Shandong man apologises on TV for attacking teacher during Cultural Revolution
Zhang Jinying claims he was haunted by guilt and remorse for 45 years for the pain his actions inflicted on his old maths teacher
A 61-year-old man in China’s Shandong province recently went on a reality TV show to apologise for verbally attacking his middle-school teacher in 1968 during China’s Cultural Revolution.
Zhang Jinying recalled on the show how he wrote abusive words about his teacher, Zhang Yude, on a poster after the teacher threatened to discipline him in class. But the teacher never resorted to action, he said.
“Stinky intellectual, you should focus on teaching instead of beating up students,” were the words Zhang said he wrote on a poster.
The poster later led to the sacking and public torture of the teacher who was forced to wear a board bearing the word “rightist” and to stand in front of students who took turns to humiliate and attack him.
