Original version

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

Witness History

Podcasts

Factual: Life Stories

Factual: History

History as told by the people who were there

History as told by the people who were there.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

Witness History: Surviving re-education in China’s Cultural Revolution

Documentaries

Chinese Re-education with blocks.jpg

19/03/2024 GMT

Surviving re-education in China’s Cultural Revolution

BBC World Service - Witness History, Surviving re-education in China’s Cultural Revolution

Thousands of people were sent to re-education camps during China’s cultural revolution

In 1968, Jingyu Li and her parents were among thousands  sent to labour camps during Mao Zedong’s cultural revolution. The communist regime said they needed to be 're-educated'.

In 1968, Jingyu Li and her parents were among hundreds of thousands of Chinese people sent to labour camps during Mao Zedong’s so-called cultural revolution.

The aim was to re-educate those not thought to be committed to Chairman’s Mao drive to preserve and purify communism in China.

Jingyu’s parents – both college professors - were put to work among the rice and cattle fields, and made to study the works of Chairman Mao. Fearful for their daughter’s safety, they disguised six-year-old Jingyu as a boy. 

Over the next six years, the family were sent to four different camps. Not everyone could cope, as Jingyu tells Jane Wilkinson.

(Photo: Reading Mao's little red book in 1968. Credit: Pictures from History/Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Witness History

Surviving re-education in China’s Cultural Revolution

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

About BBC World Service