Painting History: China’s Revolution in a Global Context By Jiawe ...

Zhun (1915–1974), Li Rui (b. 1917) and Li Shenzhi (1923–2003). It was Snow’s book that had awakened their generation.¹³

However, Snow could not have imagined that his book that Mao had banned for thirty years would also awaken my generation. By 1966 Mao Zedong, who is featured predominantly in his book, had become both political and religious head. Ruling supreme as both “emperor” and “pope,” he plunged China into the dark ages. When the Cultural Revolution began in 1966, there were bloody conflicts everywhere and all books (apart from Mao’s works and a small number of other works) were banned. There were public book burnings, but books do not burn easily, so books that were not burned or would not burn were transported to paper factories for pulping. One day in 1967 a worker at the Dongfeng Paper Factory in Jiaxing stuffed a book without a cover into his pocket, and because we took painting lessons together, he asked if I wanted to read it.

I realized it was a copy of Snow’s banned book that had been published more than thirty years ago. I read it overnight and was overcome by a sinking sense of confusion and incomprehension. The streets outside were hung with big posters of people’s names written in black characters, that were overwritten with a big red “X” to delete them. Most of the people named on the big posters were mentioned in Snow’s book, and he had depicted them as idealistic young revolutionaries. His style of writing that rang with truth in the Chinese translation convinced me he was describing real people. Yet the political movement at the time, in stark contrast, was a nightmare. Political surveillance was strict, and everyone was encouraged to report any sign of suspected counterrevolutionary activity. I was careful to keep my feelings to myself and returned the book with barely a comment. Although I continued to wear a Red Guard armband on my left arm to demonstrate my revolutionary fervor, my Red Guard fanaticism had totally dissipated.

Six years later, while working at the Heilongjiang Production and Construction Corps, I again came across Snow’s book. I borrowed it for a few months, and I loved it so much that I copied most of it by hand. I