If you want to read up on the death of Yao Wenyuan, last surviving member of the elite Gang of Four, you’ll have a hard time doing so in China, where coverage of his death and legacy has been severely limited (imagine that). Luckily, there’s a fine obituary in the Guardian that makes it clear what a scoundrel he was.
Yao Wenyuan, the last surviving member of the Gang of Four, who has died aged 74, was a literary polemicist whose pen, under Mao Zedong’s patronage, launched the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-76). His vitriolic essays provided ammunition for Mao and his wife, Jiang Qing (Madam Mao) in their campaign to destroy senior communist leaders with whom they had fallen out, including the president Liu Shaoqi….
If the Gang of Four had not been arrested after Mao’s death in 1976, Yao, though devoid of practical experience in government, would have become one of China’s supreme leaders. In a popular cartoon published after their downfall, Jiang Qing is shown standing next to a deer on which a placard hangs proclaiming it to be a horse. The image is based on a story, satirising those who demand blind loyalty, which dates from the first Chinese imperial dynasty.
In the cartoon, the second most senior member of the gang, Zhang Chunqiao (obituary, May 13 2005) gives instructions to Yao, who has his notebook open. “Anyone who dares call it a deer,” said Zhang “take his name down!”
Have things changed that much? “We are pleased to announce there are no cases of SARS in Guangzhou….”
Lots more good stuff in the article. Thanks to the reader who alerted me.
1
By China_hand
Finally, the entire Gang of Four is gone.
January 10, 2006 @ 12:02 pm | Comment
2
By Ed
From the above article, it seems it was a good thing that Mao died when he did and not later.
If they didn’t get arrested, we wouldn’t know them as a “gang” but something more positive like the “Fantastic 4”
January 10, 2006 @ 12:34 pm | Comment
3
By Keir
Wow- he died December 23. It took 2 weeks for Chinese to find out! No wonder its only now that public toilets are entering the 20th century.
January 10, 2006 @ 3:31 pm | Comment
4
By Bruce Dearborn Walker
Expecting the Chinese not to lie is like expecting the sun not to rise in the morning. Especially the Communist party. How long have you been living in China, anyway?
Never forget this. Learn from it.
Also, the difference between what Bush is doing and what Hu is doing is the difference between a salesman and a mugger. Remember, most Americans still agree that we need to stay in Iraq, even though they may not like the way Bush is going about it.
If you read the blogs of the American soldiers who are actually in Iraq, they all seem to believe that things are getting better, slowly, and in fits. I’m not there, and neither are you. All we can do is learn, and listen, and carefully sift the evidence to hopefully see some of the truth.
It’s a war, not a video game. A war that’s been going on since the sixth century. We won’t see the end of it in our lifetimes. If we’re lucky, it might damp down to where most people can ignore it.
I learned about jihad from some Filipinos thirty+ years ago. They’ve been dealing with it for the last eight hundred years.
January 10, 2006 @ 9:27 pm | Comment
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By richard
If you read the blogs of the American soldiers who are actually in Iraq, they all seem to believe that things are getting better, slowly, and in fits. I’m not there, and neither are you. All we can do is learn, and listen, and carefully sift the evidence to hopefully see some of the truth.
Actually, the soldiers have far less perspective than we do. Their view of Iraq is extremely narrow, and no one acts normally in their presence. They may have perspective about the battles, but not about the war.
January 10, 2006 @ 11:21 pm | Comment
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By China_hand
If you ask me now, do I support the way things are going in Iraq and Bush’s handling of the war. I’d say no. But I’m increasingly starting to agree with those that say over the long term, this will turn out to be a good thing for US in the Middle East. Perhaps I’m lacking perspective on this issue, and perhaps in 5 years, when the cloud passes, when things stabilize, Iraq will become a stable democracy and will start to influence other nations there. And if that’s the case, then Bush will be regarded as the next Ronald Reagan.
January 11, 2006 @ 12:03 pm | Comment
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By Sojourner
China_hand, it is entering murky territory to defend current situations by reference to supposition about future outcomes.
Why, yes, if (and what an “if”!) Iraq improves and becomes a stable pluralistic society within the next five years, then Bush may go down in history as the Great Liberator of his dreams (despite his case for going to war having been revealed as a tissue of lies, and despite the war having been conducted to date with gross ineptitude).
Indeed, pigs will fly and my Great British Novel will finally be published to international acclaim.
January 11, 2006 @ 9:37 pm | Comment
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By Simon World
Linklets 12th January
The astute will have noticed the daily linklets have been on hiatus for the past few weeks. Chances are the linklets are not likely to be daily, at least for the foreseeable future. Thus a name change to just linklets. There's an ever-increasing an…
January 12, 2006 @ 12:33 am | Comment
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By jeffery
I do agree with China_Hand’s remarks on the invasion to Iraq. without any doubt Iraq will go to stabliztion and peace after a period of chaos and insurgence. it’s only a matter of time for Iraq to get its own peace and democracy because most of Iraq people wants peace, not war, not chaos.
January 12, 2006 @ 11:58 pm | Comment