Message from privera

[Anonymous]

I watched the second part of this three part, six hour documentary, PBS documentary. This documentary uses old film footage and interviews with those that lived though the last 100 years of China’s history. Part two of this documentary deals with the time from the Communist Revolution to Mao’s death in 1976.

This is a really watchable documentary and very appropriate for high school students. I think that it will hold students interest because the interviews are very interesting and because the history is still so recent it is all first person accounts.

There are interviews with former members of the Red Guard and also Communist Party Leaders. The Party Leader interview that was the most moving told of the hardships of his commune during the Great Leap Forward. While telling his story filled with so much sorrow and death he breaks down crying.

Another compelling interview is with a former member of the Red Guard. She tells the story of a day when she was supposed to go to the house of a fellow Red Guard members grandfather, he was a successful factory owner or landlord (I can’t remember which). She was told that they were going to go to harass this man for being a counter-revolutionary. She got to the house late and when she did she found that the man had been beaten to death. She closes the story be saying that she thinks of that event often, not because it was so horrible but because she wonders what would have happened if she had been on time. She says she does not know if she would have taken part in the beating. It is obvious that this question tortures her and I think that watching this interview would provide students with an interesting starting point for a class discussion on political propaganda.