{"id":1567,"date":"2014-06-16T15:58:20","date_gmt":"2014-06-16T15:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=1567"},"modified":"2014-06-16T16:05:18","modified_gmt":"2014-06-16T16:05:18","slug":"tienchi-martin-liao-also-sprach-the-puppet-song-binbin-a-former-red-guard-officially-apologizes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/tienchi-martin-liao-also-sprach-the-puppet-song-binbin-a-former-red-guard-officially-apologizes","title":{"rendered":"Tienchi Martin-Liao: Also Sprach the Puppet-Song Binbin, a former Red Guard, officially apologizes\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Tienchi Martin-Liao \/ January 29, 2014<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Song Binbin, a former Red Guard, officially apologizes\u2026<\/p>\n

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Song Binbin and Mao
\nSong Binbin pins a Red Guard armband on Mao Zedong, Aug. 18, 1966. Photo via WantChinaTimes.
\nWhen the 17 year-old student Song Binbin pinned a red band reading \u201cRed Guard\u201d on Mao Zedong\u2019s arm on August 18, 1966, she poured more fuel directly onto the already inflamed Cultural Revolution. Through this act, Song became the symbol of the movement\u2019s young, rebellious revolutionary generation, which, according to the party jargon, \u201ctouched the soul of the people\u201d and determined their fate over the following decade.<\/p>\n

Forty eight years later, now living in the United States as a scholar, Song Binbin finally showed regret for the actions of her youth and said \u201csorry\u201d to the victims and their families at her former school, Beijing Normal University-affiliated middle school. Mrs. Bian Zhongyun, the school\u2019s late principal, was beaten to death by her students on August 5, 1966\u2014just two weeks before Mao met with Red Guard leader Song Binbin. Bian\u2019s death was the first well-known case of an educator being killed by their own students. In the months and years following, thousands of teachers fell victim to the students\u2019 violence.<\/p>\n

The general opinion is that Song was responsible for the death of her school\u2019s headmaster. This year, on January 12, Song and some of her former classmates visited the school and bowed to the statue of the late Principal Bian. Song then gave a short speech and said, with tears in her eyes, \u201cI am responsible for the tragic death of Principle Bian\u2026I was worried that others would accuse me being \u2018opposed to fighting against the black-gang.\u2019 I did not and had no possibility to prevent the armed fighting against principle Bian and other administrators.\u201d<\/p>\n

But are these words from her heart, or are they just a trick to wash herself clean? Did Song intentionally word her apology to say that she wasn\u2019t directly involved in the beating? If we allow more guesses, we could ask if this was a fabricated act, backed by the party. Her apology distracted national attention, while her initial actions expanded Mao\u2019s catastrophic political movement into a widespread youth outbreak.<\/p>\n

Also involved in the Cultural Revolution, but not as a leader or hero, was Wang Rongfen, a female college student who was sentenced to death and imprisoned for 11years. Lately, Wang has criticized Song, and doubted the sincerity of her apology; a simple word like \u201csorry\u201d cannot comfort the victims\u2019 loved ones. Wang has also said that the Cultural Revolution is a crime against humanity, comparable with the Nazi holocaust.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Beijing Normal University-affiliated middle school was, and still is, an elite school. At that time, the majority of the students were the children of high cadres. Song\u2019s father, Song Renqiong, was one of the most famous and powerful generals of the Republic. This red princess then became a star through the photo that was taken of her and Chairman Mao. When Mao heard Song\u2019s name, Binbin, which means \u201ccivilized and polite,\u201d Mao said: \u201cIt should be \u2018want violence.\u2019\u201d Henceforth, the young girl was known as \u201cSong wants violence\u201d and led the Cultural Revolution\u2019s crusade through the country in the following years. Mrs. Song left China in the 80s and became a scientist in the United States. She\u2019s never commented on her own Red Guard past. Yet, in 2007, she went back to her alma mater and was honored as one of the school\u2019s 90 most outstanding alumnae. She got the award not because of her achievement in science or some other contribution, but because of the moment she had with Chairman Mao. Obviously, she wasn\u2019t ashamed or uneasy about accepting the award. Now, seven years later, she makes a theatric display as a sorrowful aged woman who regrets the foolish and irresponsible behavior of her youth.<\/p>\n

Confession and atonement belong to the Christian ethic. They are rather unknown concepts on the Chinese mainland, where citizens have lived under decades of Marxist materialism. Mao criticized religion as the opium of the masses. In the Asian mentality, you show your guilty feelings or regret through concrete reconciliation, but do not speak of it in words or writing. The perpetrator of the Cultural Revolution is Mao Zedong, his entourage and the CCP, the Red Guards, were his puppets and instruments from the beginning. Later, they got out of control and became a killing machine.<\/p>\n

Today the Red Guards\u2019 generation have reached middle- or old age and, looking back on those chaotic years, they feel cheated and betrayed. They call themselves the lost, disillusioned generation. During the so-called \u201cten chaotic years,\u201d schools were shut down and young people lost any chance of education: There were no books, no teachers, and no newspapers besides the Party organ. The whole country was a cultural desert and the ragged economy was on the edge of disaster. The \u201cdown to the countryside movement\u201d drove millions of youth to remote regions to become peasants. Harsh circumstances stole their youth, dreams, hopes, and health. A part of them is lost forever, and a part of them struggled and survived. Song Binbin belongs to the survivors. She has lived in the free world for about 40 years, and now, at 65, she\u2019s coming to terms with the past. Didn\u2019t she come to the idea earlier? Was the idea to apologize to the dead principal and persecuted teachers from her own mind and will? Why did she do this so officially at the school and not go directly to Bian\u2019s husband and beg for his forgiveness? Her speech sounds so pointless and ambiguous; it didn\u2019t reach people\u2019s hearts. The tears are from Song the agitator, not from the victims or their families.<\/p>\n

People can forgive the political mistakes of a 17 year old girl, but they don\u2019t want to see an inferior performance from a 65 year-old woman.
\nFrom: \u00a0http:\/\/www.sampsoniaway.org\/fearless-ink\/tienchi-martinliao\/2014\/01\/29\/also-sprach-the-puppet\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Tienchi Martin-Liao \/ January 29, 201 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[394,91],"tags":[402,401,400],"views":2617,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1567"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1569,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567\/revisions\/1569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}