Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution

by Tania Branigan

“It is impossible to understand China today without understanding the Cultural Revolution,” Tania Branigan writes. During this decade of Maoist fanaticism between 1966 and 1976, children condemned parents, students condemned teachers, and as many as two million people died for their supposed political sins, while tens of millions were hounded, ostracized, and imprisoned. Yet in China this brutal and turbulent period exists, for the most part, as an absence; official suppression and personal trauma have conspired in national amnesia. Red Memory uncovers forty years of silence through the stories of individuals who lived through the madness. Deftly exploring how this era defined a generation and continues to impact China today, Branigan What happens to a society when you can no longer trust those closest to you? What happens to the present when the past is buried, exploited, or redrawn? And how do you live with yourself when the worst is over?

Genres: History, Nonfiction, China, Politics, Asia, Audiobook, Memoir

289 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 2, 2023

Reviews

[Ярослава]

Ночі довшають, насувається стужа, наближається Геловін, входимо в темну пору року, коли треба розповідати страшні історії, одомашнюючи жах. Тому з радістю повідомляю про максимально доречне для цієї пори року (втім, для будь-якої іншої пори року теж!) передзамовлення - "Червона пам’ять. Як проживали, пам’ятали й забували Культурну революцію в Китаї" Тані Браніґан. Це буквально найстрашніша книжка, яку я перекладала в своєму житті, і зараз я розкажу, чому!

Але спершу подякую тим, хто працювали і дбали, щоб жахи були тільки змістовими, а не стилістичними чи орфографічними - редакторка Ольга Манойлова, коректорка Ксенія Шпак, спасибі вам, чудові дівки!😍

Так от, якісь шматки "Червоної пам'яті" я читала ще до того, як вони стали книжкою - ще як статті у Guardian - і вони вражали вже тоді, а оптом вражають іще дужче. Це історія про те, як Китай став таким, як зараз - вам буде цікавіше читати новини, знаючи, які політика пам'яті й культурні страхи стоять за знайомими монструозними повідомленнями. Але, ширше, це історія про те, що відбувається, коли найгірше вже сталося: відгриміло десятиліття параної, крові й жорстоких соціальних експериментів, минули наймасштабніші хвилі репресій і просто розгнузданого насильства. Життя триває, й території жаху потрібно потроху колонізувати й обживати. Щось потрібно замовчувати, на щось не дивитися. Так хоч-не-хоч, а темна історія поступово перетворюється на золоте минуле, й те, що вперше розгорталося як трагедія, вдруге розгортається як фарс:

* зустрічі випускників у школах, де діти колись забивали вчителів;

* міми й коміки в амплуа Мао Цзедуна й тих, кого Мао Цзедун посилав на смерть, виступають на весіллях та інших веселих оказіях;

* танцюють молодіжні танці гуртки стареньких дідусів і бабусь, яких колись у юності послали з міста на село будувати нове суспільство, чим багато кому зламали життя, і тепер вони допроживають ту юність, якої в них не було;

* чоловік що є сили рятує від забудовників діляночку землі, де колись закопали його розстріляну матір (але - поворот сюжету - розстріляли її якраз за його доносом).

І так далі, і таке інше. Але суть не в шок-контенті заради шок-контенту, а в тому, що в часи Мао дуже свідомо руйнували опори суспільства - родинні зв'язки, повагу до старших, давні етичні принципи. І Браніґан цікавить, як це аномійне суспільство вчиться жити далі, де пролягають лінії напруги, які психологічні дисфункції пояснюються тими часами, коли нікому не можна було довіряти, а покладатися, попри всі гасла колективізму, можна було тільки на себе, та й то далеко не завжди. Як хтось, попри змову мовчання, все одно намагається увічнювати пам'ять і докопуватися до правди.

(Тут на мене накочується багато любові до українців, яким з десь подібних травматичних досвідів історії вдалося вийти зі значно більшою довірою до ближнього й готовністю разом будувати щось менш страшне, ніж лежить позаду.)

ОФІЦІЙНА АНОТАЦІЯ:
Тринадцятирічна хунвейбінка насолоджується своєю великою пригодою і бореться із сумнівами. Композитор, якого режим змусив замовкнути, перед лицем смерті вирішує передати досвід того лихоліття. Студент-ідеаліст стає «розпорядником трупів»...

З часів Культурної революції минуло понад 50 років, однак її шрами досі лежать на серці китайського суспільства і душах громадян. Приїхавши в Пекін, кореспондентка Guardian Таня Браніґан усвідомила, що те жорстоке і буремне десятиліття до сьогодні скеровує і формує країну. Однак офіційна цензура й особисті травми породили національну амнезію: пам’ять про Культурну революцію оприявнюється передовсім у білих плямах і за мовчуваннях.

У «Червоній пам’яті» Браніґан досліджує історії тих, хто намагається розібратися зі спадщиною тієї доби, бо прагне чи боїться її повернення. Що відбувається із суспільством, коли ти більше не можеш довіряти найближчим людям? Що відбувається з теперішнім, коли минуле ховають, експлуатують чи переписують? І як жити далі, коли найгірше залишається позаду?

Передзамовити можна тут.

[Aoife Cassidy McM · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Totalitarianism's reach to all parts of society, even the family, is frightening. But what's truly terrifying is that it extends to all parts of the subject, including the unseen: the soul, the psyche, the heart. It seeks to control not just your external life (what job you do, whom you marry, what you say), not just your beliefs, but even your emotions....it was an age of betrayal, of political choices fuelled by fear, idolatry, adolescent rage, marital bitterness and self-preservation. What surprised me was how many had stood firm." (page 216)

---

I was drawn to this book about China's Cultural Revolution when I read the blurb - what happens to a society when you can no longer trust those closest to you? What happens to the present when the past is buried, exploited or redrawn? And how do you live with yourself when the worst is over?

I knew very little about China's Cultural Revolution, which took place from 1966-1976, but little wonder when it's a period of Chinese history that has been all but erased for Chinese people themselves.

During this ten year period, China was riven with violence and suspicion. Chairman Mao unleashed a mob of teenage Red Guards to attack those who he perceived as his enemies. It resulted in the murder of at least a million scholars, entertainers, academics and "elites" (a term that has become all too prevalent in the modern age), many of whom were brutalised and tortured.

Tania Branigan, a former Beijing correspondent for the Guardian, arrived in China in 2008 at a time when people were willing to open up to her and discuss the past. She spent hundreds of hours interviewing perpetrators and victims, distilling their testimony into this book, and interspersing it with her own astute observations on Chinese history, the Chinese psyche, the concept of memory itself and its abuses and distortions by the Chinese government.

If Branigan tried to write this book now she could not, such is the cult of personality that the current leader Xi Xinping (himself a victim of the Cultural Revolution) is cultivating.

There has been no period of truth and reconciliation for China, and discussion on the Cultural Revolution has once again been shut down in the digital age.

The book is a fascinating insight into a hidden period of history. There are parallels that can be drawn with abuses in other parts of the world and Branigan draws these - though such abuses are seen through a very different prism when you consider the privilege it is to know and understand history, and the importance of ensuring future generations understand it, not something that can be assured for Chinese people unfortunately.

I know this book won't be for everyone. It is detailed, it is complex, and it makes for traumatic and disturbing reading at times but I would highly recommend it if you enjoy non fiction and social history. 5/5 stars

[Sarahtar · Rating 3 out of 5]

First. I noticed many of the 5 star reviews were from people who indicated that this was the first and only book they have read on the subject. I encourage you to read a first hand account. Red Scarf Girl. Life and Death in Shanghai. Both excellent.

Now, the book.

It was difficult to tell, throughout the book, when the observations or thoughts were the author's and when they belonged to her interviewees. That really bugged me.

The author indicated at the beginning how offensive it was to compare the cultural revolution with today's happenings, then went on to do so herself several times. Her political bias was very obvious.

I had a very hard time with the author pretending that the us and the uk not prioritizing their historical sins was the same as the ccp simply not allowing its citizens to remember the sins of their past at all.

In the early chapters, she seemed almost to be a fan of mao, and indeed throughout, she seemed to really gloss over the details of the horror. Perhaps that was just a side effect of her being so detached from the events - she didn't experience them, and those she interviewed were circumspect, traumatized, and relying on old memories.

Overall, I didn't hate this book, but I certainly didn't like it that much. If you want to learn about the cultural revolution, you could do much better. I chose this book wanting to learn about how it continues to impact Chinese citizens to this day, and it did fulfill that purpose, if only in vague ways.

I would have loved a comparison to other countries/people who've gone through similar experiences - Russia during the gulag era, jews in German occupied territory, but alas, that didn't come up. (This wasn't the purpose of the book, so its omission is understandable.)

Of the several (6?) books I have read on the subject, it's my least favorite.


Ch 4
Youquin - "i understand why Chairman Mao began the cultural revolution in schools. You kill teachers, you destroy schools- you can destroy much more: traditions, ideas, values. Destroy schools and you destroy civilization." yup. Revolution starts in schools. Let's not pretend that marxists don't still know this.

[Graeme Newell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a bit of a disappointment for me.

First off, the good stuff. Branigan’s research is clearly extensive. She's got a knack for digging up personal stories that illustrate the larger, often horrifying, picture of what went down during that tumultuous period. The chapters that delve into the lives of individuals who lived through the Cultural Revolution are compelling and emotionally charged. There's this one section where she describes a family torn apart by political loyalty that's particularly gut-wrenching.

However, the problem for me really starts when Branigan tries to weave these personal narratives into a broader historical analysis. It feels like she's biting off more than she can chew. The transitions between personal accounts and historical exposition are clunky at times, making the read feel disjointed. Instead of a smooth narrative flow, I often found myself re-reading paragraphs to understand the shift from a personal anecdote to a general historical overview.

Another issue is the tone of the book. Branigan occasionally slips into a somewhat preachy mode, which can be off-putting. It's like, I get it, the Cultural Revolution was a complex and tragic chapter in human history, but the moralizing tone she adopts at times doesn't really add to the discussion. It feels like being hit over the head with how I should feel about the events described, rather than allowing the facts and stories to speak for themselves.

The pacing is also a bit erratic. Some sections are so packed with information that they're overwhelming, while others drag on with what feels like unnecessary detail. This inconsistency made it hard for me to stay engaged. I found myself occasionally checking how many pages were left in a chapter, which is never a great sign when you’re supposed to be lost in a book.

On a positive note, the photographs and personal artifacts included in the book are a powerful touch. They bring a haunting visual element to the stories told and help anchor the reader in the reality of those experiences. It's one thing to read about the Cultural Revolution, but seeing a faded, creased photo of a young student wearing a Red Guard armband really brings the history to life.

This whole book feels a bit like a missed opportunity. It could have been a more cohesive and engaging read if the structure and tone were tightened up. I wouldn't say it's a complete pass, especially for those deeply interested in Chinese history, but go in prepared for a bit of a bumpy ride.

[Peter Tillman]

Nature's short review, 4/28/23:
"Up to two million people died during the Chinese Cultural Revolution of 1966–76, in which Mao Zedong sought to bolster communism. Among them were many teachers killed by students as part of an anti-intellectual movement. Education could mean “ruin”, writes Tania Branigan, a journalist in China in 2008–15, in her riveting portrait of the revolution, based on interviews with survivors. Officials today remain almost silent about persecutors and victims — who included Chinese President Xi Jinping, then a teenager, whose father was purged."

Mao Zeodong, it should be recalled, is the leader Xi Jinping seeks to emulate! Many readers here remark that this book makes for difficult reading. Yet we must understand such horrors, lest they happen again . . .

Per Wikipedia, "Death toll estimates from different sources vary greatly, ranging from hundreds of thousands to 20 million." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultura...
There doesn't seem to be a consensus. Given the CCP's notorious secrecy about unpleasant facts during their watch (most recently, their ongoing COVID coverups), we are unlikely to ever know the total death toll. The damage to the national psyche seems unlikely to fade while victims are still living.

The WSJ's review is here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/red-memo...
(Paywalled. As always, I'm happy to email a copy to non-subscribers)
Excerpt:
"The reporting in this book was gathered between 2008 and 2015, when Ms. Branigan was a Guardian correspondent in China. Poignantly, she observes that she could not have conducted such interviews today. In the past several years, even greater pressure has come down on those who wish to remember a past the Party wants to forget. People who spoke freely with her 10 years ago might not risk doing so today."

Grim stuff. Maybe??

[Marius Gabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extraordinary, profound and moving book. Tania Branigan has achieved a near-impossible feat: that of making something as vast and sweeping as Mao's Cultural Revolution understandable to the lay reader. Drawing on fifteen years as a journalist in China, and a lifetime of China-watching, she gives a harrowing portrait of the unfathomable suffering that the Chinese people endured, through multiple interviews with survivors of the Cultural Revolution – both those who suffered and those who inflicted suffering.

Forcefully yet delicately written, with beautiful passages which offer extraordinary revelations, this is an important book on an important subject.

Very highly recommended.

[jrendocrine at least reading is good · Rating 4 out of 5]

fact: due at the library, I didnt give it enough time.

this is a sad and disturbing book, and challenging for westerners who aren't facile with recent Chinese history. it is also helpful for contemplation of what is currently happening in China with Xi Jinping. Also not happy, also disturbing.

worth covering.

[Bagus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tania Branigan’s Red Memory shows just how hard it is to make sense of the Cultural Revolution. There were no clear lines between victims and perpetrators. Ordinary people could be both, sometimes at the same time. The only person truly safe was Mao Zedong himself.

Even its ending is unclear. Some point to Mao’s death and the fall of the Gang of Four in 1976, while others insist the chaos and fear carried on long after. What everyone agrees on is the damage it left behind: a national trauma that didn’t just target politics, but also reached into the most personal spaces. Families, long held together by Confucian values of loyalty and duty, were torn apart as children denounced parents and neighbors turned on each other.

What makes the book powerful is that it isn’t just a history. It's about memory. Tania Branigan gathers stories from survivors, but also looks closely at what’s left unsaid, the silences and the evasions. Through that, you feel the scars of the Cultural Revolution more deeply than from any official record.

This is a painful read, but also a necessary one, to see how a society both remembers and tries to forget one of its darkest times—and how that struggle continues today.

[Vicuña · Rating 5 out of 5]

Red Dragon is, in my view, a masterpiece. Eloquent, well paced and filled with detail it’s a well researched and honest account of modern China. As a teenager in the 1960s, I was fascinated by Chairman Mao and his little red book. A school headmaster used to extol the virtue of his wisdom and looking back, was quietly grooming children towards communism. China is a mystery to most of the West. For centuries, the Forbidden City and the hidden Emperors were at the heart of the country. There were opium wars and in the 1930s, The Long March after which Mao’s particular brand of communism was embedded. China accounts for something like a fifth of the world population. And that’s despite the fact that tens of millions died from famine or were put to death by the regime as part of The Great Leap Forward. This aimed to make China a dominating world power and move from an agricultural nation to an industrial nation. The Cultural Revolution was an excuse to turn the entire country into the most unimaginable dystopia.

It’s difficult to understand what it must be like to live in a country where thoughts are controlled. Opinions are not allowed and The Party way is the only way. To challenge means death. Violent, immediate and often for no reason. And now, 50 or so years after Mao’s death and many of his supporters discredited, China remains largely mysterious and often threatening. It’s a country totally shaped by its past but many elements of control remain. Social media is censored, emails may be censored and the author recounts being followed and photographed when she went to visit a museum, one which mysteriously closed just as she arrived.

Tania Brannigan has spoken to individuals who took a direct part in the Cultural Revolution. The young Red Guard on the cover was thirteen at the time. Proud to wear the uniform, she also denounced her teacher and was present when the teacher’s hair was cut and she was savagely beaten in the class by her pupils. Hers is first hand witness account if the reality of this appalling regime. It’s not light reading and some of the accounts are harrowing and disturbing, but that doesn’t make them any the less true. it’s challenging to realise that current attitudes are shaped by recent events and the past is being wiped out, or ignored under the rule of False Memory.

This is a very readable account; considered, articulate and intelligent and I’d urge anyone with an interest in social history to read it and recommend it. We need a better understanding of atrocities rather than ignorance and acceptance and this is a brave publication.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

[Heather Gadd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book after reading The Three-Body Problem to gain more understanding about the Cultural Revolution that is mentioned in that novel. The author does a great job capturing all the feelings and criticisms that surround this event in China's history while doing well to illustrate that it was a complicated time with various perspectives. I would read more from this author.

[Mae Gille · Rating 1 out of 5]

The subject matter of this book is the main reason I read and enjoyed it. I was not overly impressed by Branigan’s style of writing - she dwells too much on her meeting with the interviewees rather than the content of their interviews - i.e., it’s a bit too much about her, which is not the reason I wanted to read this book. I also do not like how often she chooses to criticise the West (eg ‘Trump is a demagogue’ - an unoriginal childish trope - not coming from a Trump supporter but I thought it was a pointless addition) - it detracts from the message of the book and I didn’t think was necessary and only serves to alienate readers. I preferred Wild Swans or Frank Dikotter for this content.

[Sylvia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m fascinated by the Cultural Revolution, in part because I knew nothing about it while it was happening. I found the individual stories fascinating. My biggest problem with this book is the lack of organization. It jumped all over the place and I felt it needed a better structure or some serious editing. Sometimes including everything, even the kitchen sink, is a disservice to the reader who would benefit with some constraints.

[Trevor Tsui · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poor writing, lack of clear structure, lack of depth in historical depth and its analysis, as well as the authors constant passive criticism made it difficult to get through this book and feel engaged.

The authors self righteous tone and constant insertion of her own judgment were a constant annoyance. This was an era of unfathomable turmoil and great injustices, but the human condition is also complex, and this needs to be dealt with in a delicate and balanced way. The book does not appreciate or respect this, particularly as historical facts and its assessment are lacking. As other readers have pointed out, there are other history books that would provide more insight and learning, with less self righteous judgment.

[Lien · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the passages about the psychological impact of the cultural revolution and the collective trauma were interesting, but overall this book was way too chaotically written, lacking structure. The tone was also often weird, heightened by the audiobook narration style.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 rounded down

[Britta Böhler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read for the BTP / Quarterfinals Nonfiction. Rating to come once the judging has been finalized (end May).

[Tom Hendrikx · Rating 3 out of 5]

Een prima analyse van hoe de Culturele Revolutie nog steeds doorwerkt in het huidige China en dus ook in de generaties die na 1976 geboren zijn. Géén eenvoudig boek om te lezen. Je moet er de tijd voor nemen maar die leestijd is de moeite waard!

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using the memories of the Chinese who lived through Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution and how they’ve dealt with the impact of that decade, Branigan delivers on her promises, in particular, “how we collectively choose our narratives, what we include and discard, consciously and otherwise, what we emphasise [sic] or elide.”

You do get an instructive overview of 20th-century Chinese history, but if you’re like I was and looking for a deeper dive into the Cultural Revolution, Red Memory is not the place to begin. Fortunately, Branigan provides a lengthy list of sources with recommendations for more traditional histories and first-hand accounts.

[Randall Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book offers first-hand accounts of people who lived through the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of the 60s and 70s. The author weaves a narrative around the interviews she conducted. I read three reviews of this book before checking it out of the library. I can't say I was as impressed with the book as the reviewers were.

It wasn't as detailed a history as I had hoped it would be. However, the interviews with survivors have importance and significance, especially now, given what's currently happening in China. She makes it clear you can't understand current China without understanding the nature and impact of the 20 year span.

The parallels between blind obedience to a demagogic leader in 1960s China and those present in many Western governments are eerie. Think this area needed a deeper dive to round out her narrative. What lessons can we in the West learn from this experiment in China 50+ years ago, and how might those lessons relate to the current political upheavals in Europe and the US?

To me, the main weakness with the narrative was that she left China in 2015; all her interviews were conducted before then. Not sure why she waited so long to complete her book. So much has happened in China over the last eight years. Branigan spends time in the last chapter making a comparison of Mao's cult of personality, the zenith of which was in the GPCR, with what Chairman Xi has done/is currently doing as leader of the PRC. That summation was one of the strengths of her book.

Would have like to see some fresher/updated analysis of what the people interviewed in the book think about the current state of affairs, i.e, how similar is what they are experiencing now to what they experienced in the 60s and 70s? Realize that might not have been feasible given the current state of affairs in the PRC.

The violence perpetrated by the PRC government is decidedly less onerous (murderous) now. However, given modern surveillance technology, the current Chinese state invades just about every element of its citizens lives in ways it was not able to during the GPCR.

Is the current level of government invasion into private lives worse, better or the same as the violence meted out during the GPRC in the government's name? If you're a Uighur, the answer is clear. Updated interviews with the principals might have given Branigan the opportunity to address this issue, which seems like the pressing question her story begs.

This was an interesting book; enjoyed the chapter about the mental health aspect of the victims/survivors and the country's mental health practitioners' - a small group relative to the size of the population - efforts to address them. Also enjoyed her chapter following those who impersonate many of the key figures in the GPCR at weddings, business meetings, birthday parties, etc..

[heptagrammaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trauma, national, generational. Mechanisms of survival in a world being unmade. The abuse of memory. Imposing teleology upon history, smoothing out pain and difference, is - as ever - the violent working of power.

With that stark clear detailed beauty that is the particular speciality of (good) journalistic writing.

Somewhere within this is the inchoate yet profound realisation of the damage caused by destroying a philosophy: a population that believes in nothing is more dangerous than a population that believes in the wrong ideals.

[CatReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took me a while to get through because of how brutal and confronting many of the stories were -- but then again I find the most compelling nonfiction books to be the ones that make me the most uncomfortable. Branigan lived in China for almost a decade between the late '00s and mid '10s and sought out to interview as many individuals involved in the Cultural Revolution as she could find. This proved to be a daunting task, as many did not want to talk about their involvement (largely due to China's current political climate), some expressed remorse, and some feigned remorse or displayed confusing affectations. I think Branigan described this phenomenon well early in her work, when she talked about how it's impossible to truly understand modern China without understanding (or attempting to understand) the Cultural Revolution, just like how it's impossible to understand the United States without understanding the American Civil War, its root causes, and its long-lasting repercussions that linger to this day. My only criticism of Red Memory is the narrative arc wasn't particularly linear (to be fair, neither was the Cultural Revolution), and the chapters felt meandering and somewhat repetitive at times.

Further reading:
We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China's Surveillance State by Kai Strittmatter (2018)
The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity by Amy Webb (2019) -- particularly its focus on Chinese tech companies that enable the current surveillance state

[Noah Candelario · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gives a more qualitative outlook on the Cultural Revolution by looking at the past and applying its current implications on the Chinese people now. I can appreciate the authors different approach but it was not my style. I think if she told less stories and more general implications of the Cultural Revolution the book would have been better. A problem that I had with this book is that there is no specified Chapter and Sub Chapter names, which make the progress of the book confusing. Lastly, I listened to this book on Audiobook, and regardless it was hard to follow along what time period she was speaking in the book most of the time.

[Mac · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bust.

A collection of stories weaved together by a journalist with all the overly descriptive writing that usually implies.

[Sarah AF · Rating 5 out of 5]

"China was driven in the truest sense: propelled into the future by the forces at its back - and by one above all. Hundreds of millions lived out its consequences (broken families and broken minds; an individualistic urge for survival; the rust to cut-throat capitalism; deep cynicism) without ever discussing it. Many of those were unborn when the movement ended. It existed for the most part as an absence, like its victims, making itself evident in what was not said."

Since reading Madeleine Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing it's been a bit of a personal mission to educate myself better on the history of China, particularly The Cultural Revolution and I don't think I could have chosen a better book to allow me - so firmly an outsider looking in - to understand and understand that it perhaps isn't possible to understand at all. Branigan herself was that outsider working as a correspondent, gradually piecing together how fundamentally The Cultural Revolution continues to be woven into Chinese society, politics and individual lives. This continuing existence sits uncomfortably, often silently and yet is seemingly increasingly drawn on as a mentality to cement power.

So often in studying historical atrocities there is a separation that we allow to exist in our minds (if only in ours minds) between the abstract of "power" and of individual lives. What makes The Cultural Revolution so fundamentally uncomfortable, so horrifying and so devastating is that that separation ceased to exist. It was a volatile call to arms of each member of society who would single out their friends, neighbours and even families and could just so easily be singled out themselves. In piecing together this history, drawing heavily on interviews of wildly varying experiences and perspectives, Branigan handled the subject so incredibly sensitively - often openly struggling for perspective herself, such was the enormity of the subject that she was dealing with - but searingly.

[Benedict Ness 📚 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting analysis of China’s past and present. Looks into the country’s collective trauma and amnesia from events like the ‘Great Leap Forward,’ where as many as 45 million are thought to have died, as well as Mao’s ‘Cultural Revolution,’ weeding out anyone from landlords to school teachers to curb the rise of capitalism.

“For a nation, as for the people who comprise it, identity is memory - a partial accumulation of events and the stories we tell about them. But memory, of course, is a work in progress: What we need in the present is constructed selectively by our reading of the past, wrote Fei Xiaotong. We try to smooth these facts and instincts into some kind of coherence, tangling over the inevitable questions of what we remember, and when, and why, and who gets to decide.
What happens reverberates into our pasts as well as into our future.
To change our understanding of what has gone before, as events often do, is to change ourselves.”

[k.]

you cannot understand history without understanding the lingering effects of trauma. the manipulation of that wellspring of human desire, for peace and for safety, for power and control, is history, and our inheritance in this scuffed 3rd millennium is the challenge to overcome trauma with love and compassion, or get pulled to the wolves by the repetitive, eldritch patterns of trauma-response.

[Ксенія Шпак]

Дізналася багато нового про китайців, залишилася у певній депресії з цього приводу - страшенно їх перемолола диктатура пролетаріату, і загалом Китай уважно дивився на совок, мотав на вус усі його промахи і діяв у себе з ще більшою жорстокістю, це дуже моторошно. Авторка розкриває нам явище Культурної революції крізь призму окремих доль учасників.

[Christine Liu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tania Branigan's Red Memory is a book I've been needing to read my whole life without realizing how much I needed it. The Cultural Revolution, which officially lasted from 1966-1976, is an event that's at once deeply personal for me and shrouded in mystery. Like many who have roots in China, the scars left by this period are deeply etched into my family history, but I've always sensed that they're still too painful to be talked about. My grandfather was driven nearly to suicide by Red Guards and their brutal struggle sessions. My aunt had only a middle school education when she was sent, without her family, to labor in the rural countryside. My mom's childhood was shaped by famine and fear, and I never really understood her seemingly obsessive need to never waste food or throw anything away until I began to learn more about what life was like in China during this formative decade. Now I can't read about the Cultural Revolution without wondering which of the accounts from other survivors were things that my family also experienced.

The Cultural Revolution is a complex and difficult topic to tackle. As Branigan writes, "In other catastrophes the line between victims and perpetrators was clearer. When the target was defined not by race or custom but by what was purportedly in hearts and minds; when what was right today was wrong tomorrow; when the means of destruction was mass participation – then certainty, like innocence, was an impossibility." Each chapter of this book thoughtfully presents a different facet of the Cultural Revolution with profiles of the people who lived through it. I came to understand how Mao's uninformed and misguided policies directly caused the famine that killed tens of millions of people. I learned more about the factors that contributed to his rise to power and the cult of personality that led young students to turn violent against their teachers. I gained insight into what the urban youths sent into rural farming communities experienced. There is no shortage of horrors to recount in covering this period, but it was the second to last chapter, which delves into generational trauma and how those who lived through the Cultural Revolution often unwittingly transmit their pain to their children, that brought tears to my eyes.

One of the people Branigan interviewed stated, "Even though I have a huge amount of materials, the more I read about the Cultural Revolution, the more confused I become. Because it’s still quite fresh, to understand this history I think you need to stand back from a distance." Another expressed similar thoughts: "It can’t be described in a few words. For foreigners, looking at the Cultural Revolution is like reading a difficult book. It’s really hard to understand." Chinese people who lived and suffered through these turbulent years are also just tired and frustrated of foreigners explaining reductive takes on their own history to them, and rightly so. Branigan, a British journalist whose mother's family is Thai-Chinese and who spent many years in Beijing reporting for the Guardian, is perhaps perfectly situated to tell the story. She captures the nuances of Chinese perspectives and preserves the complexity of the multitude of narratives but has enough distance to afford her objectivity. Her writing is profound and compelling, and she reconstructs the events of these years admirably considering the general unwillingness to speak up, or sometimes, even to remember.

[Earl Grey Tea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Red Memory provides interviews, insights, and reflections of people with various backgrounds who survived the Cultural Revolution. This book brings out a much more human element of this point of Chinese history that most formal narratives lack. Despite the horrors and hardships that Chinese society faced, there are many different and conflicting opinions about this period of time.

One thing that stood out to me was that the discussion around the Cultural Revolution is always evolving and depends of the whims of the Chinese government. The narrative of this time period can easily be changed or silenced based on Communist Party's agenda. While the country as a whole has moved passed this tragic event, there is still a lot of unresolved issues for millions of people.

A basic understanding of current and recent events in China is necessary to follow all of the topics discussed. Even with this knowledge, the content can still be a bit difficult to follow as the author jumps back and forth between topics in each chapter.

The last aspect that I didn't care for was the author's tendency to use a literary style prose throughout her writing. A lot of this arose when she was describing the contemporary environment of the people she was interviewing. Learning that the author was able to smell the pineapple being sold in the public park where she was doesn't better help me understand how impact the Cultural Revolution had on the person she is talking to.

I did learn a few things about the more personal side of the Cultural Revolution. However, the writing style and organization of content doesn't make me inclined to recommend this book.

[Adriana Porter Felt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Red Memory successfully brings the stories of the cultural revolution and its aftermath to life, but it isn't quite the book I was hoping it would be. I'd describe the book as "neither here nor there"—not firmly committing to any one approach.

First: the book mixes the author's opinion, interviewees' storytelling, and historical explanations without clearly delineating what's what. It isn't always clear whether the author is sharing her opinion, the interviewee's experience, or a historical fact. The lines blur together. The informal approach gives the book the ✨vibes✨ of literary fiction, but it loses something as a piece of nonfiction.

Second, it has a curious amount of historical context. I would have understood if the author simply shared interviewees' stories—let them stand on their own for the reader to piece together. I also would have understood if the author had structured the book with a lot of historical context for people not already familiar with 20th century Chinese politics/history. Instead, she chose a middle approach: bits and pieces of history tucked into the chapters in an unclear order. I got confused, went and read a history textbook, and then came back.

I think I wanted a version of this that was just the interviewees' stories, presented as a first person narrative and without additional opinions mixed in (like a set of nonfiction short stories).