Red Land Yellow River: A Story from the Cultural Revolution

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University. She is the author of several books, including The
Mountain Is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret
Laurence: The Long Journey Home.

This emotionally stirring story offers an intimate look into history,
the lives of one family, and an entire nation in turmoil. When Chairman
Mao Zedong set off the Cultural Revolution in 1966, his favourite Red
Guards were schoolchildren. From the age of 10, they could join the
Young Pioneers. Teenagers joined the Communist Youth League and, later,
the Communist Party. Former business owners and landlords were treated
like criminals.

Author Ange Zhang’s father was a well-known writer and intellectual;
hence, the family was a target for the new regime. Ange’s classmates,
children of farmers or shopkeepers, had an easier time. Ange was not
allowed to follow them when they joined the Red Guard. When his
family’s house was ransacked, his father’s manuscripts and books
were scattered, and his antique china and statues were broken. During
this time, Ange began to read his father’s books, and discovered
another view of the world. Later, he was sent to the countryside to be
re-educated as a peasant farmer.

Gradually, Ange’s talent for drawing and painting became his calling.
Today, he is an artist and an internationally known theatre designer (he
designed the National Opera Theatre in Beijing before immigrating to
Toronto).

Red Land Yellow River affords readers of all ages an intimate look into
China’s Cultural Revolution, its human cost, and the extraordinarily
rapid transformation of one of the world’s largest countries in a mere
decade. Ange’s sombre yet colourful illustrations are emotionally
strong, and his story is deeply moving. Highly recommended.