:A Chinese Rebel beyond the Great Wall: The Cultural Revolution and Ethnic Pogrom in Inner Mongolia

Abstract

The authors ’ observation in this book that “ The Inner Mongolian casualties and deaths were by far the largest number recorded in any province or autonomous region during the Cultural Revolution, and local accounts suggest that the official figures are gross underestimates ” (p. 4) is well known, but the work ’ s autobiographical report is new and riveting. Cheng Tiejun, a Han Chinese who moved from North China to Inner Mongolia as a teenager at the outset of the Great Leap Forward of 1958 – 1962, witnessed the destruction and murders during the Cultural Revolution. His first-hand account is invaluable. Most of this book consists of a chronological account of Cheng ’ s involvement in and observations of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. In the last chapter, the three authors analyse Chinese Communist policies toward minorities in the past and at present. It is painful and sobering to read about the violent struggles between so-called loyalists, often consisting of Communist cadres and their leaders, and the so-called rebels, frequently composed of students and Red Guards who challenged the hierarchy. Torture generated false confessions from innocents; harassment and beatings led others to commit suicide; and “ ferreting out traitors ” campaigns contributed to anarchy. Cheng watched a parade of trucks with ten men and women travelling through the city streets to the execution grounds. On another occasion, he saw a firing squad botch an execution, and their commander then ordered them to shoot the victims at point blank range. So-called poisonous books were burned, although brave librarians saved duplicates of some such works. A printer who erroneously placed a black mark, an indication of traitor-ous behaviour, on the wrong