Shajiabang

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Hi thanks for listening to Stuck in the Middle Kingdom with You, the show about teaching in China and Chinese history. Last time, we touched on the Cultural Revolution in relation to one of its victims, Deng Xiaoping, who would later claw his way back into power and remake China. This time, I found myself in the village of Shajiabang, which was the setting of one of the Cultural Revolution's model operas. So that means, we're going back to the 60s, for peak crazy, China-style.

See some Shajiabang opera here on YouTube! 



Peng and Mao – a little tension in the air perhaps?


Song Binbin pinning a Red Guard armband on Chairman Mao in 1966. Song had led the group of Red Guards who killed Bian Zhongyun, a female educator in Beijing. Bian was the first victim of the Red Guards.

The Delicate Dance of Loyalty | China Media Project
Doing the "loyalty dance" during the Cultural Revolution. Mao looks on approvingly from his portrait

To villages we go, to the borders we go, to places in the fatherland where we are most needed we go, 1970
"To the villages we go, to the borders we go, to places in the fatherland where we are needed most, we go" 1970

Peng Dehuai when the Red Guards caught up with him


A still from the video version of Shajiabang



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