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66 China Review International: Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 1996 There is no denying that a tension exists between the two modes, one which is resolved not simply by the choice ofthe mode, but also by the depth of understanding ofthe text. Ifit is translation to which we are referring, then I concur. But ifit is a case ofanalytic discourse, then terseness may not be the ideal mode. Like any language, the exchange must take place between speakers ofthe same language, or risk falling between the gaps left by so many intuitive leaps of understanding . As to the more appropriate mode for publication, academic or analytic discourse , we must let the reader decide. m Reassessing the StartingPoint ofthe Cultural Revolution When did the Cultural Revolution begin? Responses from Western and Chinese sources have varied widely. While many Western authors believe that the Cultural Revolution began in November 1965 with the publication ofYao Wen Yuan's article "Hai Rui Dismissed from Office," a minority concur with the Chinese official date ofMay 1966. 1 intend to demonstrate that the Cultural Revolution actually began earlier, dating to the 1964 Socialist Education Movement at Beida (Peking University). But first, let me summarize the prevailing points ofview on the subject. Julia Kwong, for example, says: "At 2 pm on May 25, 1966, outside the dining hall of Beijing University, Nie Yuanzi and six other members of the philosophy department put up a big wall poster questioning the university administration's handling of the cultural revolution. . . . The publicizing ofNie's wall poster in the national media signaled the beginning ofthe Cultural Revolution in schools across the country."1 Professor Hong Yung Lee, on the other hand, asserts that the campaign against Wu Han was the first phase ofthe Cultural Revolution. He says: "The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution started with the apparently insignificant criticism of Peking vice-mayor, Wu Han, a well-known historian specializing in the Ming period."2 At the CCP Work Conference ofSeptember-October 1965, Lee notes, Mao proposed to criticize Wu Han for a historical play he wrote in 1961, titled Hai fui Dismissedfrom Office. This criticism ofWu Han was to be made on y mversity ^0 jeveis. «pjrstì [Mao] asked P'eng Chen [Peng Zhen], the head ofthe Group of Five in charge ofrevolutionizing literature and art, to criticize Wu Han at the official level. Second, he instructed the informal Chiang Ch'ing [Jiang Qing] group to prepare a critique ofWu Han's play in complete secrecy. When P'eng Chen ofHawai'i Press Features 67 failed to act against his own vice-mayor, Mao arranged for an article titled 'Comments on the NewlyWritten Historical Opera, Dismissal ofHai ]uî to be published under the name ofYao Wen-yuan in the Shanghai Wen Hui Bao on November 11, 1965."3 This, to Lee, was the first step ofthe Cultural Revolution. Byung-joon Ahn, in his Chinese Politics and the Cultural Revolution, agrees with Lee: "The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China evolved out of a long political process dating from the publication ofYao Wen-yuan's article on Wu Han's play Haifui [Hairui] Dismissedfrom Office in November 1965 to the convening of the Eleventh Plenum in August 1966."4 However, Ahn goes on to ask: "Why did Mao raise the Wu Han issue at the particular time ofSeptemberOctober 1965, when Wu Han had written his play in i960 and the play had been staged in 1961? Why did he raise the question ofrevisionism within the Central Committee at the same time? Perhaps Mao's innermost motives for these actions will never be known, but rarely are public policies made in a social vacuum. Mao's decisions may well have resulted from specific fears and hopes about his role in history."5 To provide an answer to these questions, Ahn analyzed the relationship between the Cultural Revolution in China and the external situation surrounding China in 1965-1966, believing that "linkage politics" was instrumental in the initiation of the Cultural Revolution. Barbara Barnouin and Yu Changen believe that the "adoption by the Politburo ofthe 'May 16 Circular' marked the beginning ofthe Cultural Revolution. But specific policies regarding its course still needed to be...

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