China: The Revolution Continued

by Jan Myrdal, Gun Kessle (Photographer)

Did the Red Guards change the Chinese way of life? Was rural society really affected by the famous Cultural Revolution?

Jan Myrdal’s book is his second study of the Shensi village of Liu Ling, a sequel to the pioneering Report from a Chinese Village. Seven years on he discovered the new realities of Chinese society at grass roots level—the political gatherings, the re-education of students from Peking and Sian, the signs of increased affluence, the daily teaching from the “little red book,” and the extraordinary efforts made to exculpate the “class sin” of egoism. His story and the photographs by his wife Gun Kessle are a startling record of the achievements of the Cultural Revolution and the dramatic changes forced on rural society by the revolutionary Red Guards.

Genres: China, Nonfiction

201 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Jan Myrdal (1927–2020) was one of the most prominent and controversial figures in modern Swedish cultural life. An internationally acclaimed writer, essayist and political commentator, he authored dozens of books spanning autobiographical prose, travel writing and Marxist analysis. His breakthrough work Confessions of a Disloyal European brought him global recognition and established his reputation as a fiercely independent intellectual voice.

At the same time, Myrdal was a deeply polarizing figure. His uncompromising political positions and provocative interventions in public debate made him both admired and sharply criticized. Regardless of stance, few disputed his influence: for decades, he remained a towering presence in Swedish cultural discourse.

Reviews

[Felix · Rating 3 out of 5]

Myrdal's ethnography of Liu Ling in 1962, Report from a Chinese Village, is a standout work in the genre mostly because its informant interviews (totalling 450+ pages, including extensive tables documenting commodity prices and agricultural production) are presented directly and allowed to speak for themselves, with the ethnographer's editorial content limited to the book's introduction. This document of Myrdal's follow-up visit in 1969 is a great deal lighter on interview transcripts, which are interspersed with polemical passages from Myrdal and extensive quotations from Mao. These quotations are largely relevant to the revolutionary work being done in Liu Ling village in 1969, and many are offered by the informants themselves by way of justifying their applications of Maoist thought in village life and political work. Myrdal's polemics are, in context, much less welcome, and seem largely concerned with rebutting western anticommunist perspectives on the Cultural Revolution, which perhaps could have been more effectively achieved if the informants' accounts of the Revolution's (evidently extensive) local successes were given more space to speak for themselves. On the other hand, Gun Kessle's photographic contributions are much more extensive here than in Report, more than justifying her co-author credit.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was translated from chinese to Swedish then into English, Because of this it seemed to be written for the minds of 5 year olds. pro Mao Tse tung We all know how the cultural revolution turned out. poorly written .