Sydney, July 16 (The Conversation) - In the transformative decades of the 1960s and 70s, youth in the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia were making waves with anti-Vietnam War protests, experimenting with psychedelic drugs, and reveling in the music of the Beatles. Meanwhile, their Chinese counterparts underwent their own radical, albeit more destructive, metamorphosis. In Linda Jaivin’s book, this divergence is starkly illustrated; while the Western movements led to cultural shifts, China’s upheaval under the guidance of Mao Zedong resulted in profound national distress.
Jaivin’s work, "Bombard the Headquarters!", offers an intense and unsettling exploration of the Cultural Revolution in China. Spanning just over 100 pages, it deftly balances sweeping historical panoramas with detailed portraits from 1966 to 1976, steering us through one of China’s most turbulent epochs.
Blending storytelling with an expert grasp of the Chinese language and scholarly research, Jaivin elucidates the enduring trauma that this era imprinted on China. The narrative commences with the backdrop of 1949–66, capturing Mao’s neurotic political drive to ignite a new revolution in China.
In 1949, with the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Mao grew increasingly concerned about perceived capitalist and feudalistic infiltrations within the PRC and sought to maintain socialist purity by purging detractors and consolidating his power. He mobilized the youth to combat “capitalists” and the “bourgeoisie,” catalyzing a series of cultural and social shifts epitomized by the Cultural Revolution.
The Red Guards emerged, a faction primarily composed of high school and university students, who fervently pursued Mao’s ideals to eradicate socialism's enemies and uphold proletarian ideology. Their actions inflicted severe damage on intellectuals, cultural heritage, and those branded as “counter-revolutionaries” for holding “bourgeois” values like individualism.
These and other revolutionary zealots created 'dazibao', or "big-character posters", dedicated to denouncing perceived opponents of Mao’s revolutionary dogma. Additionally, the practice of chuanlian encouraged widespread Red Guard travel, further spreading Maoist propaganda and revolutionary fervor, often causing transportation chaos and violent factional clashes.
The height of the Cultural Revolution's turmoil unfolded between 1967–69, with disorder spreading from academic institutions to factories, rural areas, and government services. Jaivin takes us across China, depicting vivid scenes of public humiliation, torture, and imprisonment without trial. The power struggles resulted in hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of deaths from violent confrontations.
From 1970–76, pivotal events unfolded, including the death of Premier Zhou Enlai and Mao in 1976, marking an end to the revolution. The mysterious fall of Lin Biao in 1971 added another layer of intrigue. Initially Mao’s close ally, Lin's abrupt demise in a Mongolian plane crash after a rumored coup attempt underscored the political volatility of the era.
Amidst these political shifts, a friendly ping-pong match in 1971 between China and American players paved the way for US-China diplomatic relations, culminating in President Nixon's historic visit in 1972. In 1976, the catastrophic Tangshan Earthquake further signified the tumultuous period.
Jaivin’s dramatic rendering of these historical episodes infuses the narrative with the gravity of a grand historical epic while also highlighting the "radioactive" scars the Cultural Revolution left on China's collective memory. Her assessment portrays Mao as a complex figure; a visionary with grand ambitions yet marred by tyranny and manipulation.
As the Cultural Revolution closed with the arrest of the “Gang of Four”, including Mao’s wife Jiang Qing, its long shadow persisted, casting a cautionary tale and leaving multi-generational trauma. Jaivin succinctly encapsulates Mao’s duality as an inspirational yet ruthless leader.
The book invites readers into the intricacies of this “devilishly complex” chapter of history, stimulating a quest for deeper understanding. It prompts reflection on the psychological and cultural mechanics behind mass movements like the Red Guards’ and the perils of authoritarian cults of personality that history has repeatedly shown through figures like Mao.
With her narrative flair, Jaivin recounts this turbulent period, navigating the gravity of the violence and suffering during the Cultural Revolution while keeping readers engaged. For those in the Chinese diaspora, it is a harrowing yet safe space to revisit a nightmare of the past, providing hope that vigilance will keep history from repeating itself. For others, Jaivin breathes new life into this period, offering a gripping retelling of one of the most sorrowful facets of China’s modern history. (The Conversation)
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