Battle for China's Past : Mao and the Cultural Revolution

memory? Who is able to tell her/his memories either orally or in print?
What channels and space of memories are provided by whom, for
whom? Answers to these questions will be provided in later chapters.
What is the Enlightenment?
THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST
In contrast to early Western anthropologists, who took their theories to
exotic places in order to interpret exotic societies, the Chinese expatriates,
who are financially supported and academically or politically
mentored by the West, do not ‘tend to situate themselves more on the
ship of (capitalist) history than on the shore’(Ortner 1984: 143), but
rather depart the airport lounge of China on a plane to the West to
receive instruction about the history of the Cultural Revolution as, for
instance, Dr Li Zhisui did in recounting the private life of Chairman
Mao (as discussed in a later chapter).
When talking about the Cultural Revolution and about their own
experiences of being victimized, and then comparing how the US
government treats its own people so humanely, for instance in its careful
and persistent efforts in recovering and honouring its MIAs in Vietnam,
some Chinese elite intelligentsia laud the American practice of
human rights. The element missing in this humanitarian discourse is any
consideration of the fact that millions of Vietnamese, Cambodians and
Laotians who were killed or bombed to dust were also human beings.
While we should support the right of US Vietnam veterans to demand
compensation for their suffering as a consequence of their participation
in Agent Orange warfare, we should not forget what happened to the
real targets of this warfare, the millions of Vietnamese who suffered and
are still suffering from the effects of Agent Orange.
Those who condemn the Cultural Revolution are still framing their
denunciations in the ideological paradigm of Western Enlightenment.
As Wang Hui argues, if we use this Enlightenment discourse as a basis
of evaluation, then not only does the Chinese tradition stand to be
condemned, but all contemporary social practice in the PRC should be
denied any moral legitimacy (Wang Hui 2000). According to this yardstick,
anything happens in China, past or contemporary, is only
transitional until and unless China becomes part of the West in political
system and cultural values (Sun Ge 2007). We will continue this
discussion in the next chapter.
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