Commentary from Beijing Review:
I think maybe a new branch of learning should be created to deal with the Cultural Revolution and everything pertinent to it. According to conventional English word formation, the new discipline can be called “culturevolutionology” or “culturevolutionism.”
It’s appropriate to describe the Cultural Revolution as a civil war, a political earthquake, a power wrestling, a self-destruction, or a combination of all of these. It also basically holds water to conclude that what happened in China during 1966-76 was a humanitarian disaster. As is well known, it was Mao Zedong, China’s then paramount leader, who initiated and led what he called the unprecedented revolution, whose major goal was to clean up the enemies among the people and, especially, in the Communist Party and the government. Needless to say, the chief responsibility for that grave turmoil, which cost millions of lives, does indeed lie with Mao….
Nevertheless, that revolution was not merely a mistake made by one man. To a great extent, it was a huge mistake made by the whole nation. …[Full Text]
