Les massacres de la Révolution Culturelle

by Song Yongyi (Editor), Marie Holzman (Contributor), Marc Raimbourg (Translator)

En lançant, en 1966, la Révolution culturelle, Mao ouvrait pour la Chine une période de terreur qui ne s'est achevée qu'avec sa mort, dix ans plus tard. Les victimes se sont comptées par millions. Pourtant, longtemps, l'Occident a été fasciné par ce mouvement immense qui semblait vouloir faire table rase du passé en prétendant donner le pouvoir au peuple et à la jeunesse. Aujourd'hui, en Chine, le travail de mémoire reste à faire. A la lecture des textes et récits rassemblés par l'historien Song Yongyi, on découvre non seulement l'ampleur du drame, mais son inhumanité absolue. Une cruauté inimaginable, une folie collective ont été à l'œuvre. Mao, pour conserver un pouvoir qu'il sentait chancelant, a transformé des milliers de Chinois en bourreaux sanguinaires. Et l'on comprend que cette folie a été l'antichambre du génocide perpétré par les Khmers rouges au Cambodge. Ce document exceptionnel permet de prendre enfin la mesure de la souffrance endurée par le peuple chinois pendant une décennie. Pour SongYongyi, c'est une manière de dire: "Plus jamais ça ! "

Genres: History

417 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Ninel · Rating 2 out of 5]

★★☆☆☆ - This was awful.
I read this book for my thesis about the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
I found this book in my local library and thought "why not giving it a try?". That was a mistake because this book is super badly written. Nothing is organised, it's really just a huge mess of testimonies and randoms facts and research.
Sure, it contains some very basic information, but everything is so messy.
I had a weird feeling concerning this book: if you're a researcher, this book will be too basic for you. But if you're a random person, interested in the Chinese Cultural Revolution and having just the basic knowledge about this period, this book won't give you enough context to understand it. So I really don't know who this book was written for.
I absolutely understand and respect the work of the author who just wanted to denounce all the massacres that happened during the Cultural Revolution, but the book was just too messy for me.
So obviously, I don't recommend it.

[Melodeamon · Rating 5 out of 5]

So painful to read , it took me forever because it is so violent…. I could not bear it… (also i took notes)

one of the most important book i have ever read who tells the reality taboo about communism: especially the one created by Mao who is so similar to current far left wing: the oppression comes from the masses, not the milicians. Mao just encouraged and validated it in a demagogue way but the real barbarism comes from the masses who were allowed to be violent against what what designated oppressors.

In proportion: For 10000 deads there were 10000 murderers. That is never told anywhere. We prefer tell stories about military totalitarian oppressors versus gentle heroes who are pure and innocent.. so we are now so careless about communism behavior.

Communism from Mao was the worst. In general communism country steal private property, but frankly that is the least of my concern compare to mao’s version where communism steal the content of the brain before anything else. We need to tell these stories more.

Also this book is not reedited. I had to buy it 80 dollars, pretty used. The censorship is real. So nobody cares.

And now people think it is okay and cool to be violent against designated oppressors. This is exactly the opposite of democracy.

[Filip · Rating 1 out of 5]

Chinese Cultural Revolution is little known event in history of China, Chinese themselfs probably don't know that it happened. What is more striking is how simmilar were Geogre Floyd protests with events in China several decades ago. So Im all for studying and reading about Chinese communism and its human rights violations.
But this is not the book I would recommend. It is full of toponims that don't resonate with reader. It is full of names that are way to simmilar with oneanother. Book is way to confusing in its naratives that is so easy to get lost in it. Victims of Cultural Revolution deserve something bether. Because theme is not very known in the west it is good to know some basic facts about China in general and revolution in particular but this is not the book for that. There is almost no mention why, how and by who it started.
There is to many confusion for me to recommend this book. I didn't finnish it at all.