Student Question
What are the significant features of imprisonment and interrogation during the Chinese Cultural Revolution?
Quick answer:
During the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), imprisonment and interrogation were marked by severe repression, propaganda, and a lack of free speech. Individuals were often denounced without evidence, subjected to brutal interrogations, and pressured into confessions. Detainees like Ma Bo experienced verbal and physical abuse, isolation, and humiliation, leading to mental breakdowns. These tactics exemplified the totalitarian control of Mao's regime, aiming to suppress dissent and maintain absolute power.
I had been abandoned.
Ma Bo's 1995 memoir, Blood Red Sunset, is his story of life during China's Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), in which thousands of people were "purged" for a variety of crimes, most of which involved speaking freely or criticizing Mao and the Communist state. Because of the constant propaganda of the state, the cult of personality around Mao, and the lack of free speech and free press, the Chinese people were conditioned to be suspicious of their neighbors and to look out for anything that can be considered counter-revolutionary or reactionary. A saying of the time was "Mao Zedong's thought is in total command" (120).
Bo is denounced, arrested, and interrogated. The methods the authorities use are common in repressive, one-party states. They verbally berate Bo, continually telling him that he's an enemy of the state and that he's guilty. Initially, he's not even sure why he's...
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arrested and what his supposed crimes are, but that's irrelevant to the authorities. There's no room for doubt or questioning in this system. In his cell, he's chained and his movement is so limited that he needs help going to the bathroom, which just adds to the humiliation. He's cold, he's in pain, and he's isolated, which begins to break him down: "By now the mental strain was taking its toll" (111). Their abuse, both verbal and physical, has its desired effect: he writes the confession they wanted, is convicted, and consequently exiled to Mongolia, where he does hard labor. His fate serves as an example for others and shows the state in absolute control.
For further reading, I'd highly recommend Frank Dikotter's books on Communist China.
What were the most significant features of imprisonment and interrogation used by Chinese authorities during the Cultural Revolution?
"The blood red sun was sinking beneath the horizon; the pure white snowscape was perfectly silent."
In Ma Bo's 1995 memoir of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Blood Red Sunset, Bo describes life during this Orwellian period, where paranoia and fear reigned, which lasted from 1966 to Mao's death in 1976. Nearly every one was at risk and could be denounced, with little to no evidence, for being counter-revolutionary, reactionary, subversive, bourgeois, or other interchangeable terms. Bo finds himself denounced, arrested, and interrogated. He is treated brutally and unfairly. Initially, he's not even sure what the charges are, which makes for a truly Kafkaesque situation. Above all, the authorities want a confession and they continually berate and harass him for one. They are not interested in what he has to say, unless it has to do with his guilt. Even his words are subject to policing. He admits that he made mistakes and the officer immediately corrects him: "Bang! He pounded the table. 'Mistakes'? Try crimes!'" (109). At one point a whole array of crimes (rape, murder, arson) are laid before him in an attempt to get him to confess.
There is also terrible physical abuse. They hit him, he's chained in a cold cell where he can't go to the bathroom by himself, and he's poorly fed. The cumulative effect is to break him down and degrade him: a common tactic in totalitarian states. And it works. He said that "By now the mental strain was taking its toll" (111). He's convicted and sentenced to hard labor. For further reading on life in Red China, I'd suggest Wild Swans:Three Daughters of China.
*I'm using the Viking hardcover.