Plague of the Dreadful Children

Mao’s Great Revolution By Robert S. Elegant

World, 478 pp., $12.50 “Violinists and pianists, once honored as proof of the Chinese genius for Western arts, were humiliated and beaten. Sometimes their fingers were broken. . . . Men and women were thrust into the glowing ashes of their possessions. Others were tied to their door frames and beaten to death. In the Central China industrial complex of Wuhan, long queues of men and women marched under guard along the main streets by day and by night. . . . Only their guards returned. . . . Red Guard leaders referred to detailed orders, treasuring their written instructions like insanely methodical midget accountants. The power-crazed adolescents, most between fourteen and twenty, humiliated and harassed their elders. They destroyed and mocked; they burned and killed.”

JK

About the Author

Justus M. Van Der Kroef

Featured Tags

Mao’s Great Revolution By Robert S. Elegant

World, 478 pp., $12.50 “Violinists and pianists, once honored as proof of the Chinese genius for Western arts, were humiliated and beaten. Sometimes their fingers were broken. . . . Men and women were thrust into the glowing ashes of their possessions. Others were tied to their door frames and beaten to death. In the Central China industrial complex of Wuhan, long queues of men and women marched under guard along the main streets by day and by night. . . . Only their guards returned. . . . Red Guard leaders referred to detailed orders, treasuring their written instructions like insanely methodical midget accountants. The power-crazed adolescents, most between fourteen and twenty, humiliated and harassed their elders. They destroyed and mocked; they burned and killed.”