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Red Land, Yellow River
When Mao's Cultural Revolution took hold in China in 1966, Ange Zhang was 13 years old. He lived with his family in Beijing, he attended school and excelled in drawing, and his father was a famous writer whose "Yellow River Cantata" was widely considered to be the anthem of the revolution. Yet soon, Ange's life — and his family's — would change forever.
Complementing this autobiographical narrative with evocative color illustrations, archival images, and some of his own black-and-white photos, Ange gives a moving account of difficult experiences: from his early longing to join his peers in the Red Guard, to witnessing his father being publicly humiliated, to his growing alienation and disillusionment. But he finds some good fortune, too: during his "reeducation" in the countryside, Ange discovers enough emotional space to develop his own ideas and to find that he, like his father, is an artist in his own right.
Complementing this autobiographical narrative with evocative color illustrations, archival images, and some of his own black-and-white photos, Ange gives a moving account of difficult experiences: from his early longing to join his peers in the Red Guard, to witnessing his father being publicly humiliated, to his growing alienation and disillusionment. But he finds some good fortune, too: during his "reeducation" in the countryside, Ange discovers enough emotional space to develop his own ideas and to find that he, like his father, is an artist in his own right.
56 pages, Hardcover
Published September 24, 2004
80 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 27, 2021
When China's Cultural Revolution started in 1966, Ange Zhang was the sheltered, teenaged son of a famous Chinese writer and Communist Party member. Motivated by a desire to transform people's thought by ridding China of ideas considered outdated and oppressive (including the entirety of China's rich heritage, as well as all European culture), Chairman Mao's call to revolution spurred millions of school-going children to quit school and form autonomous Red Guard brigades in cities across the country. They received no other education save for the study of the teachings of Mao, were encouraged to actively participate in the Revolution (poorly defined), and very quickly began to develop their own interpretations of what Revolution meant. Some interpreted it to mean the active persecution of those identified as enemies of the Revolution (including teachers, artists, intellectuals and capital-owners), and pretty soon artists and intellectuals around the country were being rounded up and humiliated in public for their apparently bourgeois and counter-revolutionary views. Among them were Ange's parents. At age 13, Ange had to watch his parents be humiliated and persecuted, and faced social ostracism in turn, which whetted his appetite to join the Red Guards and find acceptance.
Eventually, violence broke out between rival Red Guard factions, and Ange eagerly participated in the violence for a sense of belonging and community until he became a victim of an attack by a rival group. Recovering at home, he secretly educated himself through his father's large collection of books, and developed the beginnings of a new perspective on the world.
In 1968 the government disbanded the Red Guards and sent all students and enemies of the Revolution to the countryside to live and work as peasants. Among them was Ange, who learned to toil day and night performing backbreaking labour in a tiny village thousand of miles from home, while questioning his own existence.
It was in this rural village of 800 peasants, thousands of miles from Beijing, that he eventually found his calling as an artist, and worked to develop his skills using materials supplied by friends who recognized his potential.
Following the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1986, Ange returned to his family home in Beijing, reunited with his family, and began to pursue a full-time education as an artist, eventually going on to achieve great success before emigrating to Toronto, where he lives today. This graphic novel is a portion of his story.
With simple prose and vivid illustrations by the artist's own hand, as well as an informative endnote on the Cultural Revolution, this is a personal account of the absurdity and carnage that can result from a tyrant imposing his will unchallenged on the destiny of an entire nation, and meddling with the lives and minds of a society's ever-malleable youth to destroy the lives, hopes and dreams of an entire generation in the process.
Eventually, violence broke out between rival Red Guard factions, and Ange eagerly participated in the violence for a sense of belonging and community until he became a victim of an attack by a rival group. Recovering at home, he secretly educated himself through his father's large collection of books, and developed the beginnings of a new perspective on the world.
In 1968 the government disbanded the Red Guards and sent all students and enemies of the Revolution to the countryside to live and work as peasants. Among them was Ange, who learned to toil day and night performing backbreaking labour in a tiny village thousand of miles from home, while questioning his own existence.
It was in this rural village of 800 peasants, thousands of miles from Beijing, that he eventually found his calling as an artist, and worked to develop his skills using materials supplied by friends who recognized his potential.
Following the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1986, Ange returned to his family home in Beijing, reunited with his family, and began to pursue a full-time education as an artist, eventually going on to achieve great success before emigrating to Toronto, where he lives today. This graphic novel is a portion of his story.
With simple prose and vivid illustrations by the artist's own hand, as well as an informative endnote on the Cultural Revolution, this is a personal account of the absurdity and carnage that can result from a tyrant imposing his will unchallenged on the destiny of an entire nation, and meddling with the lives and minds of a society's ever-malleable youth to destroy the lives, hopes and dreams of an entire generation in the process.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 2, 2018
Este libro tiene dos partes: en la primera, Ange Zhang nos cuenta de primera mano su vivencia de la Revolución Cultural, ilustrada con imágenes que él mismo ha pintado. Sin duda me ha gustado su manera de narrarlo, siendo un niño cuando comenzó esta revolución, y lo que para él supuso el hecho de que su padre fuera poeta.
En la segunda parte, se hace un resumen de la historia de China que tiene que ver con Mao: desde que él era niño y aprendió a poner resistencia ante las injusticias, pasando por la etapa en la que leyó mucho (sobre todo autores occidentales), hasta cómo logró llegar al poder y cambiar su país. En mi opinión, y por lo que se entrevé, sus intenciones eran buenas: eliminar las diferencias entre ricos y pobres, entre campesinos y gente de ciudad, hacer que aprendieran unos de otros, y hacer que todos supieran leer y escribir. Y de algún modo, lo logró, solo que ahora las diferencias eran entre "rojos" y "negros", entre hijos de campesinos y entre hijos de profesores / intelectuales / gente con nivel económico no tan malo. Lo antiguo y lo extranjero, e incluso lo “superfluo” (todo lo que no tenía un sentido pro-Mao y anti-capitalista directo) estaba prohibido. Ve en los jóvenes la fuerza de la Revolución, y no se equivoca, pero no hay capacidad de control de esos jóvenes que ya sólo leen las consignas de Mao (y si no saben leer, se les hace aprender de memoria) y que mediante la violencia contra personas y propiedades ajenas ven su forma de expresar su amor a la revolución, incluso peleando entre diversos grupos de Guardias Rojos para ver quién sirve mejor a la Revolución. El propio Mao desintegró a todos los grupos de Guardias Rojos, vistos los destrozos causados (y hasta muchos jóvenes Guardias Rojos se fueron antes, por darse cuenta de que era violencia y agresividad). Después, era el momento de la reeducación el campo, que, como he dicho, permitió, entre otras muchas cosas, que los campesinos aprendieran a leer, aunque sólo leyeran las 88.000 frases del Libro Rojo de Mao.
Sin duda, un libro breve, intenso y muy recomendable.
En la segunda parte, se hace un resumen de la historia de China que tiene que ver con Mao: desde que él era niño y aprendió a poner resistencia ante las injusticias, pasando por la etapa en la que leyó mucho (sobre todo autores occidentales), hasta cómo logró llegar al poder y cambiar su país. En mi opinión, y por lo que se entrevé, sus intenciones eran buenas: eliminar las diferencias entre ricos y pobres, entre campesinos y gente de ciudad, hacer que aprendieran unos de otros, y hacer que todos supieran leer y escribir. Y de algún modo, lo logró, solo que ahora las diferencias eran entre "rojos" y "negros", entre hijos de campesinos y entre hijos de profesores / intelectuales / gente con nivel económico no tan malo. Lo antiguo y lo extranjero, e incluso lo “superfluo” (todo lo que no tenía un sentido pro-Mao y anti-capitalista directo) estaba prohibido. Ve en los jóvenes la fuerza de la Revolución, y no se equivoca, pero no hay capacidad de control de esos jóvenes que ya sólo leen las consignas de Mao (y si no saben leer, se les hace aprender de memoria) y que mediante la violencia contra personas y propiedades ajenas ven su forma de expresar su amor a la revolución, incluso peleando entre diversos grupos de Guardias Rojos para ver quién sirve mejor a la Revolución. El propio Mao desintegró a todos los grupos de Guardias Rojos, vistos los destrozos causados (y hasta muchos jóvenes Guardias Rojos se fueron antes, por darse cuenta de que era violencia y agresividad). Después, era el momento de la reeducación el campo, que, como he dicho, permitió, entre otras muchas cosas, que los campesinos aprendieran a leer, aunque sólo leyeran las 88.000 frases del Libro Rojo de Mao.
Sin duda, un libro breve, intenso y muy recomendable.
October 8, 2025
One has to start with the physical beauty of this book. The illustrations done by the author himself are so beautiful. They have a retro propagandistic vibe that communicates the state vision of what the author went through as a young man in China with a famous intellectual father during a time when intellectual fathers were not in the slightest bit appreciated: that is, during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
Mr. Zhang told the publication Quill & Quire, that he didn't want his book to be pedagogical or preachy. He wanted to show young people at the age he was in this book, what he went through at their age and how he reacted.
Could you imagine members of your family, whom you deeply admire, being set upon by the state and the supposed 'Red Guards' of the neighborhood? Your family's precious belongings, its art and antiquities, broken and smashed (not stolen - destroyed - what was the point of that?)
Then at school, to be told you are the child of a bad man, and hence will be excluded from opportunity. Indeed, later sent to hard labor in the countryside? The drearyness of the young people stuck out in the countryside with no media, no TV, no internet, no school, etc! For years on end! Mr. Zhang includes eye-popping details of the experience: for example, teen girls had to learn how to live with only being able to bathe once a month.
Even with a epilogue that examines the history, it's hard to imagine people behaving this way. What was the point? Rural resentment of urban sophistication? Peasant resentment of urban intellectuals? The public shaming, I'm told, remains part of how China creates change even today.
It would be so hard not to feel cheated if this happened to your family. Family members scattered to the winds in different labor camps, plus a lack of education during your most formative years, and more.
I'm grateful for the author's gorgeous book. Two other #worldkidlit titles I would recommend for anyone learning about the Chinese Cultural Revolution are Mao and Me, written and illustrated by Chen Jiang Hong, and translated by Claudia Zoe Bedrick, plus Bronze and Sunflower by Cao Wenxuan, translated by Helen Wang.
Mr. Zhang told the publication Quill & Quire, that he didn't want his book to be pedagogical or preachy. He wanted to show young people at the age he was in this book, what he went through at their age and how he reacted.
Could you imagine members of your family, whom you deeply admire, being set upon by the state and the supposed 'Red Guards' of the neighborhood? Your family's precious belongings, its art and antiquities, broken and smashed (not stolen - destroyed - what was the point of that?)
Then at school, to be told you are the child of a bad man, and hence will be excluded from opportunity. Indeed, later sent to hard labor in the countryside? The drearyness of the young people stuck out in the countryside with no media, no TV, no internet, no school, etc! For years on end! Mr. Zhang includes eye-popping details of the experience: for example, teen girls had to learn how to live with only being able to bathe once a month.
Even with a epilogue that examines the history, it's hard to imagine people behaving this way. What was the point? Rural resentment of urban sophistication? Peasant resentment of urban intellectuals? The public shaming, I'm told, remains part of how China creates change even today.
It would be so hard not to feel cheated if this happened to your family. Family members scattered to the winds in different labor camps, plus a lack of education during your most formative years, and more.
I'm grateful for the author's gorgeous book. Two other #worldkidlit titles I would recommend for anyone learning about the Chinese Cultural Revolution are Mao and Me, written and illustrated by Chen Jiang Hong, and translated by Claudia Zoe Bedrick, plus Bronze and Sunflower by Cao Wenxuan, translated by Helen Wang.
November 1, 2023
3.5 stars..
November 9, 2023
Excellent book about the cultural revolution from the point of view of a young man at the time.
September 28, 2016
My favorite book so far！
October 5, 2009
Ange Zhang’s Red Land Yellow River is subtitled A Story from the Cultural Revolution and is shelved in the fiction collection, but is clearly autobiographical. Zhang uses family photographs and his own artwork to illustrate this spare story of how his family fell from being revered by the Chinese Communist Party to being intellectual outcasts. For Zhang, a schoolboy at the time of Mao’s brutal Cultural Revolution, this was particularly hard to comprehend: one day he was allowed to enter school through the door marked “Heroes,” the next, he had to hang his head as he passed under the sign for “Bastards.” His father’s arrest further isolated Zhang from his school friends, yet made him even more determined to join the Red Guard. His skill at drawing, a skill generally denounced under Mao’s regime, found him creating posters for his friends’ Red Guard unit – posters that railed against everything his father stood for. Eventually, Zhang’s entire family was swept away by the Cultural Revolution, dispersing to various work camps and jails around China. Zhang was “reeducated” on a farm where every day was the same hard labor. He found relief in the books he had salvaged from his father’s library and in his drawing and painting. Ten years after leaving school, Zhang returned to the Beijing Central Academy of Drama to study art and stage design.
The photographs included in Zhang’s story and accompanying historical background are interesting, but it is Zhang’s original artwork that provides the real power of this book. Done in a style that is only slightly more realistic than the propaganda posters of the day, Zhang’s illustrations nevertheless capture moods and emotions perfectly through the expressions on the faces of the Red Guards and those they persecuted. The anger of those denouncing Zhang’s father vibrates on the page, and is juxtaposed against the solo face of Zhang looking lonely and bewildered. Many of Zhang’s illustrations contrast the enormity of the setting with the insignificance of the people in them. A cluster of people stand before a larger-than-life propaganda poster; two boys chisel ice in front of a barren landscape -- Zhang captures the isolation and ultimate futility of the Cultural Revolution.
Red Land Yellow River would be an appropriate book to share with middle school students. Zhang’s illustrations and the excellent supplemental information about the time period would make a perfect introduction to reading Red Scarf Girl, another memoir detailing what life was like for students under Mao’s regime.
The photographs included in Zhang’s story and accompanying historical background are interesting, but it is Zhang’s original artwork that provides the real power of this book. Done in a style that is only slightly more realistic than the propaganda posters of the day, Zhang’s illustrations nevertheless capture moods and emotions perfectly through the expressions on the faces of the Red Guards and those they persecuted. The anger of those denouncing Zhang’s father vibrates on the page, and is juxtaposed against the solo face of Zhang looking lonely and bewildered. Many of Zhang’s illustrations contrast the enormity of the setting with the insignificance of the people in them. A cluster of people stand before a larger-than-life propaganda poster; two boys chisel ice in front of a barren landscape -- Zhang captures the isolation and ultimate futility of the Cultural Revolution.
Red Land Yellow River would be an appropriate book to share with middle school students. Zhang’s illustrations and the excellent supplemental information about the time period would make a perfect introduction to reading Red Scarf Girl, another memoir detailing what life was like for students under Mao’s regime.
April 24, 2010
Ange Zhang’s father was a famous writer when the Cultural Revolution began in 1966. Ange’s peaceful world in Beijing rapidly fell apart.
This book is a memoir of his coming of age during this confusing period of destruction, humiliation, and suffering.
Ange Zhang found his calling as an artist and the full page illustrations that accompany the text give us a sense of the tumultuousness of this time.
Ange describes how he learned that his father was one of the “bad guys”:
Standing among them was my father. He wore gray trousers and a white shirt, the same clothes I had seen him wearing earlier that morning. Up on the stage, he looked thin and frail. He bent his head down. His left arm hung slightly crooked, the result of a fall off a horse when he was in the army.
Suddenly, several Red Guards pushed my father into the center of the stage. A terrifying feeling gripped me.
“Down with the counter-revolutionaries!” one of the guards shouted into the microphone. A sea of arms rose up as thousands of voices repeated the words.
My hand went up, too. But I could not find my voice. I dared not look toward the stage. I kept my head low, wishing I could hide away where no one could see me.” (p. 11)
Ange Zhang describes his intent to join the Red Guards, his realization that he was a “black kid,” terror, the portal to another world via the forbidden books in his father’s library, becoming a farmer in the countryside 1000 km from his home, and discovering himself as an artist.
The descriptions at the end of the book give the reader a backdrop to the Cultural Revolution, Chairman Mao, the Little Red Book , and the role of artists during the Cultural Revolution. From the sidebar, “Artists During the Cultural Revolution”:
By insisting that anything old or foreign was “bad,” the Cultural Revolution tossed onto the trash heap thousands of years of culture – both China’s own rich heritage, and all of European art, literature and philosophy. During the Cultural Revolution, theaters and museums were closed. Only works that served the revolution – poems, songs, ballets – were performed again and again (and people flocked to see them)…. (p. 55)
This is non-fiction in picture book format suitable for children nine and older, but it’s also most informative for adults looking to peer back at this time.
This book is a memoir of his coming of age during this confusing period of destruction, humiliation, and suffering.
Ange Zhang found his calling as an artist and the full page illustrations that accompany the text give us a sense of the tumultuousness of this time.
Ange describes how he learned that his father was one of the “bad guys”:
Standing among them was my father. He wore gray trousers and a white shirt, the same clothes I had seen him wearing earlier that morning. Up on the stage, he looked thin and frail. He bent his head down. His left arm hung slightly crooked, the result of a fall off a horse when he was in the army.
Suddenly, several Red Guards pushed my father into the center of the stage. A terrifying feeling gripped me.
“Down with the counter-revolutionaries!” one of the guards shouted into the microphone. A sea of arms rose up as thousands of voices repeated the words.
My hand went up, too. But I could not find my voice. I dared not look toward the stage. I kept my head low, wishing I could hide away where no one could see me.” (p. 11)
Ange Zhang describes his intent to join the Red Guards, his realization that he was a “black kid,” terror, the portal to another world via the forbidden books in his father’s library, becoming a farmer in the countryside 1000 km from his home, and discovering himself as an artist.
The descriptions at the end of the book give the reader a backdrop to the Cultural Revolution, Chairman Mao, the Little Red Book , and the role of artists during the Cultural Revolution. From the sidebar, “Artists During the Cultural Revolution”:
By insisting that anything old or foreign was “bad,” the Cultural Revolution tossed onto the trash heap thousands of years of culture – both China’s own rich heritage, and all of European art, literature and philosophy. During the Cultural Revolution, theaters and museums were closed. Only works that served the revolution – poems, songs, ballets – were performed again and again (and people flocked to see them)…. (p. 55)
This is non-fiction in picture book format suitable for children nine and older, but it’s also most informative for adults looking to peer back at this time.
March 8, 2008
This is an autobiographical story about growing up in the midst of China's Cultural Revolution. Zhang's family was an integral part of the Communist party in China, and his father was one of China's most famous writers. The family was made a target by the new regime because of the patriarch's artistic gift - all artists were blacklisted. This story is about the author's search for identity during this time as he tried to reconcile his former admiration of Mao Zedong with his new role as an outcast and his love for his family.
As someone with a vague knowledge of the Cultural Revolution and Zedong's regime but no real interest in learning about it, I was pretty much a blank slate coming into this book. I was attracted to it, in all honesty, by its beautiful cover (the pictures in the book are stunning; the author is also the illustrator). I was riveted by the story and look forward to learning more about this time period and what Chinese artists and their families endured.
As someone with a vague knowledge of the Cultural Revolution and Zedong's regime but no real interest in learning about it, I was pretty much a blank slate coming into this book. I was attracted to it, in all honesty, by its beautiful cover (the pictures in the book are stunning; the author is also the illustrator). I was riveted by the story and look forward to learning more about this time period and what Chinese artists and their families endured.
January 3, 2010
this historical biography features amazing paintings by the author in a picture book with a more graphic novel feel to it. ange zhang grew in during the communist and cultural revolutions, eventually being relocated to the countryside and separated from all his family. even so, the tone of the book is not desperate or miserable -- it tells the story, but ange focuses more on the parts he remembers were fun, and how he really wanted to be part of all the revolutionary action. the tone of the tale is what makes it kid-appropriate; i can't figure out why it was a library discard...?
February 5, 2015
Zhang's memoir of the Cultural Revolution is beautifully told but even more stunningly illustrated - he is not only able to perfectly capture a sense of his own childhood and the fervour of the political moment but reveals his insecurities, his fears and confusions as well - a lovely story of the artist's journey!
Jan/15 - I love how Zhang tells this poignant story of how the politics of Mao's Cultural Revolution totally ripped apart his family without histrionics the part he played in the events of the late 60s and early 70s - a powerful and compelling memoir
Jan/15 - I love how Zhang tells this poignant story of how the politics of Mao's Cultural Revolution totally ripped apart his family without histrionics the part he played in the events of the late 60s and early 70s - a powerful and compelling memoir
November 11, 2016
This is an easily accessible narrative about the Cultural Revolution written by someone lived through it as a teenager. It would be a great to use in a lit circle ed group read Balzac and the Chinese Seamstress by Dai Si Jie. They are all similar narratives but each one a little more sophisticated than the next. In some ways reading this book helped me have hope that we will get through this disturbing time in America - after all the Chinese made it through the horrors of the Cultural Revolution.
September 30, 2009
Memoir of the Cultural Revolution by son of a writer who was a teenager at the time. Excellent introduction to a tumultuous time for a younger audience. Definitely not for everyone though. The story includes some (but not a lot of) violence, as well as some moral quandaries that are beyond the pay grade of most younger children. If your child gravitates to this sort of story, however, I do highly recommend this one.
October 28, 2007
Memoir of a man who was sent from the city to the country to be "re-educated" during China's Cultural Revolution.
May 3, 2014
Memoir of a rarely known time in Chinese recent history, the Cultural revolution.
Helpful epilogue pages explaining Mao and little red book.
maybe 6th gr. reading level.
Helpful epilogue pages explaining Mao and little red book.
maybe 6th gr. reading level.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews