Thousands of teenage hands rocketed skywards as the Great Helmsman stepped down from the rostrum in Tiananmen Square to greet the shock troops of his revolution. Fifty years after the start of the Cultural Revolution, in May , Yu, who is now 64, has been blogging her memories of the period in a bid to prevent history repeating itself.
But since the start of this year, Yu has been trying to use her blog to tear down the wall of official silence surrounding the events of that bloody summer. Everything I had been taught told me that Chairman Mao was closer to us than our mums and dads. Without Chairman Mao, we would have nothing. She remembers the vicious persecution of her teachers, the lynching of suspected class enemies, the hysterical mass rallies, and how Red Guards roamed Beijing, setting upon those with supposedly counter-revolutionary footwear, clothing or hair.
Other memories are more painful. At least 1, people are known to have been murdered in Beijing alone. Some targets committed suicide to escape the relentless persecution.
As violence engulfed the capital, an editorial in the Communist party journal, Red Flag , fanned the rapidly spreading flames. One night Yu recalls being unable to sleep because of the ferocious beating being inflicted on one of her teachers. The screaming never stopped. Later, towards the end of August, Yu recalls seeing a severely injured man dragging himself across the road towards her after he had apparently been subjected to a savage Red Guard attack.
After fellow Red Guards ordered her to pummel a group of prisoners with a belt, Yu said she decided to flee. If I had beaten anyone how could I have lived with myself all these years? I really appreciate what Teacher Yu has done. This is wrong. I want it to be great. Yu also shrugged off the concerns of friends and relatives β including her son β who warned that her outspokenness might land her in trouble.
