Red-Color News Soldier

By Li Zhensheng

Book Overview

The Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) remains one of the most catastrophic and complicated political movements of the twentieth century. Almost no visual documentation of the period exists and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0714843083
• ISBN13: 9780714843087
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Phaidon Press
• Length: 316 Pages
• Weight: 2.59 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.4" x 1.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A cruel account of history

I salute to the author who kept all these highly restricted photos in a secret location before it deemed safe to be released (after the political climate changed in China). No one in the outside world would be able to imagine the gravity of the Cultural Revolution in China without reading this photographic account on one of the most important event in human history. Although it is a bit expensive, but I've found it worth all the penny and cents.

It reveals that horrible human nature of both individual and masses

Li's photos captured the extreme madness of hundreds of thousands people in China during that so-called Cultural Revolution and it reveals the very dark side of human nature as seen from, for instance, that young woman cheerfully recorded the place, date and time when she saw Mao going by in his jeep, the humiliating punishment of all sorts of people such as Communist Party Provincial secretaries or provincial governors, newspaper workers, peasants, or whoever in huge mass demonstration against so-called "Anti-Revolutionary Reactionaries" to different Red Guard factions infightings they reminded me how Hitler got into power, how Japanese militarism got in total control in Japan in its war efforts, and, believe it or not, how George W. Bush & Co. got "elected" into the White House, they all show that similar built-in weakness of human characteristics- or the human genes! This book tells a lot about all of us. The monolithic political power, century's religious indoctrination are at work around clock and real enlightening secular education around the world is probably struggling in a losing battle. A good book of historical documents.

Amazing

For those readers whose knowledge of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution is limited to film, here is a document that shows that some of the films that portray these scenes were not exaggerated. These photographs do much more work than most documentary photographs. There is something uncannily immediate about them, as though the events depicted happened only yesterday; sometimes it is as though they were still happening. The text that accompanies the photographs follows the story of the photographer and his work through these years, and is interesting and well written. I came away from this book with the feeling of horror at fascism that I have never felt before. This book communicates something original and timeless about the human condition that I believe is priceless and rare. If you can't afford this book, you should seek it out at a bookstore and read it.

"Cultural Revolution"? What sort of revolution?

I remember reading a review of this in the Far Eastern Economic Review (Oct 16, 2003 issue) and I said to myself after reading that review that I had to somehow find a copy of this book. One week later, I found it. If this truly is part of the only (known) complete collection of photographs of China within 1966-1976, then Li Zhensheng must be commended for his bravery in capturing some of the most poignant & stark imagery that I have ever seen in my life.Starting from the beginnings of the "revolution" in 1964-1966, we are taken through from the initial scenes of relative calmness to the all-out assault on those "bourgeois" elements within Heilongjiang province by the time of 1972-1976. I took a look at the images and could not believe how humanity could do these things to its own. Thank goodness that Li Zhensheng (with Robert Pledge and Jacques Menasche) make mention that only in 1981 did China suddenly realise that the Cultural Revolution did not really achieve anything but set China backwards.There are between 300-400 prints in this book that were culled from over 30,000 negatives taken by Li to New York. If the images in this pictorial story are anything to go by, God only knows what those other 29,600-29,700+ negatives contain. Definitely one to buy for your collection. Recommended without any hesitation.

RARE BUT VIVID COLORS OF A REVOLUTION

I confess that this review is only based on a browsing of this startling book in a bookstore. It presents what it claims is the only known photographic documentation of the entire period of China's Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) that the author collected during his days as a photographer for a Communist Party controlled newspaperThe photographs capture the revolution's sudden grip and the mass hysteria that went along with it. There is some pretty stark imagery of public humiliations, of forced "self-criticisms," of rampaging Red Guards, of executions. There must nearly be around 300 prints or so. A stunning collection that is perhaps a required addition to the library of any Chinese, and a proud addition to everyone else's.