China, she never gave up her US passport, claiming that it made travel easier for her. Yet she never failed to condemn US actions regarding the nuclear weapons (her thoughts on the Chinese possession and use of nuclear weapons apparently remains unknown); actions that were, and still are, allowed under US law but would not have been permitted in China under Mao - or any subsequent leader since his death.

While Joan Hinton may have passed on, the ideas in which she believed so fervently over the practical realities of an existence she obviously wished not to see, persist with others who deliberately choose to remain similarly obtuse.