Eric Yan

Ms. Vitale
Modern World History
2021.05.31
Research and Synthesis
An interview with my grandfather provided me with an investigation starting point. To be
a person who had experienced the Cultural Revolution, he shared a lot of his own experiences
and insights. In his words, the so-called beginning was about the publication of the Decision of
the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Great Proletarian Cultural
Revolution. The government admired the idea of abolishing the old and advocating the new
(socialism/communism).
The government called on the people to oppose the bourgeoisie who were against
academic authority. At that time, it was mainly criticized, which was in the form of Big
tweets, Big open, Big character posters, and Big debates.1
The students were divided into different factions, the rebel faction was one of them. The rebel
faction was established by students at that time. Those who joined in the rebel faction were
presented as the Red Guards. The Red Guards were groups of militant university and high school
students formed into paramilitary units as part of the Cultural Revolution. These young people
often wore green jackets similar to the uniforms of the Chinese army at the time, with red
armbands attached to one of the sleeves.2 The hostile faction of the rebel faction was the royalist
faction. The rebel faction criticized the leaders of the school for taking the capitalist road and
engaged in revolutionism. While the royalist faction began to protect these leaders. There was
propaganda at that time -- "The revolution is not guilty, and the rebellion is justified"3 The
rebellion was revolutionary. The Red Guard students were dazzled by the propaganda of central
(CCP) and it aroused their patriotism. So they responded to the call and joined the revolution. At
that time, all classes were suspended and that’s how the Cultural Revolution started.
The occurrence of Mao’s meeting of Red Guards heralded the escalation of the
revolutionary conflict.
The editorial of the Long March was published. It asked people to learn about the Long
March of the Red Army. During the Long March of the Old Eight Road, at this time,
many of the three or five people in each school hit a small red flag, and the Long March
team left Beijing to go.4
Mao met with the Red Guards eight times in front of Tiananmen Square in 1966. This meeting
led to the rapid development of the Cultural Revolution across the country, which also
consolidated Lin Biao's position and accelerated the loss of power of the President Liu Shaoqi
and others.5 During the meeting, Mao Zedong’s revolutionary instructions were widely spread to
the hearts of the Red Guards. The photo of the meeting revealed the exaggeration of numbers of

1
Kuiwu Xiao, telephone interview by the author, Shenzhen (Interviewer) & Dongguan (Interviewee),
Guangdong province, China, May 10, 2021.
2
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, ed., "Red Guards," Britannica, last modified July 20, 1998,
accessed May 25, 2021, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Red-Guards.
3
Xiao, telephone interview by the author.
4
Xiao, telephone interview by the author.
5
Wikipedia, ed., "Five Man Group," Wikipedia, accessed May 25, 2021, https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/毛泽
东接见红卫兵.
Red Guards and the spread of revolutionary ideas. Every person held a red book in their hands,
which included Mao’s revolutionary ideas, and the red banner with the propaganda "Defend the
proletarian revolutionary line represented by Chairman Mao! Oppose the reactionary line of the
bourgeoisie!”6 These propaganda were successfully deeply rooted in the hearts of the Red
Guards. Under the influence of Mao’s meeting, the Cultural Revolution escalated from cultural
struggle to armed struggle.
In August of 1966, the first meeting of Red Guards happened. At the same time, the
propaganda “Bombard the Headquarters” was published in a big-character poster by Mao.
Mao’s big-character poster means "Bombard the Headquarters". He divided the central
government into two parties. There was a proletarian command and a bourgeois
command. Therefore, the whole country's revolutionary movements were even more
violent.7
Mao’s call to “bombard the headquarters” was meant, physically and metaphorically, to provoke
an attack on the halls of power.8 At this time, the Cultural Revolution rose to the scope of the
entire Chinese society. The rebel faction and royalist faction started fighting. “All bricks, tiles,
sticks, etc. were prepared. Later, even the use of guns began to appear.”9 The Chinese society
was completely messed up. At that time, KuiWu Xiao quitted the revolution and went back to
my hometown in Shandong to avoid the harm of armed struggle.
In 1969, people started to advocate the resumption of classes. The two factions, rebel and
royalist, wanted to unite as a whole. The armed struggle was basically finished. Everyone who
needs to step down from the central government has already gone. The upper party also
advocated for joint unity. Soon after it, the re-education of the working class was advocated. At
the end of 1969, the jobs were allocated. The Cultural Revolution was about to come to an end.
Fortunately, my grandfather KuiWu Xiao was enrolled in the school a year before the
suspension of the school. Although he didn’t learn anything from the school except his first
school year, he was still allocated for a job because of his school. However, not everyone was as
fortunate as my grandfather. During the Cultural Revolution, about two hundred million people
lived in the countryside through chronic malnutrition, because of the crippling economy caused
by the Cultural Revolution. Up to twenty million people had been uprooted and sent to the
countryside. Moreover, about one and a half million people had been excluded or driven to
suicide beacause of the violent revolutionary policies and movement.10 Despite the casualties, the
cultural and literary treasures had also suffered huge losses. The taint of foreign ideas, both real
or imagined one, was often the basis for an accusation. Countless foreign texts were destroyed,
even the British embassy was burned.11 Mao’s large-scale attack on the party and system created
by him eventually resulted in opposite effects to his primary purpose. His revolutionary ideas led
to the loss of faith in the government of many Chinese citizens.12

6
摄影世界, 老照片：1966年毛主席接见红卫兵, photograph, WangYi News, October 26, 2020, accessed
May 25, 2021, https://www.163.com/dy/article/FPSKLQH70516E3BK.html.
7
Xiao, telephone interview by the author.
8
James Carter, "'Bombard the headquarters,'" SubChina.com, last modified January 13, 2021, accessed
June 2, 2021, https://supchina.com/2021/01/13/bombard-the-headquarters/.
9
Xiao, telephone interview by the author.
10
Evan Osnos, "The Cost of the Cultural Revolution, Fifty Years Later," The New Yorker, last modified
May 6, 2016, accessed May 25, 2021,
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-cost-of-the-cultural-revolution-fifty-years-later.
11
Osnos, "The Cost," The New Yorker.
12
History.com Editors, "Cultural Revolution," HISTORY.
 Analysis of Sources
In the process of learning about the Cultural Revolution, obtaining primary sources and
first-hand evidence are essential. In the research, I was fortunate to be able to interview a person
who had experienced the cultural revolution first hand -- my grandfather KuiWu Xiao. Turning
the interview audio into transcript can let me directly see the impact of the cultural revolution on
my grandfather and his thoughts about the social chaos. Moreover, with all the analyzing works
I’ve done on the noodletool and the lateral reading and working with online sources, the research
process is smooth. The first-hand evidence and the overall introduction and analysis toward the
Cultural Revolution laid the foundation for my research. For the next time, I would definitely
interview both of my grandparents. Gathering different perspectives and experiences help a lot in
the further research.
The first source was the interview with my grandfather, which was really productive and
inspired. It provided me with a clear starting point of my further research based on the personal
experience shared by my grandfather. This source is a primary source. The interviewee, my
grandfather KuiWu Xiao, had experienced the Cultural Revolution as a college student. He
shared the development of the Cultural Revolution and the events he participated in. He
mentioned the impact of the Cultural Revolution on himself, which gave me valuable and useful
evidence to answer the essential question. There are several historical events mentioned by my
grandfather during the interview and I research them by gathering information from several
websites. My grandfather shared his story full of emotion, but it still obtained some details that
he Vaguely talked about, as the Cultural Revolution happened several decades ago. This source
paved the way for my further research and gave me an analysis of the whole event from the
perspective of the experiencer. My grandpa is both a victim and participant of the Cultural
Revolution. This interview brought me closer to seeing this event from the perspective of the
experiencer
The second source was a photo of Mao’s meeting with Red Guards and it gave me
first-hand evidence that directly revealed the scenario of this meeting. This photo was published
on Wangyi News by a user named Photography world. It shows how Mao spread his thoughts in
a more intuitive way. This photo was taken in 1966 and in Tiananmen Square, but the publisher
didn’t label the original taker of it. It included several useful details, like the white characters on
the red banners in the first photo provided the slogan about the goal of the Cultural Revolution.
The words translated into English means "Defend the proletarian revolutionary line represented
by Chairman Mao! Oppose the reactionary line of the bourgeoisie!” It effectively reflects the
core ideas and themes of Mao on starting the Cultural Revolution. It addresses the problem
between the proletariat and bourgeoisie in China at that time. It is credible as it's a primary
source and first-hand evidence. The author of the article did not tag the original photographer of
the photo. This photo was taken on the day the event happened. This photo shows the Red
Guards as the people in the photo were characterized by the green jackets and the small red
books.
The third source was an article named The Cost of the Cultural Revolution, Fifty Years
Later by Evan Osnos, who joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2008 and covers politics
and foreign affairs.13 He had eight years of living in Beijing, the capital of China. A section of his
book “Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China” was based on his
experiences in China. This book won the 2014 National Book Award and was a finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize. Overall, Evan Osnos is a professional researcher of Modern China. This article
13
Osnos, "The Cost," The New Yorker.
provided an Overall analysis of the consequences of the Cultural Revolution, it’s long-term effect
of the Cultural Revolution, and how the Cultural Revolution changed people's lives. It examined
the legacy of the Cultural Revolution. It helped me to gather the perspectives from
non-participants. Moreover, it not only analyzed the Cultural Revolution, but also provided
detailed data of the devastating influence that the Cultural Revolution had on Chinese people.
Although it is not a primary source, the author’s analysis and quoted data are consistent with
what I have investigated on other websites. It was a useful source.