560 Victims of the Cultural Revolution: An Interview on Persecution, Imprisonment and Killing|Wang Youqin

Beast Press: The first time I read Wang Youqin's article was in the bimonthly "21st Century" sponsored by the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1998. This article was published in the August 1995 issue. The article was called "1966: The Revolution of Students Beating Teachers" , Since then, I have been searching for her related articles to read systematically.

She also established an online website to commemorate the victims of the Cultural Revolution . Wang Youqin mentioned in the preface that the Cultural Revolution had its "ideals". To put it simply, it is to establish a "unified" highly centralized power structure without power balance and constraints, to establish an economy without markets, commodity production or even currency, and to establish only one opinion and one way of expression The media with the same opinion turns all the people into "new socialists" like "screws" who can't even have a "private word". Man refers to someone who is an "enemy".

In the name of revolution, the Cultural Revolution persecuted a large number of people with the power of the state and through the "dictatorship of the masses". During the Cultural Revolution, there were two climaxes of the greatest persecution of people. One occurred in 1966, with the rise of the "Red Guard" organization, in the so-called "Four Old Movements"; the other occurred in 1968-1969, during the establishment and consolidation of the new power organization "Revolutionary Committee" In the process, it was called "cleaning up the class ranks movement".

A large number of people were persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution. Some of them were beaten to death in public, some were tortured to death in captivity, some committed suicide after being beaten and humiliated, and some died of starvation, disease and mental abuse. They have been teachers, parents, classmates, friends, relatives, colleagues, neighbors, members of the crowd. What memory does their death leave for us? How did we react to their deaths? What have we done for their death?

protest? pity? assistance? silence? turn away? gloat? Added insult to injury? Accomplice? Bystander? forget? Whitewash? Committed to seeking truth and justice? ... During the Cultural Revolution, although the oppression was heavy, there was still more or less room for people to choose between different methods. After the Cultural Revolution, although there were many obstacles in memory and recording of facts, the space for personal choice was much larger than that in the Cultural Revolution era, so people need to define themselves more.

In 2004, Hong Kong Open Publishing House published the book "Cultural Revolution Victims" by Wang Youqin, which was later recommended by Zhao Dingxin in the article "Comment on Wang Youqin's Research on "Cultural Revolution Victims"" published in the September 2004 issue of " 21st Century".

In 2014, when Wang Youqin was interviewed by Jin Zhong, editor-in-chief of "Open" magazine because of Song Binbin's apology incident, she mentioned some stories that had happened in recent years.

Jin Zhong: Song Binbin's apology, saying that he "did not protect the safety of the principal and teacher". And stated that "I did not organize or participate in any violent activities in the early days of the Cultural Revolution." What kind of responsibility do they have for Principal Bian's "death"?

Wang Youqin: In the book "Cultural Revolution Victims", there are 659 victims, including teachers, principals, school workers and people who were beaten to death because they lived in their own houses. Thank you for publishing this book and designing the book cover. In the ten years since the book was published, with the popularization of the Internet, people have better information than before, and they can also write to me directly. In the past ten years, new materials have shown that Song Binbin was more responsible for Bian Zhongyun's death than I wrote in the book "Cultural Revolution Victims".

First of all, the "struggle" of five school leaders on August 5th was pre-organized by the school's revolutionary committee, not spontaneously. The Revolutionary Committee has no director, and the deputy directors Song Binbin and Liu Jin are in charge of running the school. They decide on the "struggle meeting" and notify the five struggle targets. This is very important. Without this struggle meeting, there would be no mass violence by the Red Guards and Bian Zhongyun was beaten to death. I didn't know that when I wrote the book. I thought the "struggle meeting" was started spontaneously by some people. Later, I found out who should join the labor reform team, which was also decided by the Revolutionary Committee. Then, Song Binbin's responsibility for all the violence in the Girls' High School is obvious.

The year before last, I also saw the Red Guard armband worn by August 18 at the Tiananmen Square rally, with the round official seal of the Red Guards from the Women's High School Attached to Normal University stamped on it. It can be seen that at that time, the power system of the school's Red Guards was quite complete.

In addition, the decade has seen more timing of the victims' deaths, and a clearer picture of the role Song Binbin's presentation of the Red Guard armband to Mao at Tiananmen played in the broader escalation of violence.

Jin Zhong: What kind of experience did you encounter during the investigation of the crimes of the Cultural Revolution? What has been the reaction to your book and articles?

Wang Youqin: The webpage I created to commemorate the victims of the Cultural Revolution went online in 2001, and it was blocked the following year until today. After "Cultural Revolution Victims" was published in 2004, many readers told me that they bought the book in Hong Kong, but it was confiscated by customs when they returned to the mainland. I also heard that "pirated versions" have appeared in the Mainland, and there are different styles of versions. A reader wrote that he bought "Cultural Revolution Victims" for 15 yuan, and "Tombstone" for 20 yuan. A former Red Guard from the Girls High School Affiliated to Beijing Normal University specially sent me a pirated copy of "Victims of the Cultural Revolution". "Cultural Revolution Victims" wrote about two victims, Mr. Zhang Furen from the High School Attached to Beijing Foreign Studies University and Mr. Jin Zhengyu from the No. 2 High School Attached to Beijing Normal University. Their university classmates read the book, invited me to dinner, and told me about this normal university. In the class of about 30 people, there was also a victim, Lian Xiuwen, a teacher at Beijing Di'anmen Middle School. Teacher Chen, a classmate of the three victims, was a Chinese teacher in the sixth grade of Xi Jinping Primary School. In 1966, Xi Jinping was in the sixth grade. Teacher Chen told me that because of Xi Jinping's father, Xi Jinping was "struggled" and beaten in school.

2006 Wang Youqin