Red Color News Soldier: Questions

Red Color News Soldier: Questions

Explain who Li Zhensheng is and what his connection is to the story he is going to tell.

Li Zhensheng is a survivor of the Cultural Revolution. A Chinese native, he was born in the countryside. Through hard work and dedication, he was able to gain entrance into Changchun Film School, one of the most prestigious institutions in China. Although he aspired to become a filmmaker, Zhensheng was instructed to become a photojournalist. This was deemed more socially useful in Maoist China. This direction from government authorities would not be the last time politics impacted Zhensheng's career. Later, as an official photographic documentarian of the Cultural Revolution he was told to only photograph positive representations of the People's Liberation Army. He was sent to reeducation camps in the countryside several times due to his dissident activities. In these rural areas, he was forced to study the writings of Chairman Mao and engage in hard labor (Bauret 2003).

Li Zhensheng believed it was vitally necessary that the 'negative' pictures and images he captured of the Cultural Revolution be shown to the world. At great personal risk to himself, he hid the photographs he took until the political climate in China had changed enough to reconsider the fanatical ideology of that era (Bauret 2003).

Q2. Define the socialist education movement and its goals.

During the 1960s, the aging Chairman Mao wished to 'reinvigorate' the communist movement with a new sense of purpose. The Cultural Revolution was born to return socialism to its roots. It was based in a deep and profound mistrust of intellectualism and dissent, and sent many urban intellectuals to the Chinese countryside to be 'reeducated' in proper socialist attitudes.

At first, some young people genuinely supported the Cultural Revolution with great fervor. The Cultural Revolution also allowed people who resented slightly more prosperous members of society to vent their anger at them, as depicted in the photo of the landowner who is being berated for trying to make a woman pay a debt on time. However, as the Revolution grew bloodier, and it grew increasingly difficult to avoid being called a 'counter-Revolutionary' the fear of Maoist authorities began to grow amongst all segments of society.

Q3. Describe 10 things you learned from the photos contained in this book about China during the Cultural Revolution. Be sure to not just use one of two photos.

1. One surprising fact that I learned was that there was a great deal of support for the Cultural Revolution amongst students at its outset. But even the initial stirrings were obviously orchestrated by Mao, as manifest in the Chairman's symbolic 'protest' with students in Tiananmen Square and the various pictures of students 'spontaneously' proclaiming the rightness of rebellion.

2. Some of Zhensheng's portraits of nature are extremely moving, such as his picture of blades of grass poking forth in the snow. This symbolizes the fact that there is always hope and vitality in nature. The photo is especially touching, given that Zhensheng took the picture while banished to the provinces.

3. The ritualism behind the Maoist culture is astonishing: the synchronized dancing, flowers placed around Mao's portraits, and waving of the Little Red Book like the Bible gives an impression of almost religious reverence for Mao.

4. The level of physical dedication demanded by the Cultural Revolution was also frightening and inspiring, like the swimmers studying Mao before taking a 'plunge' to reenact an incident from Mao's life (his swim down the Yangzi River).

5. I was surprised at the idiosyncrasies of Zhensheng's self-portraits. His stance and defiant expression shows that China was not ideologically homogenous at the time. People like Zhensheng found a way to express dissent and anger, even if they often faced repercussions for their brave actions.

6. The Cultural Revolution was not fully extinguished until 1976, after a prolonged power struggle within the Chinese government. This illustrates the vulnerability of ordinary people's lives in a dictatorship: one minute it was 'counterrevolutionary' to support certain politicians, like Deng Xiaoping, and then, not so long afterwards it was considered patriotic to support Deng.

7. The role of women was surprising -- in the countryside, women were often required to labor as hard as their male counterparts, including pulling wheelbarrows to irrigate a field.

8. Early on in the Revolution, children supported the actions of the People's Liberation Army. This made me wonder if typical childhood and adolescent rebellion was articulated through political rhetoric -- dislike of teachers and older people was covered up by calling these individuals 'counterrevolutionary.'

9. Although many of his photographs were censored, Zhensheng's ability to photograph such negative images of the Revolution, such as the photographs of the 'denunciations' in public, is testimony to his bravery and commitment to tell the story of the Cultural Revolution in photographs.

10. The Revolution is a demonstration of how something with some legitimate grassroots support -- such as a dislike of local corruption -- can be turned into something evil, toxic, and self-serving by authorities, through terror and psychological manipulation.

Q4. What did you learn about the Cultural Revolution from this type of text that you might not have from a more traditional text?