Hundred Day War: The Cultural Revolution at Tsinghua University

Tales From the Front #6

by William Hinton

Book by Hinton, William

Genres: China, History, Nonfiction, Asia

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Bob Newman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much ado about nothing---blow by blow

Even if you are a China expert, or a budding China scholar, and you want to delve to the bottom of the Cultural Revolution, this offering from William Hinton may prove a little too much for you. As for the rest of you surfers, forget this.
William Hinton started off very well with "Fanshen", "Shenfan" and "Iron Oxen". He was an American who stayed in China when the revolution triumphed, not fleeing like most. He approached the new regime with obvious sincerity and recorded his experiences in a particular village with remarkable clarity, detail, and sympathy for the overall aims of the Communists (to bring a better life to the masses of Chinese peasantry). But he spiralled down with the rest of the country into the morass of violence and twisted logic that marked the Cultural Revolution of the 60s. Thus, he came to write THE HUNDRED DAY WAR, a chronicle of student factions and fighting at Tsinghua University. Every detail is found here. It was probably a riveting experience for him, but some decades later, excruciatingly boring reading. You wonder constantly "why am I reading this ?" You also wonder how all the earnestly radical participants have been faring in the new age of money-making. Cynical answers do come to mind. Don't read this one unless you REALLY need to get a blow-by-blow picture of a campus conflict in 1960s China.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hundred Day War, by William Hinton is another fantastic read by one of my favorite authors. Hinton lived in the PRC for several years over a long span of time on several different trips to the country. He started out by happenstance as a UN engineer sent to China after World War II to assist in the training of Chinese peasants in using American tractors. Through a sequence of events, he ended up finding himself in Northern Chinese Communist territory during the civil war and stayed on in the country afterwards as an English teacher and then a CCP member and cadre working in the countryside to assist peasants in land redistribution. His books are all based on his visits to the country and his observations while there, and they are in the similar vein to Edgar Snow, except that instead of dealing with the leaders of the state and party, Hinton dealt with every-day Chinese people in the act of revolutionizing their country. This book is really a fascinating read. It's about how the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1969) was carried out at Qinghua University, one of China's top universities to this day. During the Cultural Revolution, the university's campus was divided between two factions that turned to violent feuding for leadership of the campus. They were eventually made to stop their fighting and turn to unifying by intervention from the army and workers of Beijing. Hinton constructs the narrative from interviews with faculty and students at the university several years later.

[Mikey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vivid description of the early clashes on Tsinghua's campus during the early parts of the Cultural Revolution. A real trip.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too many people to keep track of, suffers also from (not Hinton's fault) using the old Wade-Giles transliterations which is very annoying. Some very insightful chapters here and there, really really fascinating chapters about the intervention of the working class in Tsinghua, the Wuhan incident, and Wang Guangmei (Liu Shiaoqi's wife). Also dispels the notion that the Red Guards were in any way a unified movement... who started that myth anyways
This would have been a lot better if it were 150 pages but was written during the Cultural Revolution so I understand the urgency to get it written and published. Recommended for a very unique perspective into the Cultural Revolution, be ready for a slog though.

[Jennifer Norris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This author gives some insight albeit without much context. He clearly also sympathizes with Mao's core message, painting his intentions and ideology in a very positive light. This bias is evident where he interjects his reasoning and analysis on historic events. Otherwise, interesting case specific read, but Anita Chan does a better job.

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating peak into one of the most infamous incidents during one of the most infamous periods during the GPCR

Hinton does a great job cutting through all the noise to give a straight shooting order of events, that he manages to weave from a disconnected series of personal recollections into a compelling story of continuing revolution on a Chinese campus, with all it's successes and faults

[Justin H · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll be honest. I skipped some hundred pages or so 3/4 the way through. Had some amazing parts, but much of it was bland. Informative but bland.