Children of the Cultural Revolution

Xiaowei Zang seeks to understand the relationships between family life and political behaviour of the Red Guard Generation before and during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). He analyzes social stratification in China before the Revolution, then investigates the differing life paths and personal experiences of children from several distinct social classes during the Revolution itself. This analysis is based on interviews with over fifty Chinese immigrants who were students during the Cultural Revolution. Zang includes an analysis of the differing strategies used by individuals from different groups to cope with the events of this stressful decade. Zang closes with the suggestion that class analysis can be productively applied to the study of contemporary Chinese politics.