Whodunnit? Memory and Politics before the 50th Anniversary of the Cultural Revolution

Author(s)

Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik, Jinke Cui

Abstract

Song Binbin, the daughter of prominent CCP politician Song Renqiong, has long been accused of having played a role in the death of Bian Zhongyun which took place at the Girls' Middle School in Beijing Normal University on 5 August 1966. In January 2014, she publicly apologized for the violence that occurred at her school during the summer of 1966. However, instead of applauding her act of contrition, rebel participants of the Cultural Revolution used the opportunity to criticize the sons and daughters of high-ranking cadres and to try to overturn the 1981 official evaluation of the Cultural Revolution by promoting a positive view of that period in Chinese history. This paper analyses the background, consequences and implications of Song Binbin's apology from a political science cum memory studies perspective. It argues, against the background of a changing political landscape in the People's Republic of China, that the memory of the Cultural Revolution remains a battlefield of divergent memory groups and multiple narratives. In the memory of today, the struggles of the Cultural Revolution have still not come to an end.

Organisation(s)

Department of East Asian Studies, Department for Translation Studies

Journal

China Quarterly: an international journal for the study of China

Volume

227

Pages

734-751

No. of pages

18

ISSN

0305-7410

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741016000734

Publication date

09-2016

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

506014 Comparative politics, 602045 Sinology, 601022 Contemporary history

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geography, Planning and Development, Development, Political Science and International Relations

Portal url

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/whodunnit-memory-and-politics-before-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-cultural-revolution(4227a515-5ee3-4a84-b257-678f473cf4be).html