"Page0028" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bloom Howard - The Lucifer Principle (htm))

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ignored Chairman Mao.  The more the Red Guards attacked that

foundation, the more the bureaucratic resistance to the Glorious

Chairman crumbled.14

The Red Guards did not let their enthusiasm stop there.  Urged on

by Mao's speeches, they went on a campaign against "The Four

Olds"--the remnants of pre-revolutionary style.  The students pulled

down store signs, renamed streets, slit the cloth legs of anyone wearing

tight pants, stopped women in the town gates to cut off their braids,

pulled down ancient monuments, broke into homes, and smashed

everything that carried the hated aura of tradition.

Then the Red Guards turned on each other.  It started as a debate

over the true Maoist line.  But behind the argument about Mao's thought

was another issue.

Class warfare is a central concept of Maoism.  As a result, each

citizen of Mao's China was categorized according to the class from

which his parents or grandparents came.  If your family in the distant

past had belonged to an unacceptable social category, you were a pariah.

What was acceptable?  The poor peasants and soldiers.  Middle peasants

and intellectuals were beneath contempt.  Upper peasants, capitalists or

landlords were utterly beyond the pale.  Just to keep things straight, the

descendants of these hated social strata were sometimes forced to wear

black armbands with white letters broadcasting their status.

In Gao Yuan's school, one student declared categorically that only

those whose class background was "pure," those whose parents had

come from the Red Categories--poor peasants and soldiers--should be

allowed in the Red Guard.  And what of the children whose parents

came from the Black Categories--middle-class peasants, wealthy

peasants, landlords and capitalists?  Said the snobbish student, keep

them out.   A parent's class has nothing to do with children, protested

Gao Yuan.  "All our classmates were born and brought up under the

five-star red flag.  We all have a socialist education."  Not true, snarled

the boy determined to keep the Red Guard an exclusive club.  "A dragon

  undation of support for the bureaucratic powers who not long ago had

22

22

fo

ignored Chairman Mao.  The more the Red Guards attacked that

foundation, the more the bureaucratic resistance to the Glorious

Chairman crumbled.14

The Red Guards did not let their enthusiasm stop there.  Urged on

by Mao's speeches, they went on a campaign against "The Four

Olds"--the remnants of pre-revolutionary style.  The students pulled

down store signs, renamed streets, slit the cloth legs of anyone wearing

tight pants, stopped women in the town gates to cut off their braids,

pulled down ancient monuments, broke into homes, and smashed

everything that carried the hated aura of tradition.

Then the Red Guards turned on each other.  It started as a debate

over the true Maoist line.  But behind the argument about Mao's thought

was another issue.

Class warfare is a central concept of Maoism.  As a result, each

citizen of Mao's China was categorized according to the class from

which his parents or grandparents came.  If your family in the distant

past had belonged to an unacceptable social category, you were a pariah.

What was acceptable?  The poor peasants and soldiers.  Middle peasants

and intellectuals were beneath contempt.  Upper peasants, capitalists or

landlords were utterly beyond the pale.  Just to keep things straight, the

descendants of these hated social strata were sometimes forced to wear

black armbands with white letters broadcasting their status.

In Gao Yuan's school, one student declared categorically that only

those whose class background was "pure," those whose parents had

come from the Red Categories--poor peasants and soldiers--should be

allowed in the Red Guard.  And what of the children whose parents

came from the Black Categories--middle-class peasants, wealthy

peasants, landlords and capitalists?  Said the snobbish student, keep

them out.   A parent's class has nothing to do with children, protested

Gao Yuan.  "All our classmates were born and brought up under the

five-star red flag.  We all have a socialist education."  Not true, snarled

the boy determined to keep the Red Guard an exclusive club.  "A dragon

  undation of support for the bureaucratic powers who not long ago had