Hello everyone, welcome to the News Five People Walk, today’s co-hosts are Jinshi, Fuyao, Qin Peng, Qin Yue, and me. Our diverse perspectives will lead you into the rich world of news. Feel free to subscribe and like our independent channel.
Today’s focus: Female Red Guard leader in the US passed away, once publicly confessed; during the Cultural Revolution, they turned into beasts! The sinful history of 50,000 party members in Guangxi! He reported his mother, regretted for a lifetime; forgive the Red Guards? They have the most right to speak; how tragic was the fate of the rebels? Even math problems need them to “show the way”?
Song Binbin, a second-generation Red Guard and leader during the Cultural Revolution, passed away in her New York home in the US this week at the age of 77. Her death has reignited many people’s memories of the Cultural Revolution, and once again raised the question, is the Cultural Revolution not just a thing of the past, but an ongoing issue.
Who is Song Binbin? In the early days of the Cultural Revolution, she was received by Mao Zedong, who put a “Red Guard” armband on Mao himself; Mao even renamed Song on the spot, saying that the revolution did not need genteelness but rather strength. This made her a representative figure of the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution.
Song Binbin was the leader of the Red Guards at Beijing Normal University Affiliated High School. In August 1966, violence by the Red Guards at the school led to the tragic death of Vice Principal Bian Zhongyun and severe injuries for Vice Principal Hu Zhitao.
After the Cultural Revolution ended, Song Binbin studied and settled in the United States. In 2014, she publicly apologized to the teachers and classmates who were harmed during the Cultural Revolution. However, Bian Zhongyun’s husband refused to accept her apology.
With Song Binbin’s passing, the past is not forgotten. Mao Zedong once said when summarizing the “Cultural Revolution” that it should happen again “seven or eight years later.” Has this curse of the Cultural Revolution come true now? Do you think those who committed evils under the influence of the times should be forgiven? I know that everyone present today has different opinions, and I look forward to today’s debates.
Qin Yue, what are the most horrifying things you experienced during the Cultural Revolution?
Answer: 1: Bian Zhongyun, at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, was in charge of the Beijing Normal University Affiliated Female Middle School. On August 5, 1966, during the “fight the gangsters” action initiated by the 1st-year students, Bian Zhongyun was beaten with iron rods and military copper buckles, causing her to lose control of her bladder and bowels, eventually collapsing on the steps of the dormitory until after 7 o’clock in the evening when she was finally taken to a nearby hospital, by then her body had already stiffened.
Ancient people say: a person has three fates, one is the fate given by parents, the second is the fate created by teachers, and the third is the fate to establish oneself. Parents give birth to the body, teachers shape the soul, and then one establishes his fate. Hence, teachers are considered as reborn parents, acting as fathers for a day and fathers for a lifetime. However, during the Cultural Revolution, students cursed, shouted at, and brutally killed teachers, defying the respect for educators that has been upheld for 5,000 years.
2: On February 13, 1970, after dinner, Zhang Hongbing was washing dishes as usual while his mother, Fang Zhongmou, was washing clothes for her husband and son. At that moment, Fang Zhongmou picked up a booklet titled “The Barefoot Doctor” with a line printed on it attributed to Mao Zedong: “Nobility lies in folly, while humility is wise.” She pointed at this line and said, “This is what someone else said, quoted by Mao Zedong.”
Feeling dissatisfied with his mother’s words, Zhang Hongbing reported his own mother, Fang Zhongmou. As a result, Fang Zhongmou was beaten to death and shot in the outskirts. Many years later, when Zhang Hongbing was interviewed by the media, he mentioned feeling that he was worse than an animal as a son. He spent the rest of his life full of regret, saying his mother never spoke to him in his dreams. This was her way of punishing him.
In ancient China, Confucianism advocated concealing the faults of close relatives to protect the familial and ancestral system, giving birth to a principle in ancient criminal law where relatives should hide each other’s guilty acts, not report or testify, otherwise they would be held accountable.
3: During the massacre of the Cultural Revolution, large-scale incidents of cannibalism occurred in Wuxuan and Wuming counties of Guangxi without famine. In Wu Xuan Middle School, five teachers including Wu Shufang were denounced and attacked by more than a dozen students. Teacher Wu was beaten to death on the spot with a wooden stick, and a classmate with the surname Liao told his peers: “I heard that human liver can be used as medicine,” hence, several students proceeded to cut open their stomachs, extract their livers, cook and roast them, and then share among 17 people.
In Guangxi, from secretive eating to open public consumption, to finally a state of mass frenzy, where “class enemies” were routinely denounced and feasted upon, people were completely dehumanized by this system, turning them into beasts.
Debate: Regardless of the past Red Guards or today’s “sunshine group”; do you think those who committed evils under the sway of the times should be forgiven?
Qin Yue: Cannot be forgiven.
If forgiveness is possible, why were the Nazis pursued after World War II? Like Hitler, who never personally killed a Jew but merely commanded orders, without figures like Song Binbin forming the cogs of the authoritarian machinery, dictators would be nothing.
But it’s not because she made mistakes in the fervor of that time that I think forgiveness is undeserved but rather her actions afterward.
During the Cultural Revolution, Song Binbin was just 19 years old and could be understood within the ignorant and fervent background of the Red Guards at that time. However, after the Cultural Revolution, Song Binbin went to study and immigrated to the United States under the guise of furthering her education. Having seen and experienced life in a free world, she should have understood what the Cultural Revolution truly was. Yet, she never openly criticized Mao, the Cultural Revolution, or the totalitarian regime of the CCP. In 2011, she even had dinner and toasted “in memory” of Mao with Mao’s former personal secretary Zhang Yufeng and others. After enjoying the privileges of having Mao’s given name and her father’s high-ranking position in China, she ran to the US to enjoy freedom and welfare, trying to have the best of both worlds.
Regarding the matter of Bian Zhongyun, she claimed she did not physically harm anyone and never admitted to wrongdoing. It wasn’t until 2014 when she released an apology statement that she used excuses like “failing to stop” and “failing to protect,” evading responsibility instead of genuinely apologizing.
Over the many years since the end of the Cultural Revolution, she knowingly carried the responsibility for the loss of someone’s life from the other party’s family, knowing that the other party’s family was constantly suffering, yet she remained indifferent and turned a blind eye for years. Only a fear of public opinion forced her to issue a superficial apology statement. This is why I believe forgiveness should not be granted.
In today’s context, imagine you are an internet police officer in China, and a conscientious intellectual is falsely accused. You have the power to notify local authorities to investigate and oppress him, thereby destroying a person’s life entirely. But you also have the choice to dismiss the case with a flick of your fingers. Is this choice truly difficult?
Of course, not forgiving does not mean one is filled with hatred and a desire for revenge; my lack of forgiveness mainly stems from believing that while people inevitably make mistakes, recognizing those mistakes, repenting, and making amends is the moral thing to do. It’s about feeling there should be consequences for good and evil; there should be justice in the world.
After all, is there much difference in the damage caused by a 19-year-old firing a gun and a 59-year-old firing the same gun? Sometimes, the ignorance of a 19-year-old leads to even more cruelty.
Qin Peng, Fuyao: Partly forgive.
Fuyao, do you think the Cultural Revolution has returned? What phenomena have you witnessed?
Public Opinion: This generation endured the Cultural Revolution for ten years and suffered deeply. Why then is it possible for the Cultural Revolution to reoccur while they are still alive?
Jinshi: The Cultural Revolution has not reoccurred.
Qin Peng, what commonalities and differences do you see between Mao’s initiation of Cultural Revolution 1.0 and today’s Cultural Revolution 2.0?
In fact, many countries undergo a transitional justice process after overthrowing dictatorship, resolving crimes such as genocide, human rights violations, and collective atrocities committed by the previous regime through vindication, apologies, compensations, or judicial investigations to restore justice, rebuild trust, and reshape moral and value systems. Only when the day without the CCP comes can China possibly see such a change. Thank you for watching, goodbye.
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