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Posted Aug 29, 2017, 2:25 PM
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Khan
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Kingston, Ontario
Posts: 4,915
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Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
I thought we were discussing it? We're several pages into a thread devoted to the topic.
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We've only been discussing schools named after Sir John A MacDonald. You are taking issue with calls to remove certain statutes. It is impossible to discuss whether or not those statues should be removed without knowing which statues have been proposed for removal and why.
Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
Anyway, during the Cultural Revolution, certain figures would suddenly fall out of favour for whatever transgression, and their existence would effectively be expunged... that is what this sudden call to start renaming things named after Sir John A. Macdonald feels like. I'm obviously not saying that anyone involved in this dispute is going out to kill people and I'm surprised that the point even has to be made.
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Here is a brief excerpt from Wikipedia summarizing the activities of the Red Guards:
Quote:
The 11th Plenum of the CPC Central Committee had ratified the 'Sixteen Articles' in August 1966, a document that stated the aims of the Cultural Revolution. It also highlighted the role students would be asked to play in the movement. After the 18 August rally, the Cultural Revolution Group directed the Red Guards to attack the 'Four Olds' of Chinese society (old customs, old culture, old habits and old ideas). For the rest of the year, Red Guards marched across China in a campaign to eradicate the 'Four Olds'. Old books and art were destroyed, museums were ransacked, and streets were renamed with new revolutionary names and adorned with pictures and the sayings of Mao.[12] Many famous temples, shrines, and other heritage sites in Beijing were attacked.[13]
The Cemetery of Confucius was attacked in November 1966 by a team of Red Guards from Beijing Normal University, led by Tan Houlan.[14][15] The corpse of the 76th-generation Duke Yansheng was removed from its grave and hung naked from a tree in front of the palace during the desecration of the cemetery.[16] Attacks on other cultural and historic sites happened between in 1966 and 1967. One of the greater damages was to the Ming Dynasty Tomb of the Wanli Emperor in which his and the empress’s corpses along with a variety of artifacts from the tomb were destroyed by student members of the Red Guard. Between the assaults on Wan Li and Confucius’ tombs alone, more than 6618 historic Chinese artifacts were destroyed in the desire to achieve the goals of the Cultural Revolution.[17]
The property of individuals was also gone after by Red Guard members as well if considered to represent one of the Four Olds. Commonly religious texts and figures would be confiscated and burned. Other times items of historic importance would be left, but defaced, with examples such as Qin Dynasty scrolls having their writings partially removed and stone and wood carvings having the faces and words carved out of them. Re-education came alongside the destruction of previous culture and history, throughout the Cultural Revolution schools were a target of Red Guard groups to teach both the new ideas of the Cultural Revolution; as well as to point out what ideas represented the previous era idealizing the Four Olds. For example, one student, Mo Bo, described a variety of the Red Guards activities taken to teach the next generation what was no longer the norms.[18] This was done according to Bo with wall posters lining the walls of schools pointing out workers who undertook “bourgeois” lifestyles. These actions inspired other students across China to join the Red Guard as well. One of these very people, Rae Yang, described how these actions inspired students. Through authority figures, such as teachers, using their positions as a form of absolute command rather than as educators gave students a reason to believe Red Guard messages.[19] In Yang’s case it is exemplified through a teacher using a poorly phrased statement as an excuse to shame a student to legitimize the teachers own position.
Attacks on culture quickly descended into attacks on people. Ignoring guidelines in the 'Sixteen Articles' that stipulated that persuasion rather than force were to be used to bring about the Cultural Revolution, officials in positions of authority and perceived 'bourgeois elements' were denounced and suffered physical and psychological attacks.[12] On August 22, 1966, a central directive was issued to stop police intervention in Red Guard activities.[20] Those in the police force who defied this notice were labeled "counter-revolutionaries." Mao's praise for rebellion was effectively an endorsement for the actions of the Red Guards, which grew increasingly violent.[21]
Public security in China deteriorated rapidly as a result of central officials lifting restraints on violent behavior.[22] Xie Fuzhi, the national police chief, said it was "no big deal" if Red Guards were beating "bad people" to death.[23] The police relayed Xie's remarks to the Red Guards and they acted accordingly.[23] In the course of about two weeks, the violence left some one hundred teachers, school officials, and educated cadres dead in Beijing's western district alone. The number injured was "too large to be calculated."[22]
The most gruesome aspects of the campaign included numerous incidents of torture, murder, and public humiliation. Many people who were targets of 'struggle' could no longer bear the stress and committed suicide. In August and September 1966, there were 1,772 people murdered in Beijing alone. In Shanghai there were 704 suicides and 534 deaths related to the Cultural Revolution in September. In Wuhan there were 62 suicides and 32 murders during the same period.[24]
Intellectuals were to suffer the brunt of these attacks. Many were ousted from official posts such as university teaching and allocated manual tasks such as "sweeping courtyards, building walls and cleaning toilets from 7am to 5pm daily" which would encourage them to dwell on past "mistakes".[25] An official report in October 1966 reported that the Red Guards had already arrested 22,000 'counterrevolutionaries'.[26]
The Red Guards were also tasked with rooting out 'capitalist roaders' (those with supposed 'right wing' views) in positions of authority. This search was to extend to the very highest echelons of the CPC, with many top party officials, such as Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping and Peng Dehuai being attacked both verbally and physically by the Red Guards.[27] Liu Shaoqi was especially targeted, as he had taken Mao's seat as Chairman of the People's Republic following the Great Leap Forward. Although Mao stepped down from his post as a sign of accepting responsibility, he was angered that a capitalist roader like Liu could take the reins of communist China.
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Do you really feel that the current discussion in Canada about the appropriateness of public statutes commemorating colonial-era leaders is in any meaningful way similar to the above?
I mean, we might as well liken Sir John A MacDonald's execution of Louis Riel to Stalin's purges. They both involved the government executing a political enemy, after all.
The analogies are similarly ridiculous.
__________________
Confucius says:
With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow - I have still joy in the midst of these things. Riches and honors acquired by unrighteousness are to me as a floating cloud.
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