★ 2023-01-05
The former China correspondent for the Guardian explores the “cumulative forgetting” of the devastations of the Cultural Revolution.
London-based journalist Branigan, who lived in China from 2008 until recently, delivers a series of poignant, engaging stories that reveal the deep scars left by the Cultural Revolution, which radiated violently across the country from “Red August” 1966 to 1976. Across a beautifully rendered text, the author astutely examines the Maoist ideology that drove the tumultuous class struggle and destruction, leading to the deaths “of as many as 2 million for their supposed political sins and another 36 million hounded.” Prompted to explore the history more deeply after viewing artist Xu Weixin’s exhibit of huge portraits in Beijing of those who “had played a part in this madness, as victim or perpetrator; often both,” Branigan digs into numerous vivid personal tales. Many were teenagers at the time, and some were children of the political elite; they responded to Mao’s direct appeal to “be martial” by becoming zealous devotees of the Red Guard. They inflicted violence on their teachers and denounced their parents, all in the name of destroying the “Four Olds”—old ideas, old culture, old customs, old habits. Many of the perpetrators, including current leader Xi Jinping, would later be disgraced themselves, sent to reeducation camps in rural communities for years afterward. Only Mao’s death and the ousting of the Gang of Four would end the mayhem. Throughout this sensitive, well-researched narrative, Branigan delicately delves into these shattered lives. Many of her subjects are still searching for justice or recognition, while others remain nostalgic for their patriotic youth. The author notes that while the hysteria and fanaticism of the time “forged modern China,” the events are rarely discussed today—even as the trauma continues to resonate deeply.
A heartbreaking, revelatory evocation of “the decade that cleaved modern China in two.
2023 Kirkus Prize, Short-listed
2023 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction, Short-listed
2024 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Short-listed
2023 Cundill History Prize, Winner
"Branigan’s book is investigative journalism at its best, its hard-won access eliciting deep insight. The result is a survey of China’s invisible scars that makes essential reading for anyone seeking to better understand the nation today."— Marina Benjamin Guardian
"Red Memory shows how the psychic wounds of Mao Zedong’s decade of madness endure to this day, replicating themselves through the generations."— Barbara Demick, author of Nothing to Envy and Eat the Buddha
"Very good and very instructive. It’s Mao’s Cultural Revolution revisited with all the pain and agony that went with it."— Margaret Atwood Observer
"Unfailingly acute, exceptionally humane—a masterpiece."— Julia Lovell, author of Maoism
"[Tania Branigan’s] humanising approach to writing about China is particularly valuable amid our current polarising geopolitical narrative, which loves strong lines between enemies and allies."— Yuan Yang Financial Times
"Branigan’s book offers an equally important cautionary lesson: the perils of ignoring or distorting history. What a country downplays in its historical record continues to reverberate."— Pamela Paul New York Times
"An exercise in attempting the impossible, of trying to reconstruct what it was like to live through and then live with one of the most brutal periods of modern Chinese history. Branigan comes closer to doing so than anyone else has in the English language."— Emily Feng, NPR
"This book is thoroughly deserving of prominence."— Max Hastings Sunday Times
"A beautifully written and thought-provoking book."— Yuan Yi Zhu Times
"[An] absorbing study of the legacy of the Cultural Revolution."— Abhrajyoti Chakraborty Air Mail
"Literature on the Cultural Revolution is a saturated market, but only rarely does it convey as Branigan does the continuing hold of that decade on a people otherwise transformed by economic development, technological progress, and newfound social and physical mobility."— Mary Gallagher Foreign Affairs
"A masterclass in storytelling and journalism."— Gary Younge, author of Another Day in the Death of America
"[A] penetrating study of the buried stories of the Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976."— Isabel Hinton Prospect
"[T]he past, as Ms. Branigan shows in this evocative book, is not so easy to suppress."— Stephen R. Platt Wall Street Journal
"Tania Branigan offers nuanced, humane portraits of people whose lives were transformed by those years, and also teaches the reader much about the politics of memory."— Hari Kunzru, author of Red Pill
"Without understanding the Cultural Revolution and its long-term influence, it is impossible to understand today’s China. I hope that all China experts, policymakers, think tankers, and the public perceive this and read Red Memory."— Peidong Sun, associate professor of history, Cornell University
"[E]xceptional…offers insights at once deep and clear into universal and timeless questions—of memory and forgetting, of horror and what it takes both to survive it and inflict it. It is haunting, evocative, and written with an almost painful beauty. I cannot recommend it too highly."— Jonathan Freedland, author of The Escape Artist
"A veritable masterwork."— Qian Julie Wang, author of Beautiful Country
"Red Memory will tell you more about Xi Jinping’s rule than any tome on economics."— Lindsey Hilsum, author of In Extremis
"A breathtaking work."— Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks
"A visceral history of the Cultural Revolution and a probing look at how modern-day Chinese Communist Party has sought to erase this chapter from its past…This is essential reading for China watchers."— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[Branigan delivers] poignant, engaging stories that reveal the deep scars left by the Cultural Revolution.… Across a beautifully rendered text, the author astutely examines the Maoist ideology that drove the tumultuous class struggle and destruction…. Sensitive [and] well-researched."— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Branigan weaves fascinating, unbelievable, and often terrifying personal narratives into her analysis. Her deep insight into a nation's painted-over trauma explains how mass hysteria, rampant betrayal, and even cannibalism have shattered a society for generations afterwards."— Booklist
"Stunning, profound and gorgeously written, Red Memory is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding China today."— Patricia L. Hagen Minneapolis Star Tribune
