Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
If there was any single thing that meant ecstasy to everyone in those
days, it was seeing Chairman Mao. Ever since I had been in Peking
[Beijing],thepossibilityhadbeeninthebackofmymind,and,
like every other Red Guard, I would have laid down my life for the
chance.
Chairman Mao's car was first, a Peking-brand army jeep. As in a
dream, I saw him. He seemed very tall to me, magnificent, truly larger
than life. He waved his hat as the jeep drove slowly through the throng.
The soldiers forming the passageway stood at attention, but the tears
poured down their faces in rivulets. Nevertheless they managed to snif-
fle their refrain, “Please keep Revolutionary order! Please keep
Revolutionary order!”
I was bawling like a baby, crying out incoherently again and again,
“You are our hearts' reddest, reddest sun!” My tears blocked my vision,
but I could do nothing to control myself. Then Chairman Mao's car was
past, and Premier Zhou's followed.
The people in front hadn't realized what had happened, and were
still chanting. “We want to see Chairman Mao!” with their backs turned
to all the action. As they discovered him in their midst, however, they
nearly mobbed the car, obstructing its passage completely.
It was
only when the crowd was told that the Chairman wanted to climb the
gate-tower to see the fireworks that they separated and let the car go
through.
When it was all over everyone ran to the post office to telegraph the
good news to their families all over China. I waited more than two hours
to trace out the trembling words, “This evening at 9:15 I became the hap-
piest person in the world.” I knew my father would need no further
explanation.
(Liang and Shapiro 1983, 121, 124-25)
...
The throngs of Red Guards collected Mao memorabilia, wore red
armbands emblazoned with three characters meaning Red Guard,
sang songs in praise of Chairman Mao's wisdom and benevolence,
and above all read his works, especially the Little Red Book or Quota-
tions from Chairman Mao Zedong.Mao'sQuotations were carried by
every good Red Guard wherever he or she went. The original edition
of the Quotations, issued by the PLA in a cheap, red plastic cover,
had 270 pages of text and measured about 5
3
=
4
inches.
A generation of Red Guards reverentially pored over the Quotations
and knew them largely by heart; many even committed the entire
topic to memory. (The Quotations achieved popularity with the 1960s
hippie generation in the United States and Canada.) Stridently anti-
American, the Quotations contained frequent and shrill denunciation of
the United States:
3½
