Ding Xueliang on Reflecting on the Cultural Revolution: Recalling and Reflecting to Leave a Record for Posterity

Taipei, May 17 (CNA) - In the summer of 1966, the school's loudspeaker broadcasted Mao Zedong's directive: 'All classes nationwide are suspended for revolution!' Ding Xueliang, then a second-year junior high student, understood the suspension of classes but not the 'revolution.' Over the past 60 years, he has dedicated his life to studying this revolution—recalling, reflecting, writing, and teaching—solely to leave a record for future generations. Ding Xueliang is a renowned political sociologist and professor emeritus at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He was among the first generation of enthusiastic Red Guards, was sent 'up to the mountains and down to the villages,' and later studied in the West after the reform and opening-up. He served as a teaching assistant for Harvard professor and distinguished China expert Roderick MacFarquhar's Cultural Revolution course and has since taught the subject worldwide. What was the Cultural Revolution really about? Some explain it through the lens of power struggles among the CCP's top leadership; others focus on specific events like the opposition to 'capitalist roaders' within the party, the mobilization of the Red Guards, or the Lin Biao incident. But for Ding Xueliang, 'everyone has their own Cultural Revolution.' In an interview with CNA ahead of the 60th anniversary, he said, 'Whether active or passive, one's own experience of the Cultural Revolution is different from others; everyone has their own Cultural Revolution experience.' 'Therefore, no one can simply generalize the Cultural Revolution,' Ding said, noting it was unprecedented in human history and different from previous political movements. He describes himself as not just an ordinary first-generation Red Guard, but one of the most radical and sincere. He detailed his journey from an idealistic youth to joining the 'Destroy the Four Olds' campaign, participating in the 'Great Networking' to learn revolutionary tactics, establishing a rebel faction at his school, and participating in the denunciation of provincial leader Li Baohua. Ding reflected that the Cultural Revolution provided a rare opportunity for ordinary people to criticize those in power. However, he also acknowledged Mao Zedong's manipulation of the masses. His disillusionment began in 1968 when the Red Guards themselves became targets of criticism and were sent to the countryside. Having survived the brutal political struggles, Ding feels an obligation to document these experiences, drawing inspiration from writers like Primo Levi and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 'I survived, and I must speak for those comrades who never had the chance,' he stated, expressing his primary wish to leave written or visual records so that younger generations will not have to start from zero to understand this history. (Editor: Chu Chien-ling)