Red Memory by Tania Branigan

Red Memory:The Afterlives of China’s Cultural Revolution

by Tania Branigan

WW Norton 2023

It is rare to find a book that makes one think deeply. Red Memory - The Afterlives of China’s Cultural Revolution by Tania Branigan, former China correspondent at The Guardian, is one such book. The ability of Red Memory, in a relatively brief amount of prose, to stimulate the thinking of its readers lies not so much in the disquieting information the book offers regarding China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Rather this ability relates to the manner by which Branigan’s selected stories meld with largely implicit questions of consequence: what does it mean to be human; what purpose should our lives have; and should we be free together as a community to define right from wrong instead of having such meanings imposed on us by select others?

Branigan begins Red Memory by explaining how, via a random lunchtime encounter, she first came to be interested in the Cultural Revolution. It is the Cultural Revolution, and its pitting of all against all, that she since has increasingly realized is essential to understand contemporary China. Branigan, however, posits that an understanding of the Cultural Revolution is more that this, because the processes that bred the event could also occur elsewhere. There are thus many lessons to be learned.

Several outcomes Branigan highlights throughout Red Memory can be tied to extant political theory. According to Branigan, Mao Zedong orchestrated the Cultural Revolution for two reasons. First, to re-establish his own weakened power. Second, to change China from a place plagued by selfishness to a nation united and focused on altruistic self-sacrifice. But, although originally (at least partially) idealistically founded, as Mao reclaimed power, his approaches went more and more astray. The totalitarian-driven approach of the Cultural Revolution also reveals the travesties that dictators can inflict on their own people. As one of Branigan’s interviewees relates, “I lacked the basic ability to tell right from wrong.” Another interviewee states, “[The Cultural Revolution] turned people into beings without thought or feelings…There was no self-will. No ideas.” These are powerful issues.

In structuring her book, Branigan presents differing sets of Cultural Revolution stories. The stories mostly frame one or more of her book’s 12 chapters. One set pertains to the subjects of a gifted painter, Xu Weixin. Xu, feeling guilt for his role in the Cultural Revolution, decided to compensate for this by painting various perpetrators and/or victims of the tragedy. Among the Xu subjects Branigan writes about are Zhou Ximeng (victim; father of Branigan’s friend), Yu Xiangzhen (perpetrator and victim; former Red Guard and up till recently Cultural Revolution blogger), Bian Zhongyun (victim; the first teacher in Beijing killed in the Cultural Revolution), Wang Jingyao (victim; husband of Bian), and Song Binbin (perpetrator; student of Bian’s and symbol of Cultural Revolution). The interrelations of these individuals is complicated, and Branigan’s talent at illuminating their ties adds much value to her work, as do the differing perspectives many of the subjects express. The other principal set of stories concerns individuals living in China’s Sichuan Province, particularly the city Chongqing (now an independent urban area). One such group is a set of people who were part of the 17 million “educated” youth, who two years into the Cultural Revolution Mao dispatched from the cities to the rural areas. In doing this Mao minimized the threats to him of dispossessed urban youth but created China’s “Lost Generation,” a member of which is China’s current ruler, Xi Jinping.

What lessons does Red Memory teach? Number one is the danger inherent in an over concentration of power, especially when such an outcome evolves into a personality cult. As Branigan’s work shows, no one is perfect; and, we are all subject to the weaknesses of imperfection. This is why checks and balances on power and rule of law should exist. Second, the importance of community. Moral development requires an interactive social context exemplified by trust, respect for others, and mutual caring. Do away with this context and problems arise. Maintaining and enhancing a sense of community is critical to positive human development. Third is the need to reflect on and learn from the past. Even after social traumas occur, residual effects remain. It is not enough to forget and to move on, especially since, “Without the right to remember, there can be no freedom to forget.”

The most disconcerting thing about Red Memory is the apparent choice of China’s current leaders to ignore the lessons of the Cultural Revolution. In Branigan’s closing chapter, she relates that in today’s China political power is becoming more concentrated, social atomization is increasing, and China’s population is being discouraged from reflecting on the mistakes of its past. In fact, “mistakes” are being reinterpreted as forms of success, with the reasons for such change being to avoid historical nihilism: there is, according to Xi Jinping, one and only one interpretation of history—that of China’s Communist Party.

Red Memory is a very good book. It is thought-provoking, and highly recommended.

A former business school professor, Mark Jacobs lives in North Carolina. He is particularly interested in the intersection between the individual and society.