16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A non-fiction Lord of the Flies, December 20, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Born Red: A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution (Paperback)
This amazing tale is seen through the eyes of the child the author was at the time, rather than through the filter of adult wisdom and judgement. That is what gives this terrifying and funny book its power.
As a fourteen year-old boy Gao Yuan attended a boarding school that became caught up in the wildness of the Cultural Revolution. He experienced the foolishness of the children and their terrible violence as they turned on each other. At the same time his father was being pilloried at home.
This is a great yarn about a surreal world, as well as an important historical document.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Riveting account of a student in the Cultural Revolution, July 23, 2000
This review is from: Born Red: A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution (Paperback)
"Born Red" is not a broad historical account of the Cultural Revolution, but the autobiography of a man who was a young student in an elite "middle school" at the outset of this tumultuous and destructive period of recent Chinese history. The students were urged to ferret out "counter-revolutionaries" and given almost free reign over their decisions and punitive actions. I agree with the prior reviewer that this book brings to mind a real "Lord of the Flies," and would add to that the Salem Witch Trials.
Although their actions were encouraged, at the outset, by their teachers, the students quickly turned their attentions to their instructors and "found" counter-revolutionary, "bourgeouis" and other improper behavior. Nearly all the teachers were branded, even after the Communist party instructed the students that most teachers should be considered good or "relatively good." When the students ran out of teachers and local petty officials to attack, they turned on each other, forming alliances which accused their opponents of non-revolutionary behavior. The mounting violence and resulting chaos are, on a certain level, surreal. The author's "postscript," while brief, ties the account to the present with its description of the "where they are now" of his friends, and enemies, during this time.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Lord of the Flies" and "1984" at a national scale., January 22, 2004
This review is from: Born Red: A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution (Paperback)
"Born Red" is a fascinating and horrifying book recounting one boy's experiences during the Cultural Revolution. As an American, steeped in our culture from birth, I find it is nearly impossible to truly grasp a culture that would permit the kind of reflexive parroting of official party line to take hold as it did in China (and continues today in North Korea).
The book does a fine job of painting Mao as a cult leader that succeeded in making himself a virual infallible god in the eyes of the citizenry, pushing one socialistic national program after another that were universally irrational and doomed from the get-go. The book showcases a unique traditional asian culture that promotes/permits this lemming-like following of "the leader", migrating blindly into disaster.
To me, one of the most fascinating aspects of "Born Red" is the apparently honest and heartfelt attempts by the citizenry to, at one level, mentally embrace and pursue the communist paradise promised by Mao while, at a much more personal and everyday level, actions that are more practical, rational, pragmatic, selfish, carnal, and capitalistic prevailed. In "Born Red" one sees students memorizing entire books written by Mao, formally criticizing others/themselves endlessly, and violently persecuting those that are PERCEIVED to be even one iota less than 100% loyal to the official party line (as they see it) -- all the while these same students guiltlessly steal, cheat the system, seek and peddle influence, lie, rape, even murder. The contrast is striking and impossible to reconcile.
The other horrific lesson one takes away from "Born Red" is how easily these chinese students (representative of the entire nation) could so easily be compelled to completely and quickly alter, even reverse, their allegiances and internal mindsets -- those who were enemies could, overnight, become allies; that which was wrong one day would (upon authorized dictate) be considered right the next day; a political system (Capitalism) that was seen as the greatest evil in the world would, within a decade, be officially lauded as the road to national success -- all of these flipflops seemingly being accepted by everyone without the batting of an eye or otherwise questioning the irrationality of it all. This aspect of the tale is strikingly reminiscent of Orwell's "1984".
My biggest single criticism of "Born Red" is the level of detail in which the author recounts his lifestory. Countless conversations are recalled word for word; minute details, complex sequences of events, names & places are described in apparently flawless detail in spite of the decades that have passed. I don't begrudge dramatic reconstructions "based upon factual events" but I do think they should be identified as such.
"Born Red" is a quick and easy read -- it should be manditory reading for all High School govenment or social studies classes.
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