The Long Shadow of the Cultural Revolution

The Cultural Revolution saw out the Mao era in China with a decade-long orgy of violence and cultural destruction. The suppression of historical truth-telling combined with the fact that many of the Cultural Revolution’s victims, perpetrators and witnesses are elderly or gone means that its memory is fading even as a kind of nostalgia for the era continues to flourish, with Mao’s collected works climbing back up bestseller lists and some young people embracing Cultural Revolution slogans. But what was the Cultural Revolution all really about and how can it inform our understanding of China today?

About the Speaker

Linda Jaivin is the author of thirteen books, including The Shortest History of China, which has been translated into almost two dozen languages, and her most recent Bombard the Headquarters! The Cultural Revolution in China. She is also a widely published cultural commentator and translator from Chinese specialising in film subtitling, and an editorial associate of the Australian Centre on China in the World. 

The ANU China Seminar Series is supported by the Australian Centre on China in the World at ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.

Image: Anna Hay