The Vanishing Memory of the Cultural Revolution

The Cultural Revolution, occurring from 1966 to 1976, caused an estimated 1.6 to 2 million deaths and left lasting trauma on generations. Under Mao Zedong, this movement aimed to eliminate non-Communist elements in Chinese society but ended up overturning revered institutions. Teachers and schools were stigmatized, books were burned, museums looted, and private art collections destroyed. Intellectuals were tortured.

In China, where information is often controlled, history is continually rewritten. Recent government actions, like censoring COVID-19 research and altering textbooks on Hong Kong’s colonial history, threaten to erase the Cultural Revolution from collective memory. This rewriting endangers the country’s future.

The Chinese government has never been keen on preserving the memory of those dark years. Museum exhibits often skipped over those years or briefly mentioned them in a muted tone.

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