Yuan Zhou

Yongyi Song

Guo Jian

This second edition of Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, glossary, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 400 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about this important period in Chinese history.

Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution

The Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China started in 1966 and lasted about a decade. This revolutionary upsurge of Chinese students and workers, led by Mao Zedong, wreaked havoc in the world's most populous country, often turning things upside down and undermining the party, government, and army while simultaneously weakening the economy, society, and culture. Tens of millions of people were killed, injured, or imprisoned during this period and relatively few benefited, aside from Mao Zedong and the Gang of Four, the group that would eventually receive the blame for the events of the Cultural Revolution.

The A to Z of the Chinese Cultural Revolution

The Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China started in 1966 and lasted about a decade. This revolutionary upsurge of Chinese students and workers, led by Mao Zedong, wreaked havoc in the world's most populous country, often turning things upside down and undermining the party, government, and army while simultaneously weakening the economy, society, and culture. Tens of millions of people were killed, injured, or imprisoned during this period and relatively few benefited, aside from Mao Zedong and the Gang of Four, the group that would eventually receive the blame for the events of the Cultural Revolution. Given the turbulence and confusion, it is hard to know just what happened. The Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution tackles this task. First, in an extensive chronology, which traces the events from year to year and month to month, then in an introduction puts these events in context and helps to explain them. But most importantly, the bulk of the information is provided in a dictionary section with numerous cross-referenced entries on important persons, places, institutions, and movements. A bibliography points to further sources of information and a glossary will help those researching in Chinese.

Stacy Mosher

Over the course of 66 days in 1967, more than 9,000 Chinese "class enemies" - including young children and the elderly - were murdered in Dao, a county in the Hunan province. Commonly known as the Daoxian massacre, the killings were one of the many acts of mass violence and radicalism thatrocked China during the Cultural Revolution. However, in spite of the scope and brutality of the killings, there are few detailed accounts of what took place on the ground. Years after the massacre, writer and editor Tan Hecheng was sent to Dao to report on the official investigation into the killings. Unable to publish his findings in China, in The Killing Wind he provides a first-hand investigation of the atrocities, exploring how and why the massacre took place. Tanblends his research with the recollections of survivors, offering a vivid account of the massacre and its aftermath. Dispelling much of Mao Zedong's mythos of peasant revolution, Tan reveals that the killings were unprovoked, and carried out with stomach-churning brutality. Far from the tyrannicallandlords depicted in revolutionary propaganda, most of the victims were hard-working, peaceful people who were technically considered part of the rural middle class. Other victims were peasants themselves, targeted because they had offended their killers in political or financial disputes. More than a catalog of horrors, Tan also offers a poignant meditation on memory, moral culpability, and the failure of the Chinese government to come to terms with the crimes of the Maoist era. By painting a detailed portrait of the massacres, The Killing Wind makes a broader argument about the longterm consequences of one of the twentieth century's greatest human tragedies. A compelling testament to the victims and survivors of the Daoxian massacre, The Killing Wind is a monument to historical truth, one that fills an immense gap in our understanding of Mao, the Cultural Revolution, and thestatus of truth in contemporary China.

Guo Jian

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