Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
the provinces in September, he was appalled at the extent of the social
disruption he saw. Mao also reined in Jiang Qing and her group of writ-
ers, but he kept them in reserve to use as attack dogs against his political
opponents when it suited him. Order in China was not quickly restored,
and in July 1968 Mao had to instruct the PLA to restore order to China's
cities through all the necessary means, including military force. That
same month he summoned student and Red Guard leaders to a discus-
sion andmore or less told them that the partywas over now. One way to
get the Red Guards out of the cities was to send themout to the country-
side to learn from the peasants. This he did in 1969, and millions of stu-
dents went to work on farms. Some went willingly and enthusiastically,
but most had to be compelled. In the countryside they learned nothing
but bitterness for Mao, who seemed to have no concern for them now
that they had outlived their usefulness.
In addition to its mindless brutality, the Cultural Revolution was a
time of destruction to China's artistic heritage. (Tibet was hit particu-
larly hard, with almost all of its monasteries destroyed. Only the
Potala Palace in Lhasa was spared the destruction, on the personal
orders of Zhou Enlai.) Red Guards destroyed innumerable relics and
objets d'art. Awealthy Chinese woman whose house was raided and
ransacked by Red Guards recalls the wanton destruction she wit-
nessed in heartrending detail:
The Red Guards had taken from the storeroom the crates containing
my father's topics and papers and were trying to open them with
pliers. Through the open drawing room door, I saw a girl on the ladder
removing the curtains. Two bridge tables were in the middle of the
room. On them was a collection of cameras, watches, clocks, binocu-
lars, and silverware that the Red Guards had gathered from all over
the house. These were the “valuables” they intended to present to the
state.
Mounting the stairs, I was astonished to see several Red Guards tak-
ing pieces of my porcelain collection out of their padded boxes. One
young man had arranged a set of four Kangxi winecups in a row on
the floor and was stepping on them. I was just in time to hear the crunch
of delicate porcelain under the sole of his shoe. The sound pierced my
heart. Impulsively I leapt forward and caught his leg just as he raised
his foot to crush the next cup. He toppled. We fell in a heap together.
My eyes searched for the other winecups to make sure we had not bro-
ken them in our fall, and, momentarily distracted, I was not able to
move aside when the boy regained his feet and kicked me right in my
chest. I cried out in pain
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