322
BOOK REVIEWS
up the experience of the 32 years since the founding of our People's Republic and has made an evaluation of the Cultural Revolution in particular. Regrettably, it has not said a word on the "May 7 cadre schools" that involved hundreds of thousands of intellectuals and their families.
The experience is still fresh in our minds. No doubt we can have fragments of this history written down in books like this (which are necessary and valuable). But if there were no objective work done by historians on the background and influence of cadre schools, then a void would be created for this 'earth-shaking' era of Chinese history. We've paid a high price for it. And it would be more and more difficult to fill up the void with the lapse of time.
How can we account for ourselves before the people if we pay our fees but leave behind nothing but a blank?
I would like to give my humble opinions and offer some simple clues to those interested in this episode of history.
Mdm. Yang was sent down to a cadre school in July, 1970, about one year after I was so transferred.
As far back as 1968, the Cultural Revolution saw an end to the power struggle that was raging all over the country. Except Taiwan, all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions replaced their Party committees with the newly-established "revolutionary committees". The Heilongjiang provincial revolutionary committee, which was set up as early as the beginning of 1967, had those cadres who had not been absorbed into the new organ of political power transferred to the Liuhe county to be engaged in the so-called "struggle-criticism-transformation" campaign following Mao Zedong's "May 7 Directive" of 1966, after which the cadre schools were named. Mao highly commended the practice and written instructions were circulated all over the country. In the summer of that year, a struggle to seize power broke out between two student groups in Qinghua University, Mao despatched troops and workers' propaganda teams to schools and later workers' teams were also ordered to be stationed in cultural and educational organisations throughout China. Mao called upon the educated class to receive "re-education" and also launched a campaign to "purify the class ranks", which was in
322
BOOK REVIEWS
up the experience of the 32 years since the founding of our People's Republic and has made an evaluation of the Cultural Revolution in particular. Regrettably, it has not said a word on the "May 7 cadre schools" that involved hundreds of thousands of intellectuals and their families.
The experience is still fresh in our minds. No doubt we can have fragments of this history written down in books like this (which are necessary and valuable). But if there were no objective work done by historians on the background and influence of cadre schools, then a void would be created for this 'earth- shaking' era of Chinese history. We've paid a high price for it. And it would be more and more difficult to fill up the void with the lapse of time.
How can we account for ourselves before the people if we pay our fees but leave behind nothing but a blank?
I would like to give my humble opinions and offer some simple clues to those interested in this episode of history.
Mdm. Yang was sent down to a cadre school in July, 1970, about one year after I was so transferred.
As far back as 1968, the Cultural Revolution saw an end to the power struggle that was raging all over the country. Except Taiwan, all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions replaced their Party committees with the newly-established "revolutionary committees". The Heilongjiang provincial revolu- tionary committee, which was set up as early as the beginning of 1967, had those cadres who had not been absorbed into the new organ of political power transferred to the Liuhe county to be engaged in the so-called "struggle-criticism-transformation" cam- paign following Mao Zedong's "May 7 Directive" of 1966, after which the cadre schools were named. Mao highly commended the practice and written instructions were circulated all over the country. In the summer of that year, a struggle to seize power broke out between two student groups in Qinghua University, Mao despatched troops and workers' propaganda teams to schools and later workers' teams were also ordered to be stationed in cultural and educational organisations throughout China. Mao called upon the educated class to receive "re-education" and also launched a campaign to "purify the class ranks", which was in
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