From briefing material I was aware that Chiang Ching was an ideological fanatic who had strongly opposed my trip. She had led a checkered and contradictory life, from her younger days as an aspiring actress to her leadership of the radical forces in the Cultural Revolution of 1966. For many years she had been Mao's wife in name only, but there was no better name in China, and she had used it for all it was worth to build up her personal faction of supporters.

The Cultural Revolution created enormous dislocations in the Chinese economy and society.…During the Cultural Revolution I was exiled to Xincai County in Henan Province. There, 36 percent of the people starved to death in the early 1960s.

Li Xiaojiang was born in 1952 in Henan Province. She worked in the countryside for three years during the Cultural Revolution before being assigned a job as fitter and driver in a machine factory in Wuhan, Hebei Province.

Liu’s person and his public meaning became completely estranged: the former was cut off from the instruments of policy and sequestered in his official residence at Chungnanhai, but the other “Liu” became the animating spirit of opposition against which the GPCR was waged, and indeed proved so dauntless and resourceful an opponent that he could be vanquished only after two years of fierce “struggle.”]

Not until 1421, when all the temples and palaces necessary for the imperial ceremonies needed to reconcile Heaven and Earth had been built, did Emperor Yongle dare to make the great move. Beijing, the "Northern Capital" replaced Nanjing, the provisional "Southern Capital." The Heavenly Temple and the Altars of Earth, Moon and Sun, Nine Dragon Wall and Echo Wall, Drum Tower and Bell Tower all testify to the artistry of that era. Though damaged during the chaos of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), they have since been restored and now once again evoke the wonder and admiration of visitors.

In China, theres a long tradition of using Cultural Revolution-style stock phrases to marginalize protest activities and those who engage in them. Unrest is predictably blamed on a small group of people with ulterior motives," "evil forces plotting behind the scenes," and "masses who don't know the truth."

In 1975, China was emerging from the Cultural Revolution, its government’s effort to purify and revitalize society. Communist officials had set up indoctrination programs, broadcast propaganda over omnipresent loudspeakers, and sought to stamp out any evidence of China’s ancient history.

Amid yellow pagodas pointing heavenward, Mr. Peng and a small group of volunteers built memorial arches across the park’s steep roads and paths lined with riotous subtropical vegetation. The site, in the Chenghai district of Shantou, was an appropriate place for memory — Buddhist pagodas are associated with the dead, and many local victims of the Cultural Revolution lie here, many buried in mass graves.

Cultural revolution

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