This is a recording of the livestream of our monthly book club. In this livestream we discuss the book Serve the People! by Yan Lianke, a banned book set during the Cultural Revolution in China.

If you would like to find out more about the book club and which books we’re reading, please click here.

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Part 8 of reuploading classic history episodes in the run up to our book club review of Serve the People! by Yan Lianke.

The death of Mao Zedong and the trial of the Gang of Four are traditionally used as the signifiers of the end of the Cultural Revolution. The violent and turbulent 10 year period came to a sudden stop as political in-fighting continued until Deng Xiaoping was able to quash his foes and come out on top.

In this episode, we cover how the Cultural Revolution finally came to an end, how the period is interpreted both in the West and in China, and what effect the Cultural Revolution has had on Chinese society as a whole.

Intro: 00:00
Opening: 01:09
The end of the Cultural Revolution: 6:20
Interpreting the CR: 20:25
Aftermath of the CR and memory in contemporary China: 31:23
Outro: 41:25

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Part 7 of reuploading classic history episodes in the run up to our book club review of Serve the People! by Yan Lianke.

In this episode, we discuss the changes made to China's cultural realm during the Cultural Revolution. As the main target of the Cultural Revolution Group, cultural production including art, literature, theatre, and film were all subject to the new rules of the decade. But were those rules made to last? And were the CRG able to impose their will completely when they relied on the existing bourgeois cultural producers to cultivate their new vision?

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Part 6 of reuploading classic history episodes in the run up to our book club review of Serve the People! by Yan Lianke.

In this episode we look at how the economy and educational system fared during the Cultural Revolution decade. We discuss how a period of chaos led into a period of stagnation, where things neither got much better nor much worse. We also talk about differences between the countryside and the cities, and how every day life was irrevocably impacted by the social turmoil that occurred.

0:00 Introduction
2:11 Economy and Education to 1969
9:57 The Economy after 1969
22:45 Education after 1969
29:28 Urban and Rural life during the CR
38:53 Conclusions

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Part 5 of reuploading classic history episodes in the run up to our book club review of Serve the People! by Yan Lianke.

In this episode we explore the mysterious and complex character of Lin Biao, and his even more mysterious demise. We ask how he rose to prominence so quickly after being a largely background figure in the party for so many years, and what effect his vice-chairmanship and sudden death had on the Cultural Revolution.

*I accidentally say Liu instead of Lin at around the 22:30 minute mark*

00:00 Introdution
05:02 Early career in the CCP
13:05 Lin Biao in the Cultural Revolution
19:58 Lin's position challenged?
27:51 The 'conspiracy'
36:31 Evaluating the coup theory
39:10 The impact of Lin's death

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Part 4 of reuploading classic history episodes in the run up to our book club review of Serve the People! by Yan Lianke.

In episode 4 of the Cultural Revolution series, we look at how the party began to rebuild itself in the period 1968-1972 through a series of internal meetings, some last-minute purges, and a few devastating mass campaigns that would end up having a much higher impact than anything the Red Guards had carried out in previous years.

Though much had happened in China during the last few years, to many people it seemed like nothing had fundamentally changed. Though the people running the government were different, the structure of the party-state itself had remained the same. If anything, the only real difference was the preeminence that Mao Zedong Thought gained during this period, largely thanks to the support of the PLA.

Songs: Long Live Chairman Mao and March of the Revolutionary Youth

0:00 Introduction ("Long live Chairman Mao")
3:18 Rebuilding the system
14:45 "March of the revolutionay youth"
15:05 The dismissal of Liu Shaoqi
25:40 The 9th plenum
28:20 The final campaigns
43:00 Lessons learned
50:22 Outro

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Part 3 of reuploading classic history episodes in the run up to our book club review of Serve the People! by Yan Lianke.

In this episode, we look at how Mao reversed the course of the Cultural Revolution, bringing in the army to end the violence and destruction caused by the factionalism between the Red Guards and other mass organisations. We discuss the much vaunted revolutionary committees, temporary governments made up of a triple alliance between the mass organisations, the Cultural Revolution Group, and the People's Liberation Army.

The original aim of the revolution to promote the masses to positions of power in place of corrupt cadres was replaced by the singular quest to restore the country to order. To do this, Mao relied heavily on the PLA, as well as the cadres who not too long ago were seen as public enemy #1.

Music clips are from "Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman" and "The People of the World Will Surely be Victorious"

00:00 Song "Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman"
00:25 Introduction
06:23 January Revolution
11:50 Song "The People of the World Will Surely be Victorious"
12:05 The Triple Alliance
14:10 The February adverse current
23:20 The Wuhan incident
26:24 The 516 purge
29:30 Resitance to demobilisation
38:10 The failure of the revolution

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Part 2 of reuploading classic history episodes in the run up to our book club review of Serve the People! by Yan Lianke.

In this episode we talk about the violence that gripped the Chinese nation at the height of the Cultural Revolution. We discuss the difference between the brutality that took place in the cities, which was mainly perpetrated by Red Guards and affected culture as much as people, and the countryside, which pitted neighbour against neighbour.

Music clips are from "The East is Red" and "We Walk on the Great Road".

(Apparently I keep hitting my microphone throughout this episode, which is what that hollow sounding noise is.)

00:00 Clip from the song "The East Is Red" 
00:18 Introduction
4:47 Red guards in the cities
9:10 The revolution in Shanghai
21:14 The revolution in the countryside
35:15 The impact of the violence on China and the Cultural Revolution
40:08 Outro

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A reupload of a classic history episode in the run up to our book club review of Serve the People! by Yan Lianke.

The first of 8 episodes covering the build up, events, and aftermath of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, which took place in China from 1966 to 1976. In this episode we discuss what the Cultural Revolution was supposed to be, recap its principal causes, discuss the events that led to the declaration of the CR, and cover the formation and expansion of the Red Guards, Mao's children of the Revolution.

00:00: Introduction
4:23 - What was the Cultural Revolution?
15:45 - Events leading up to the Cultural Revolution
29:43 - The first stages of the Cultural Revolution
37:06 - The formation of the Red Guards
43:48 - Those of black class background join the Red Guards
46:56 - Outro

Some mispronunciations - I found that I mispronounced LUO Ruiqing as LIU Ruiqing, and HAI Rui as HA Rui a few times. My bad, Luo and Hai are the correct terms!

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I’m very excited to have on Rory Truex as my guest for today’s episode. Rory is Associate Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. His research focuses on Chinese politics and authoritarian systems, and his work has been published in the American Political Science Review, British Journal of Political Science, The China Quarterly and many more. He has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Hill, South China Morning Post, and The New York Times. He is also the host of The Civic Forum Podcast, a weekly public speaker series on democracy featuring leading scholars and practitioners.

We talk the decline in funding for China related research grants in the US, the role of the government and individual institutions in creating a productive and protective relationship with China, and the golden age of China studies (and if it's possible to ever get back there).

Read the working paper here

Check out The Civic Forum here

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