Slippery history
Adocumentary entitled Lao She's Death was shown at the China Youth University for Political Sciences in Beijing last month. Lao She - one of the great literary figures of modern China - committed suicide in 1966, after being beaten by Red Guards. The documentary's creator was a researcher at the Museum of Modern Literature named Fu Guangming. He interviewed many of those involved in the incident, and used them in the documentary.
The audience, mostly local students, listened quietly to Lao's wife describing the events surrounding his death, and to ex-Red Guards trying to distance themselves from the beating. There were some murmurs when it came to the actual discovery of Lao's body. He had drowned himself, and his remains were found by three locals. But beyond that, no two accounts of the body's retrieval matched.
'We pulled his body into a boat and rowed it back to shore,' one man said into the camera.
'I used a stick to tow his body behind the boat, then we pulled him on to the bank,' said another.
Questioned separately, two of them claimed to be the only one to recognise the body, and no one agreed on what Lao had been wearing. The interviews were done in the mid-1990s, and 30 years is a long time to remember the colour of someone's coat. Talking after the film, Mr Fu stressed the difficulties of accurate recollection. 'In this case the details are relatively unimportant, but imagine all the other aspects of our history in which this kind of oral narration is the main source of information,' he said. Without specifically mentioning the government, he attacked the idea of an officially endorsed, 'correct' version of history.
'Mr Fu is being too polite,' called out a university professor in the front row. 'The truth is, they will only allow a single version. History is another way for the government to maintain control. Some of those ex-Red Guards hold high positions now: could they allow new interpretations of the Cultural Revolution?'
The two men seemed to know each other well, and began a lively discussion about the Communist Party's foundation myths, and its deep animosity to the reinterpretation of history. 'Just look at Bingdian,' said the professor, referring to a controversial supplement in the Beijing Youth Daily that was briefly shut down by authorities. 'What was the excuse for closing it? An article re-examining the burning of the Summer Palace in 1860 - an article that questioned the official history.'
Mr Fu concluded by telling the students: 'I hope you'll think twice when you're reading history books. How reliable are they? I hope you remember this talk - of course, no two of you will remember it the same way.'
