Red Guard Organizations
An important factor in the Cultural Revolution, particularly from 1966 to 1968, the Red Guards were groups formed from junior and senior high school students and university students, who made it their cause to be the personal guards of Mao Zedong (1893–1976) and of the socialist revolution. First formed on 29 May 1966 at the Quinhua University Middle School in Beijing as a reaction to the criticism of Mao in the play Hai Rui (Dismissed from Office) by the historian Wu Han, the group used slogans and demonstrations to express disapproval of its schools and faculty. Using the organization as a powerful tool in his political struggle with his rivals in the Communist Party and the government, Mao gave his blessing to the Red Guards by sending them a personal letter praising their activities and by reviewing almost 10 million Red Guards in six gigantic rallies in Beijing during late 1966. Encouraged by Mao, the Red Guards organizations quickly spread to other schools and universities in Beijing and then to the rest of the country.
The activities of the Red Guards, which centered on a personal glorification of Mao and an aggressive push against foreign or traditional culture, were focused by Mao's campaign to destroy the "Four Olds": old thought, old culture, old customs, and old practices.
Red Guards carrying a portrait of Mao and red flags march through the streets of Beijing in 1967. (BETTMANN/CORBIS)The campaign began in late 1966, and the activities were largely those of the Red Guards. Mao's campaign was a personal attack on the "Four Olds," and the Red Guards implemented certain physical measures based on Mao's philosophies. These took the form of renaming streets, attacking foreign fashions and hairstyles, and attempting to redirect traffic after determining that the color red should signify "go." Such tactics turned violent, as Red Guards began torturing and killing people with "bad class backgrounds," destroying stores selling luxury goods, burning theater and opera props, smashing Confucian tombstones, and ransacking cultural treasures such as the Ming portion of the Great Wall, Han dynasty archaeological sites, and religious sites like mosques and Buddhist monasteries. Only direct action by the Central Committee prevented the Red Guards from storming the Imperial City.
By 1967, the Red Guards had splintered into factions violently contesting one another's loyalty and commitment, while continuing to arrest, torture, and harass those they saw as threats to the revolution, including translators, scholars, and military officials. The Red Guards confiscated jewelry, gold, and valuable real estate, while destroying art collections and priceless records. Faced with the horde of Red Guards, the government took the first step in halting their activities in March 1967 by ordering them to cease national networking and travel. In 1968, the army was sent into schools and universities to restore order and to control the Red Guards.
Although deeply committed to Mao and the revolution, the Red Guards built nothing new, while they terrorized China for more than two years, in the name of tearing down the old. Too dangerous to be allowed to continue, the Red Guard organizations, which mobilized hundreds of thousands of Chinese students, had to be stopped with official force and ceased to be an important part of the Cultural Revolution.
Further Reading
Chan, Anita. (1985) Children of Mao. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
Jiaqi, Yan, and Gao Gao. (1996) Turbulent Decade: A History of the Cultural Revolution. Translated and edited by D. W. Y. Kwok. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.
Lin, Jing. (1991) The Red Guards' Path to Violence: Political, Educational, and Psychological Factors. Westport, CT: Praeger.
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