Gang of One: Memoirs of a Red Guard

by Fan Shen

Overview

In 1966 twelve-year-old Fan Shen, a newly minted Red Guard, plunged happily into China's Cultural Revolution. Disillusion soon followed, then turned to disgust and fear when Shen discovered that his compatriots had tortured and murdered a doctor whose house he'd helped raid and whose beautiful daughter he secretly adored. A story of coming of age in the midst of monumental historical upheaval, Shen's Gang of One is more than a memoir of one young man's harrowing experience during a time of terror. It is also, in spite of circumstances of remarkable grimness and injustice, an unlikely picaresque tale of adventure full of courage, cunning, wit, tenacity, resourcefulness, and sheer luck—the story of how Shen managed to scheme his way through a hugely oppressive system and emerge triumphant.

Gang of One recounts how Shen escaped, again and again, from his appointed fate, as when he somehow found himself a doctor at sixteen and even, miraculously, saved a few lives. In such volatile times, however, good luck could quickly turn to misfortune: a transfer to the East Wind Aircraft Factory got him out of the countryside and into another terrible trap, where many people were driven to suicide; his secret self-education took him from the factory to college, where friendship with an American teacher earned him the wrath of the secret police. Following a path strewn with perils and pitfalls, twists and surprises worthy of Dickens, Shen's story is ultimately an exuberant human comedy unlike any other.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803293366
Publisher:	UNP - Bison Books
Publication date:	03/28/2006
Series:	American Lives Series
Pages:	282
Sales rank:	136,519
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Hailing from the People’s Republic of China, Fan Shen is a professor at Rochester Community and Technical College in Minnesota. He has published three translated books and numerous articles in both Chinese and English.

Table of Contents

	Preface	ix
	Acknowledgments	xiii
Part 1	Fire
1.	"Burn the Old World!"	3
2.	"Long Live the Red Terror!"	10
3.	"That's My Piano!"	19
4.	The Great Wall Fighting Team	30
5.	"Revolution Means Chopping Life"	42
6.	The Forbidden Books	48
7.	The Great Leader Meets the Red Guards	53
Part 2	Earth
8.	The Journey West	65
9.	The Beijing Kids	72
10.	"Be a Revolutionary Peasant!"	81
11.	The Great Mountain Flood	87
12.	The Barefoot Doctor	96
13.	Moon Face	102
14.	Smoking Devil's Wedding	106
15.	The Death of Uncle Cricket	109
Part 3	Metal
16.	A Mouse Wants to Fly to the Sky	121
17.	Li Ling	127
18.	"Another Jumped Last Night"	134
19.	The Year with Two Augusts	140
20.	"The Goal: Join the Party"	146
21.	"Confession Is Death!"	153
22.	The Lucky Eleven	165
Part 4	Wood
23.	The Heavenly White Pagoda	177
24.	"Two Uncles Are Here to See You"	186
25.	"Clever Zhao's Missing!"	199
26.	The Nun	204
27.	The Monster of Ambition	210
28.	The Last Battle in College	217
Part 5	Water
29.	"Forget It!"	227
30.	Watery Stool, No Bacteria?	234
31.	A Stinking Stone from the Outhouse	241
32.	"You Have Launched a Satellite!"	247
33.	"I'm the Only One Who Reads Your Letters"	254
34.	The Campaign for a Passport	258
35.	"Savor It"	266
36.	Don't Laugh Yet!	271

Editorial Reviews

While the general outlines of this account of growing up in Communist China will be familiar to readers of recent Chinese memoir, the details can still shock and astound. Shen, age 12 at the start of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, recounts being complicit in arduous Red Guard activities that directly or indirectly led to several gruesome deaths of political "enemies"-and later falling in love with and marrying the daughter of a man brutally tortured and killed by one of his fellow Red Guards. Shen (who now lives in Minnesota) also offers a snapshot of the political wiles needed to rebel against the fate one was assigned by the party: in order to both leave the abominable and oppressive conditions and to avoid persecution, Shen learned to feign political ardor, fabricate spy stories to confound the watchful authorities, pull strings with highly placed friends and falsify health tests. Though he might seem to overly relish these clever maneuvers, Shen's portrait of the social and political climate in China is unambiguous: power rested in the hands of a few and professed loyalty to party ideologies made it unsafe to trust anyone; the only way to win was to use the party's rules to one's own ends. The memoir's title is significant (the Gang of Four were those responsible for the Cultural Revolution)-it spells out the need for self-absolution for his painful past as a Red Guard and expresses the utter loneliness forced on anyone trying to live for himself under a regime that could not care less. Agent, Bob Silverstein. (Apr. 26) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

During the Maoist era, Fan Shen grew up amidst stifling regimentation that demanded total obedience. Gradually, he witnessed enough brutality to end his allegiance to the tyrannical regime. His methods of feigning enthusiasm and his bending of communist rules enhance his description of one person's effort to think and live independently. Distracting for American audiences, perhaps, is his pervasive urge to express sentimental details awkwardly in English, such as his tears "turning clean water salty." For school and library use, the book lacks such useful adjuncts as an index, timeline, map, and photos. Still, it is a powerful story. (American Lives Series.). KLIATT Codes: JSA--Recommended for junior and senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2004, Univ. of Nebraska Press, 279p., $15.95.. Ages 12 to adult.
—Mary Ellen Snodgrass

KLIATT

"Anyone wishing to be the architect of his or her own fortune would do well to study this amazing memoir, a testament to the human spirit."—ForeWord

ForeWord

Teens will strongly identify with Shen's maneuverings around repressive regulations."—Booklist, 2004 Editors' Choice

Booklist

"[A] book of stunning power. . . . This book is full of death, and worse, as mass sadism took hold of an entire country (the world's biggest). But it is also full of humanity, and, at times, funny as hell. . . . There is even, shockingly, a love story toward the end of the book. It is as shocking and beautiful as that in 1984. Hypnotically rendered, Gang of One is a high literary achievement, documenting an even greater achievement. . . . the life of this awe-inspiring man, Fan Shen."—Jay Nordlinger, National Review

— Jay Nordlinger

National Review

"[A] masterpiece . . . a book that should be read 1,000 years from now. It is startling, gripping, and wise. An altogether extraordinary book about an extraordinary life—and yet, a life that speaks for the experience of an entire nation, in its worst period."—National Review Online's 2004 Gift Guide

National Review Online

"[A] book of stunning power. . . . This book is full of death, and worse, as mass sadism took hold of an entire country (the world's biggest). But it is also full of humanity, and, at times, funny as hell. . . . There is even, shockingly, a love story toward the end of the book. It is as shocking and beautiful as that in 1984. Hypnotically rendered, Gang of One is a high literary achievement, documenting an even greater achievement. . . . the life of this awe-inspiring man, Fan Shen."—Jay Nordlinger, National Review

National Review - Jay Nordlinger