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Born Red: A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution
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Born Red: A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution Paperback - 1987

by Yuan Gao


From the publisher

Born Red is an artistically wrought personal account, written very much from inside the experience, of the years 1966-1969, when the author was a young teenager at middle school. It was in the middle schools that much of the fury of the Cultural Revolution and Red Guard movement was spent, and Gao was caught up in very dramatic events, which he recounts as he understood them at the time. Gao's father was a county political official who was in and out of trouble during those years, and the intense interplay between father and son and the differing perceptions and impact of the Cultural Revolution for the two generations provide both an unusual perspective and some extraordinary moving moments. He also makes deft use of traditional mythology and proverbial wisdom to link, sometimes ironically, past and present. Gao relates in vivid fashion how students-turned-Red Guards held mass rallies against 'capitalist roader' teachers and administrators, marching them through the streets to the accompaniment of chants and jeers and driving some of them to suicide. Eventually the students divided into two factions, and school and town became armed camps. Gao tells of the exhilaration that he and his comrades experienced at their initial victories, of their deepening disillusionment as they utter defeat as the tumultuous first phase of the Cultural Revolution came to a close. The portraits of the persons to whom Gao introduces us - classmates, teachers, family members - gain weight and density as the story unfolds, so that in the end we see how they all became victims of the dynamics of a mass movement out of control.

First line

Early one morning in the spring of 1966, I awoke to a rocking sensation.

From the rear cover

"In Born Red, Gao Youan, a former Red Guard . . . tells us what it was like to be one of Mao's children in a provincial town four hours by train south of Peking. It is a terrible story, demonstrating that Mao and his crazed coterie were able to cripplee Chinese society for ten years, as well as cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, because they had plenty of help from the masses."--Politics
"Gao's moving account, which is surprisingly even-handed, viividly captures the pervasive sense of fear and uncertainty that washed over China during the tumultuous period from 1966-1969."--Houston Chronicle

Details

  • Title Born Red: A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution
  • Author Yuan Gao
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition [ Edition: first
  • Pages 416
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Stanford University Press, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
  • Date 1987-06-01
  • ISBN 9780804713696 / 0804713693
  • Weight 1.07 lbs (0.49 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.53 x 5.58 x 1.11 in (21.67 x 14.17 x 2.82 cm)
  • Reading level 990
  • Themes
    • Cultural Region: Asian - Chinese
  • Library of Congress subjects China - History - Cultural Revolution,, Gao, Yuan
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 86023058
  • Dewey Decimal Code 951.056
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Born Red : A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution
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Born Red : A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution

by Gao, Yuan

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BORN RED A CHRONICLE OF THE CULTURAL REV
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BORN RED A CHRONICLE OF THE CULTURAL REV

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Born Red: A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution
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Born Red: A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution
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Born Red: A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution

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Born Red: A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution

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by Yuan Gao

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Born Red

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Paperback / softback. New. New Book; Fast Shipping from UK; Not signed; Not First Edition; This is a personal account of the Cultural Revolution. As a student, the author was caught up in dramatic events as, with jeers and chants, students-turned-Red Guards held mass rallies. The interplay between the perceptions of father an
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Born Red; A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution
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by Gao, Yuan

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Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1989. Unknown printing. Trade paperback. Very good. xxxii, [2], 380, [2] pages. Includes Foreword by William A. Joseph, and Preface. Topics covered include The Hold of History; Learning to Be Red and Expert; The Thirty-Six Stratagems; Hidden Messages; Ox Ghost and Snake Spirits; Winds and Waves; The Degenerate and the Worn Shoe; The Red, the Black, and the In-Between; Smashing the Four Olds; Cleaning Our Own Nest; Picking Up the Pieces; Rebels and Royalists; Going to See the Great Helmsman; Sending Off the Monsters; Defending the Mountain Devil; The Carpenter-Spy; Reply from a Socialist-Roader; On the Road; Rocks Down the Well; A Long March, by Hook or Crook; Spring Festival Visitors; The Capless Official; Smears and Skirmishes; Spring Buds; Arrival of the Cadets; The Grand Alliance; Uncommon Laughter; Victory Fish; The First Martyr; Summons by Subterfuge; Storming the Enemy Stronghold; Spies in the Marketplace; Family Skeletons; Playing with Fire;… Read More
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Born Red: A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution
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Born Red: A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution

by Gao Yuan

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Paperback
ISBN 13
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0804713693
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