In your log file, write a meditation on the Cultural Revolution as you've encountered it in the films we've seen, in the Wikipedia article, in today's class materials, and in any other sources you've made use of to explore for yourself the events and significance of this episode of modern East Asian history. You might include: what surprises or baffles you, what you think you would have done if you'd been your age and in China in 1966-1969, comments on the survival strategies of people you've seen in films or other media (such as the sources linked below) which address the Cultural Revolution.
Some links I collected a few days ago:
In the wake of To Live, it's worthwhile to think about how to find resources that will help to explain the Cultural Revolution to people who were born more than 10 years after it ended... Here's a selection of candidates, stressing variety:
Wikipedia entry
Cultural Revolution bibliography from U. Maine
Virtual Museum of Cultural Revolution from Hua Xia Wen Zhai
Scrapbook of the Revolution: Interpreting the Mao Era (magnificent collection by S. Jacobson)
Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times (University of Washington exhibition)
BBC Glossary of China's Communist Revolution
The Cultural Revolution: The Four Olds (from Australia's Powerhouse Museum)
Chinese Political Posters as Social and Historical Documents from Indiana University
THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION by Brian R. Train
The Cultural Revolution Decade, 1966-76 from UMd
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution & the Reversal of Worker's Power in China from PL Magazine, Vol. 8, No. 3, November, 1971
Cultural Revolution Campaigns posters
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution - Thirty years later from A World to Win
China: Whose Revolution? from marxists.de
from Hoover Institution's The Political Evolution of China
DECISION CONCERNING THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION ( Adopted on 8 August 1966, by the CC of the CCP)(official English version)
PRESS COMMUNIQUE OF THE SECRETARIAT OF THE PRESIDIUM OF THE NINTH NATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA April 1, 1969 (from The Maoist Documentation Project
Annie subject search: 'China History Cultural Revolution 1966 1969'And here's a link to a Maoist International commentary on the film: "To Live" Obscures Chinese Revolution
And some links to materials on other issues raised in the film:
The Image of a "Capitalist Roader"--Some Dissident Short Stories in the Hundred Flowers Period (in Studies) Sylvia Chan The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 2. (Jul., 1979), pp. 77-102.Songs of the Red Guards: Keywords Set to Music Vivian WagnerA Step Toward Understanding Popular Violence in China's Cultural Revolution Lu Xiuyuan Pacific Affairs, Vol. 67, No. 4. (Winter, 1994-1995), pp. 533-563.
On the `Two Roads' and Following our Own Path: The Myth of the `Capitalist Road' (in Studies) Louis T. Sigel The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 7. (Jan., 1982), pp. 55-83
On Socialist Development and the `Two Roads' (in Comment) Graham Young The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 8. (Jul., 1982), pp. 75-84.
Students and Class Warfare: The Social Roots of the Red Guard Conflict in Guangzhou (Canton) Anita Chan; Stanley Rosen; Jonathan Unger China Quarterly, No. 83. (Sep., 1980), pp. 397-446.
Resisting Modernity in Contemporary China: The Cultural Revolution and Postmodernism Guo Jian Modern China, Vol. 25, No. 3. (Jul., 1999), pp. 343-376
Reassessing the Cultural Revolution (in 20 Years on: Four Views on the Cultural Revolution) Lucian W. Pye China Quarterly, No. 108. (Dec., 1986), pp. 597-612.
Chinese Posters from The Chairman Smiles
Picturing power in the People's Republic of China, Posters of the Cultural Revolution Harriet Evans, Stephanie Donald eds (on order...)
Smash the Old World! Huang Yongyu (see also the Enemies section of Living Revolution) Artist and writer Huang Yongyu is one of China’s most famous cultural figures of the last half-century. He was a professor at the Central Art Academy, and became one of the principal targets of the Cultural Revolution. Mao Zedong's wife, Jiang Qing, helped organize the Black Painting Exhibition, which featured Huang's works. Huang was incarcerated in a makeshift prison referred to as ox-pens since the prisoners were called, in Mao's terms, "ox-demons" and "snake-spirits." He was later exiled to the countryside. ...see more from Morning Sun