Red August

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On August 18, 1966, Mao Zedong met with the Red Guards for the first time in Tiananmen Square . This meeting sparked a massacre in Beijing.

The Red August ( Chinese 紅 八月 / 红 八月 ) is used as a term to refer to a series of bloody massacres in Beijing , which, by order of the Chinese government, took place mainly in August 1966 during the time of the Cultural Revolution . According to official statistics from 1980, a total of 1,772 people - including teachers and headmasters from many schools - were killed by the Red Guards in Beijing between August and September 1966 . According to official statistics from 1985, the death toll during Red August was over 10,000. The movement to destroy the " Four Elders " also began in Red August. The Red August of Beijing is considered to be the origin of the Red Terror in the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

Historical background

Red Guard on Tiananmen Square in Beijing in September 1966.

The “ Outstanding Leader ” Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution in May 1966. On August 5th, Bian Zhongyun (卞仲耘), the deputy director of the "Experimental High School of Beijing Normal University ", was beaten to death by the Red Guards. She was the first intellectual in Beijing to be killed by the Red Guards.

On August 18, 1966, Mao Zedong met with Song Binbin (宋彬彬), a leader of the Red Guards, in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The meeting significantly boosted the "morale" of the Red Guard and sparked the massive slaughter in Beijing. At the same time, the Red Guards began to destroy the Four Old Ones .

The massacre

During Red August, the methods of killing used by the Red Guards included killing, whipping, strangling, trampling to death, scalding, beheading, and more. Infants and children were killed by throwing them against the floor or cutting them in half. Lao She , a well-known Chinese writer, was persecuted and committed suicide in Red August.

During the massacre, Mao Zedong publicly opposed any state intervention against the student movement. Xie Fuzhi , the public security minister , also ordered that the Red Guards be protected and not arrested. For example, on August 25, 1966, thousands of Red Guards began a week-long massacre in Ganlan Market (榄 杆 市) in Chongwen District .

By the end of August 1966, the situation had gotten completely out of hand, forcing the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and the Chinese government to engage in several interventions that gradually ended the massacres.

Number of deaths

  • According to official statistics from 1980, a total of 1,772 people were killed by the Red Guards in Beijing between August and September 1966. This included teachers and principals in many schools. In addition, 33,695 homes were searched and 85,196 families were forced to leave Beijing.
  • Researchers indicated that according to official statistics from 1985, the actual death toll during Red August was over 10,000. In addition, 92,000 homes were searched and 125,000 families were forced to leave the city.

Consequences and Influence

The political propaganda of the Red Guard on the campus of Fudan University : “Defend the Central Party Committee with blood and life! Defend Chairman Mao with blood and life! "

The Red August of Beijing is considered to be the origin of the Red Terror in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Some of the Red Guards at Beijing No.6 High School even wrote "Long Live the Red Terror!" On the wall in the blood of their victims.

Red August incited the Red Guards movement in several cities in China, including Shanghai , Guangzhou , Nanjing and Xiamen , where local political leaders, intellectuals, teachers and members of the " Five Black Categories (黑 五类)" were persecuted by the Red Guards and even killed.

The date August 18, 1966, which was the key point of the Red August, was compared with the Reichspogromnacht , which marked the beginning of the Nazi state's Holocaust . In addition, the Red August, along with the ensuing massacres throughout China during the Cultural Revolution, has been compared to the Nanking massacre carried out by the Japanese military during the Second Sino-Japanese War .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Wang Youqing: Student Attacks Against Teachers: The Revolution of 1966 . 2001.
  2. ^ A Massacre in Daxing County During the Cultural Revolution . In: Chinese Law & Government . 14, No. 3, December 7, 2014, pp. 70-71. doi : 10.2753 / CLG0009-4609140370 .
  3. ↑ Tom Phillips: The Cultural Revolution: all you need to know about China's political convulsion (en-GB) . In: The Guardian , May 11, 2016. 
  4. ^ Yifu Dong: My Grandfather Survived China's Cultural Revolution. Why Does He Still Love Mao? ( en-US )
  5. ↑ Guo Jian, Yongyi Song, Yuan Zhou: Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution ( en ). Scarecrow Press, July 17, 2006, ISBN 978-0-8108-6491-7 .
  6. ↑ a b c Guo Jian, Yongyi Song, Yuan Zhou: Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution ( en ). Rowman & Littlefield, July 23, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4422-5172-4 .
  7. ↑ a b c Wang: 怎样 反思 “红卫兵” ( zh ) Phoenix Weekly (凤凰 周刊). September 5, 2014. Accessed December 10, 2019.
  8. ↑ a b c d Yongyi Song: 文革 中 “非 正常 死亡” 了 多少 人？ ---- 读 苏 扬 的 《文革 中 中国 农村 的 集体 屠杀》 ( zh ) Dong Xiang (动向). 2011. Accessed December 10, 2019.
  9. ↑ a b c Chinese Red Guards Apologize, Reopening A Dark Chapter ( en )
  10. ↑ a b Xiaoming Peng: 记 下 老 红卫兵 的 血债 ( zh ) March 2, 2013. Accessed December 10, 2019.
  11. ↑ a b Sai: 毛泽东 大笑 谈 杀人 ( zh ) 北京 周末 诗 会. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  12. ↑ a b c d e f Luowen Yu: 文革 时期 北京 大兴 县 大 屠杀 调查 ( zh ) Chinese University of Hong Kong. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  13. ↑ Wang Youqin: 恐怖 的 “红 八月”. Retrieved June 28, 2020 .
  14. ↑ a b Jingming Xiong, Yongyi Song, Guoliang Yu: 中外 學者 談 文革 ( zh ). The Chinese University Press, Hong Kong June 15, 2018, ISBN 978-988-17563-3-6 .
  15. ↑ a b 47 周年 回放 ： 再 忆 文革 “八. 一 八” 和 “红 八月” ( zh ) In: Radio Free Asia . August 15, 2013. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  16. ↑ a b c Jin: 红 八月 ， 血迹 未 乾 ( zh ) Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  17. ↑ a b c d e Youqin Wang: Victim of the Cultural Revolution - An Investigative Account of Persecution, Imprisonment and Murder ( zh ) University of Chicago .
  18. ↑ a b c d 卞仲耘 丈夫 ： 宋彬彬 没 参与 打人 但 她 是 一 伙儿 的 ( zh ) Accessed December 10, 2019.
  19. ↑ Tom Lasseter: Chinese haunted by bloody 'Red August' ( en )
  20. ↑ 北京 大兴 文革 屠杀 ： 婴儿 被 劈 成两半 ( zh ) August 1, 2013. Accessed December 10, 2019.
  21. ↑ 集体 遗忘 文革 ， 无疑 是 一种 更 深远 的 民族 公 耻 ( zh ) Accessed December 10, 2019.
  22. ^ A Massacre in Daxing County During the Cultural Revolution . In: Chinese Law & Government . 14, No. 3, December 7, 2014, pp. 70-71. doi : 10.2753 / CLG0009-4609140370 .
  23. ↑ Paul Brady: Death and the Nobel-On Lao She's "Suicide" . 1974.
  24. ^ Zedong Mao: Talk At The Work Conference Of The Center .
  25. ↑ 文革 公安 部长 谢 富 治 谈 红卫兵 打死 人 ： 我们 管不着 ( zh ) Accessed December 10, 2019.
  26. ↑ 榄 杆 市 事件 ( zh ) May 31, 2019.
  27. ↑ Wang: 《亲历 重庆 大 武斗》 序 ( zh ) June 13, 2006. Accessed December 10, 2019.
  28. ↑ Youqin, Wang: 学生 王光华 之 死 ( zh ) In: The University of Chicago . Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  29. ↑ 1966 年 首都 红卫兵 上海 搞 武斗: 没 打死 就是 文 斗 ( zh ) Century (世纪). September 28, 2013. Accessed December 10, 2019.
  30. ↑ a b c Xi: 也 说 “老 红卫兵” ( zh ) 2012. Accessed December 10, 2019.
  31. ↑ 王 容 芬 经历 的 "8 · 18" ( zh ) August 19, 2011. Accessed December 10, 2019.
  32. ↑ a b Wang: 沉重 的 回忆 （41） “文革” 风暴 到来 的 时候 ( zh ) Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  33. ↑ a b Lang: 伫 视 王晶 垚 - 宋彬彬 对簿 历史 的 公堂 —— 《宋彬彬 谈话 纪要》 的 解读 及 其它 （下） ( zh ) 2012. Accessed December 10, 2019.
  34. ^ A b Sheng-Mei Ma: Contrasting Two Survival Literatures: On the Jewish Holocaust and the Chinese Cultural Revolution . In: Holocaust and Genocide Studies . 2, No. 1, Jan. 1, 1987, ISSN  8756-6583 , pp. 81-93. doi : 10.1093 / hgs / 2.1.81 .