New Chinese textbook that says Cultural Revolution brought ‘disaster’ on country stirs debate about historical memory
- New high school books use language missing from the previous version and say the upheaval was triggered ‘erroneously’
- The Cultural Revolution remains highly sensitive and the changes have prompted a debate about how the country addresses its legacy
A new Chinese textbook that categorised the Cultural Revolution as an “error” that brought “serious disaster” to the country has prompted a debate about how the country comes to terms with the hugely sensitive era.
The new high school year one history textbook, taught to 16-year-olds, includes two references that did not appear in the book used last year.
It said the Cultural Revolution was “provoked by [party] leaders erroneously, and used by an antirevolutionary syndicate”.
It also described it as “civil unrest that brought serious disaster to the country and its people,” according to a comparison by the Post of a copy of the 2020 textbook, produced by the education ministry, and an online copy of the old book.
In recent years some ultra-leftists have attempted to gloss over the decade-long political upheaval, but the textbook also kept a reference from the previous book that said it was “not a revolution or social progress in any sense”.
