Lin Min

    linmin67@126.com

    DRESSING up as members of the Red Guard is cool, according to several university students in Harbin, in Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, who last week imitated a scene from the Cultural Revolution for their graduation photos.

    In a photo widely circulated on social media, the graduates are wearing green military uniforms and red armbands, posing as if they are interrogating a man wearing a high, pointed hat and a “board of crimes” on his chest, a scene typical of the Cultural Revolution, a time when millions of innocent people were killed and cultural relics were burned down across the country.

    This is not the first time college students have shot Red Guard-themed photos. Last year, graduation photos showing graduates wearing Red Guard uniforms also were widely circulated on social media, drawing controversy.

    For those who were traumatized by the violence during the turbulent decade (1966-1976) when Mao Zedong mobilized millions of youths as his Red Guard to eliminate “bourgeois elements” and “revisionists” through violent “class struggle,” such photos are unacceptable because they reduce an era of national catastrophe into frivolous play-acting. While it may be too harsh to accuse the graduates of being ignorant and foolish — words some netizens used in their criticism — these photos reveal that students today are not properly educated about some of the country’s darkest chapters of history.

    In middle school textbooks, the Cultural Revolution is only briefly mentioned as a “political movement which was wrongly started and commanded by Mao Zedong and taken to the extreme by two counter-revolutionary cliques headed by Lin Biao and Jiang Qing that brought serious disasters to the nation.”

    With such textbooks, students cannot fully understand the magnitude of the catastrophe, why and how it happened, and the importance of never letting it happen again.

    Another sign that shows China still has not faced this brutal chapter of history openly and honestly is that authorities have shunned calls to build museums dedicated to the Cultural Revolution. A privately built Cultural Revolution Museum in Chenghai, Shantou, in eastern Guangdong — the only museum in China devoted to the Cultural Revolution — has not gained the official support it deserves. Even after the museum was completed in 2005, public ceremonies to honor the Cultural Revolution victims were sometimes stopped by local officials who were worried that such moves would expose the Communist Party’s past “scars.”

    Late writer Ba Jin was the first to propose that the government build a Cultural Revolution museum to help younger generations learn about the devastating decade. His proposal, made in 1986, has never been accepted. In 2006, Yang Kuangman, a member of the country’s top political advisory body, the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, submitted a similar proposal, which was endorsed by 47 fellow members, also to no avail.

    The Party has officially stated that the Cultural Revolution was a mistake. In June 1981, the Party’s Central Committee announced its official verdict: “The Cultural Revolution, which lasted from May 1966 to October 1976, was responsible for the most severe setback and the heaviest losses suffered by the Party, the State, and the people since the founding of the People’s Republic.”

    But for a political movement that inflicted so much harm to a nation, a 33-year-old verdict is not enough. Candid, true, and detailed accounts of the episode should be included in textbooks. In addition to Cultural Revolution museums, documentaries and books, especially ones sharing the stories of individuals who were persecuted or even executed by members of the Red Guard, should be produced and printed to make sure that that disastrous decade is not forgotten.

    Over the last several months, a number of people have apologized for what they did as Red Guard members and have asked the country not to forget that ugly part of history. At advanced ages, these former Red Guard members say they want to offer sincere remorse before it is too late. But more importantly, their apologies should invoke soul-searching among the nation, especially at a time when some people are trying to whitewash the Cultural Revolution and instill ultra-leftism into the minds of today’s youths.

    China has praised Germany for its honest reflections of its role during World War II and has denounced Japan for not being remorseful enough over its wartime atrocities. Now we should ask ourselves, have we owned up to our past sins?

    If we fail to come clean, future generations will remember the Cultural Revolution only as a messy era that can be made fun of, just like the graduates in Red Guard costumes.

    (The author is head of the News Desk, Shenzhen Daily.)