Short Synopsis
An indelible exploration of the invisible scar that runs through the heart of Chinese society and the souls of its citizens.

Full Synopsis
An indelible exploration of the invisible scar that runs through the heart of Chinese society and the souls of its citizens.

"It is impossible to understand China today without understanding the Cultural Revolution," Tania Branigan writes. During this decade of Maoist fanaticism between 1966 and 1976, children turned on parents, students condemned teachers, and as many as two million people died for their supposed political sins, while tens of millions were hounded, ostracized, and imprisoned. Yet in China this brutal and turbulent period exists, for the most part, as an absence; official suppression and personal trauma have conspired in national amnesia.

Red Memory uncovers forty years of silence through the stories of individuals who lived through the madness. Deftly exploring how this era defined a generation and continues to impact China today, Branigan asks: What happens to a society when you can no longer trust those closest to you? What happens to the present when the past is buried, exploited, or redrawn? And how do you live with yourself when the worst is over?

"Lam’s performance allows the hurts of Branigan’s interviewees to be viscerally understood." —Matthew Galloway, Library Journal

"A heartbreaking, revelatory evocation of “the decade that cleaved modern China in two.”" —Kirkus Reviews Starred Review

"There's a feeling of sadness and disbelief in Lam's voice as she describes children betraying parents, gangs of students beating citizens in the streets, and the capricious political demands that just kept changing." ---AudioFile