This is CBSI in the world.

I'm John Batchel with Red Memories author Tanya Bronigan, the afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution.

Tanya reporting for The Guardian, many years in China, had occasion to talk to people remembering the cultural revolution.

We introduce Wang Shi Lin,

a musician, a self-taught composer, and yet the child of peasants who had no advantages

whatsoever that I can see. One day, of course, there was an opportunity nearby.

A traveling circus is what I imagine, a traveling orchestra.

And he was so inspired, he ran away and became member of the PLA, the People's Liberation Army.

And yet the story is not straightforward.

In fact, Tanya, his story is so unbelievable.

Only fact could hold this up in a novel.

It would be unacceptable. There's no verisimilitude. He remembers all of this period, as you say,

liberating, but it also gave him opportunity, though there were moments where he was punished and brutalized.

Is that how he remembers it both?

It made me what I am and then I remember the bad times at the same time.

Yes, I mean, I think what's so striking about Wang Shilin's story is that in many ways,

it's almost quite typical in that he was somebody who was very devoted to the party, a really zealous party member. He was very keen in political campaigns. He thought other people were not true believers,

perhaps. He spent a lot more time, despite his talents in music, initially he spent a lot

more time on political campaigning than he did upon his

studies. And yet, the party turned upon him, as it did so many of the people. I mean, bear in mind,

both of Mao's heir's apparent would die in the cultural revolution. Many of the most senior

leaders were persecuted or died again. So in that sense, Wang Shilin

...