The "Red Years"

One of the highlights of the visit to the museum cluster was the "Red Years" display on the cultural revolution of the 1960s. This ideologically-driven movement cost the lives of many Chinese and, later, the "gang of four" were blamed for instigating it. An attempt to crush any evidence of capitalism, the Cultural Revolution was an attempt to purify China ideologically. It is reminiscent in some ways of the Terror during the French Revolution. The many clocks at the museums are Cultural Revolution relics illustrating the believe that a new time had come to China. It was in the wake of this that the first reforms were instituted that has led to the boom in the Chinese economy.

Mr. Yen, a professor in the USAC program who teaches Chinese to American students, was the interpreter for the visit to the museums. He termed the time, the "crazy years."

At top, the students listen to Mr. Yen describe the Cultural Revolution and the meaning of massive collection of Mao buttons contained in this first room.Behind him is a photo of a Red Guard, mostly student radicals, sporting Mao buttons. Then, me standing before a photo of a rally during the Cultural Revolution. and then more photos of gatherings of throngs of people; a photo of Nixon and Mao; Prof. Yen speaking to the students; and more Chinese people being publicly humiliated during this period.