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The John Batchelor Show

RAISED ON BITTERNESS AND FEARS: 5/8: Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution by Tania Branigan (Author)

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

News, Books, Society & Culture, Arts

4.62.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

RAISED ON BITTERNESS AND FEARS:   5/8: Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution  by  Tania Branigan  (Author)

https://www.amazon.com/Red-Memory-Afterlives-Cultural-Revolution/dp/1324051957

Red Memory uncovers forty years of silence through the stories of individuals who lived through the madness. Deftly exploring how this era defined a generation and continues to impact China today, Branigan asks: What happens to a society when you can no longer trust those closest to you? What happens to the present when the past is buried, exploited, or redrawn? And how do you live with yourself when the worst is over?
1958 TIBET

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor. Here's John Batchelor. Continuing with Tanya

0:13.8

Bronigan, her new book is Red Memory, The After Lives of China's Cultural Revolution.

0:20.2

Tanya's reporting for the Guardian over many years,

0:22.6

over eight years, between the time of Huzint Tao

0:25.6

and his premiership, his general secretarieship,

0:30.2

in the first decade of the 21st century,

0:33.0

and Xi Jinping of the second decade and now the third decade.

0:37.7

Both Xi Jinping and the second decade and now the third decade. Both Xi Jinping and one rival that grew up at the same time as Xi Jinping,

0:44.4

Boschili, are victims of the Red Guard and were part of the Red Guard at the same time.

0:51.8

Born between, I'm going to guess, 1946, the end of the Second War

0:56.0

and the Japanese occupation, and 1956, the speech, the secret speech in Moscow by Khrushchev.

1:05.2

That generation, right in there, my generation, all victims of, all persecuted by, all part of the Red Guard,

1:13.7

have opinions of them. And these two men are known as princelings. Tanya, again, your book is wonderful.

1:21.3

What is a princeling in China? What does that mean when people talk about them?

1:26.5

These are the children who were born to the very top communist leaders, particularly in the case

1:34.5

of Borchili and Xi Jinping, that they were born to figures who'd been involved in the

1:40.2

revolution, had come to power as senior leaders, but as you say, who both fell foul

1:45.7

of Mao very spectacularly, as so many people at the top of the party did. And so in both cases,

1:51.9

their families suffered immensely in the Cultural Revolution. Borosha Lai's siblings, we believe,

1:58.8

his brothers were initially quite active red guards, we think. But brothers were initially quite active Red Guards, we think,

2:02.2

but then his father was toppled. His mother, we believe, died after she was beaten by

2:09.1

red guards. In Shee Jinping's case, his father had a daughter by a previous marriage, so

...

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