Bombard the Headquarters!: The Cultural Revolution in China

Great Events #2

by Linda Jaivin

A riveting account of a turbulent period in Chinese history.
In 1966, with the words ‘Bombard the Headquarters!’ Mao Zedong unleashed the full, violent force of a movement that he called the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. By the time he died ten years later, millions had perished, China's cultural heritage was in ruins, its economic state was perilous, its institutions of government were damaged and its society was bitterly divided.


The shadow of these terrible years lies heavily over the twenty-first-century nation. The history of this period is so toxic that China’s rulers have gone to great lengths to bury it – while a few brave men and women risk their freedom to uncover the truth. For as both they and the Party know, to grasp the history of the Cultural Revolution is to understand much about China today.


Bombard the Headquarters! is not just Mao’s story. It’s the unforgettable stories of countless individuals, mass manias, sacred mangos and spectacular falls from grace. At once rigorous and readable, brief yet teeming with colourful detail, this is a marvel of historical storytelling.


'Deftly narrated in precise, pellucid prose, Jaivin wears her meticulous research lightly to provide a lively and essential reading on the maddeningly complex politics of the Cultural Revolution. With insightful commentary and vivid sketches of some of its operatic protagonists, this brilliant short history is a great start for anyone who wants to understand a central decade in the Maoist epoch whose catastrophic legacy endures to this day. A tour de force.' —Jianying Zha, author of Tide Players


'A beautifully concise account that makes sense of a hugely complex event in modern Chinese history. Linda Jaivin puts her formidable, deep experience both of Chinese history and language to excellent use, conveying in 100 pages what most would struggle to achieve in a thousand.' —Kerry Brown, Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King's College, London


'To upend an entire society, to pitch a country into a decade of chaos – Linda Jaivin expertly and concisely dissects the origins and the gruesome trajectory of China's Cultural Revolution. Mao's ego, the Party's compliance and the ideological mass hysteria that left perhaps 1-2mn ordinary Chinese citizens dead and drove many of its intellectuals and brightest talents to kill themselves rather than suffer torture and suffering.' —Paul French, author of Midnight in Peking


'Excellent . . . a powerful account of a truly extraordinary period in recent Chinese history, surefooted and perceptive, enlivened by a wealth of vignettes and anecdotes which bring to life the dramatic and frequently horrific events that have played a seminal role in forming Chinese society as it exists today.' —Philip Short, author of A Life

Genres: History, Nonfiction, China, Politics

173 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 29, 2025

About the author

Linda Jaivin is the author of twelve books, including the forthcoming (May 2021) The Shortest History of China and the novel The Empress Lover, published in April 2014 as well as the travel companion Beijing, published in July 2014. Other major publications include the Quarterly Essay: Found in Translation (late 2013), five novels and a novella, a collection of essays (Confessions of an S&M Virgin) and a China memoir (Monkey and the Dragon). Her first novel was the internationally bestselling comic erotic Eat Me. The Empress Lover follows A Most Immoral Woman, which is set in China and Japan in 1904 and based on a true story. She is also a translator from Chinese and a playwright. She was the winner of the 2014 New South Wales Writers Fellowship.

Reviews

[Milo van Bokkum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dit boek versterkt bij mij de indruk dat de Culturele Revolutie een van de raarste dingen van de tweede helft van de 20e eeuw is

[Owen Hatherley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, vivid summary of a moment of barely believable, almost surreal turmoil, with great pictures and anecdotes - though it does leave you none the wiser as to why millions of people would passionately participate in such a thing.

[Tony Tone · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a couple of hundred pages, Jaivin adroitly explains the origins, history and various players in historic events that involved millions of people and lasted for more than a decade. Bombard the Headquarters captures the chaos, horror and sheer magnitude of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Linda is arguably the best writer on china. actually no she is the best. this is such a good short read. she tells the little stories, the overlooked stories, the feminist perspective stories that bring to life this period of pain and profound change that indisputably shapes china today. a must read.

[Janine · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the midst of the turmoil unleashed by the second Trump presidency, China and Xi Jinping are presenting themselves as a calm, considered and stable presence on the world stage in comparison. It's a seductive thought, but after reading this small book, I came away convinced that there is a fundamental difference between China and Western democracies in terms of both means and ends that we ignore at our peril.

This is only a short book, running to just 107 pages of text. Bombard the Headquarters opens with a timeline and a cast of characters, but I found the brevity of Jaivin's character list made it hard to establish the various protagonists in my mind, exacerbated further by unfamiliar names. What I really did like was the way that she interwove the stories and experiences of individuals alongside the 'massed' nature of this revolution. When we see the huge crowds of people in Tienanmen Square, and the chilling precision of the Chinese army at the parades that dictators are so fond of, it is hard to find the individual, but she has worked hard to keep our attention on the people who lived through, suffered, and did not always survive such a huge experiment in social engineering.

For my complete review, please visit:
https://residentjudge.com/2025/08/24/...

[Peter Tillman]

Sophie Roell of Five Books recommends this highly:
"a book on the Cultural Revolution, which, in an age of a rising China, is important to understand for the dark shadow it casts over the present. To grossly oversimplify, Mao Zedong, feeling his leadership under threat after making some terrible mistakes, encouraged attacks on other Chinese Communist Party leaders. The populist movement he unleashed tore China to pieces from 1966-1976 and left hundreds of thousands—possibly millions—of people dead. It’s a well-known story, but what’s so good about Bombard the Headquarters! is that it’s by Linda Jaivin, an Australian Sinologist who really knows China. The book takes about three hours to read and even has good photos."

[Nia Nymue · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second chapter had a lot of events included, which made it difficult for me to understand.

I don't read many history books, so I don't know how this one compares. But I finished this, which says something about its accessibility.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brief, snappy, accessible. This would be a good first book on the cultural revolution, but it could definitely go deeper.

[J.D. Kessey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I good introduction to the topic. Covers the main points well and is accessible to the layman.

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good little summary of the era.