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

Autor(en)

Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik, Jinke Cui

Abstrakt

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(en)

Institut für Ostasienwissenschaften, Institut für Translationswissenschaft

Journal

China Quarterly: an international journal for the study of China

Band

227

Seiten

734-751

Anzahl der Seiten

18

ISSN

0305-7410

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741016000734

Publikationsdatum

09-2016

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

506014 Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft, 602045 Sinologie, 601022 Zeitgeschichte

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

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

Link zum Portal

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