Little Red Book

Madame Mao Her contributions to the Cultural Revolution.

Jiang Qing is Madame Mao.

Jiang Qing was born in Shandong Province in 1914. Raised in extreme poverty, she grew up in the homes of her mother’s lovers.

After exhausting two marriages, she went to university and studied literature and drama in her early twenties.

Jiang soon adopted the stage and became a professional actress. She appeared in numerous films and plays, including “A Doll’s House” and “The Scenery of City.”

She shortly left her life on the stage behind and went to the Chinese Communist headquarters in Yan’an, ostensibly to study Marxist-Leninist theory. There she met and became the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, who had just returned from the Long March.

Jiang was 24 years old while Mao was 45. Party officials only agreed that Mao could marry She only if she stayed out of public eye and never exercised any political power.

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In 1966, Chairman Mao appointed Jiang Deputy Director of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. She quickly formed and led the Gang of Four with Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen.

Their closeness to the all-powerful Mao enabled them to speak in his name and carry out what they said were his policies during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976.

To infuse the movement in Chinese culture, she directed “The Eight Model Plays.�

These were operas and ballets heavy with communist and revolutionary content.

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I adored drama.

“White Haired Girl,� an original ballet from the Eight Model Plays.

A man is tortured and soon murdered by the Red Guards.

In harsh reality, Jiang’s drama of heroic patriotism and waving red banners glossed over the utter devastation she wrought over the country.

When Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966, he made his people believe that the movement was to rid China’s “liberal bourgeoisie” and to continue revolutionary class struggle. It was actually a means of destroying his enemies in the Party, which manifested into ten years of wide-scale social, political, and economic chaos and horrific destruction.

She played a powerful hand in the excesses and brutality of the Cultural Revolution.

It was grand drama for Jiang as she played politics as theater.

She caused devastating damage to traditional theater by banning all other dramas deemed counter-revolutionary; she ensued ruthless persecution of writers, playwrights and theater professionals.

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To act is

“Sweeping the White Tiger Regiment.”

to fight.

Students from the Shanghai Acting School tie down and kick “enemies� of the revolution.

Not only did she persecute actors and artists, Jiang ruthlessly victimized minorities. Her personal animosity towards ethic groups brought utter devastation for their cultures as she emphasized for “the centrality of the Han ethnic group.”

In Tibet, over 6,000 monasteries were destroyed. In Inner Mongolia, many were executed during ruthless witch hunts.

In Xinjiang, copies of the Quran and other books of the Uyghur people were burned.

Muslim imams were paraded around with paint splashed on their parsons.

In ethnic Korean areas of northeast China, language schools were destroyed.

In Yunnan Province, the palace of the Dai people’s king was torched, and the “Shadian Incident” ­—a horrid massacre of Hui Muslim people— butchered over 1,600 lives in 1975.

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My plays serv

“Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy.”

ve the people.

The woman is denounced with her face splattered with ink and her crimes spelled out on the placard.

Jiang publicly humiliated intellectuals.

Anyone with skills over that of the average person were sent to rural labor camps, or placed under house arrest. In social chaos, thousands die and millions were exiled or imprisoned.

This led to almost an entire generation of inadequately educated individuals. The university entrance exams were also cancelled during this period, bringing the education system to a virtual halt.

She hunted down her political enemies.

Soon after being appointed a member of the Politburo in 1969, she spearheaded against Deng Xiaoping, China’s present leader who later saved China from the ruins. Calling him a “Quisling and a fascist,” she denounced him as an “international capitalist agent.”

She also criticized party leaders such as Liu Shaoqi, Premier Zhou Enlai, and others who were identified as political threats to the Gang of Four in the post-Mao succession.

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Ballets huma

“The Red Detachment of Women,” a Model Opera from Beijing.

should be full of an will and power.

Students at a massive campus meeting in Yunan University ridicule the principal.

Other academics like Yang Rongguo and Lin Biao were accused of following the ancient policies of Confucian philosophy.

The new policy encouraged civilians to criticize cultural institutions by questioning their parents and teachers, which had been strictly forbidden in Confucian culture.

This philosophy was primarily entrenched in the radical Red Guards, youth militia comprised mostly of students. Their role was mainly to attack the “Four Olds� of society: traditional ideas, cultures, manners, and customs.

They were also told that the revolution was in danger and that they must do all they could to stop the emergence of a privileged class in China.

Jiang dictated over the Red Guards. She incited them against Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, other senior political leaders and government officials.

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Our Chinese opera only positive emot

“The Red Detachment of Women.”

a expresses tions.

Civilians destroy the main Buddha sculpture at a sacred temple in Beijing’s Master Scholar School.

They killed as many as half a million people -elders, authors, artists, and religious figures.

As the government paid all expenses of the Red Guards, much economic activity in China was halted, dragging the country into economical chaos.

Jiang fiercely led them on at mass gatherings. She commanded them to destroy countless ancient buildings, artifacts, antiques, books, and paintings, replacing them with revolutionary Maoist works.

This resulted in total suppression of almost all traditional activities as she exercised control over much of Chinese culture.

Thousands of years of Chinese historical reserves, sites, and artifacts were destroyed.

It was a destruction unmatched at any time or place in all of human history.

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Very soon after the death of Mao Zedong on September 9, 1976, Jiang Qing and the others of the Gang of Four was arrested. Their fall officially ended a horrific period that killed three million people.

After her capture on October 6, she was sent to the Qincheng Prison and held under detention for five years. From 1981 to 1982, she was tried for crimes against innocent people and subverting the government.

During her public trials, she was the only member of the Gang who bothered to argue on her own behalf, refusing to repent, and even daring to denounce the court and the country’s leaders.

Jiang Qing committed suicide on May 14, 1991 by hanging herself in a bathroom of her prison. She was 77 years old.

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I am the tragic her

“The Red Detachment of Women.”

roine.

Even when faced with a possible death sentence, Jiang taunted the court to chop off her head.

This Little Red Book was designed by Joy Li in 2007 at Washington University in Saint Louis