On Class Origins Explained

On Class Origins
Label1:Chinese
Data1:出身论
Label2:Author
Data2:Yu Luoke
Label3:Published
Data3:January 1967
Label4:Main idea
Data4:Challenged the "blood lineage theory"

On Class Origins[1], alternatively translated as On Family Background,[2] Theory of Class Pedigree,[3] is an article by Yu Luoke[4] and published in January 1967 in the Journal of Middle-School Cultural Revolution.[5] In this article, he challenged the "blood lineage theory"[6] propagated by the children of senior Chinese Communist Party officials.[7] At that time, this theory was widely circulated in Chinese society and caused serious adverse effects.

Yu Luoke was accused of being a counter-revolutionary and sentenced to death for his famous treatise On Class Origins.[8]

Yu Luoke's article echoed the Central Cultural Revolution Group's critique of the "blood lineage theory", which caused a huge reaction throughout China.[9] In April 1967, the article was labeled a "big poisonous weed".[10] On January 5, 1968, Yu was arrested and imprisoned, and on March 5, 1970, he was executed.[11]

Evaluations

Some Chinese experts and scholars describe On Class Origins as China's Manifesto of Human Rights.[12]

Chinese-American historian Song Yongyi considers On Class Origins to be a "human rights declaration in the dark".[13]

On Class Origins marked the first independent thinking in China in the 1960s that broke through the ideological framework of the Cultural Revolution, focusing not on the so-called "political line" that dominated students during the Cultural Revolution, but on real social problems. Yu Luoke's thoughts were advanced at that time, and were criticized not only by the Red Guards who advocated the "blood lineage theory", but also criticized by many rebel student organizations.[14]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Yiching Wu. The Cultural Revolution at the Margins. 16 June 2014. Harvard University Press. 978-0-674-72879-0. 332–.
  2. Book: Guo Jian. Yongyi Song. Yuan Zhou. Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. 23 July 2015. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 978-1-4422-5172-4. 404–.
  3. Book: Philip F. Williams. Yenna Wu. The Great Wall of Confinement: The Chinese Prison Camp through Contemporary Fiction and Reportage. 17 August 2004. University of California Press. 978-0-520-93855-7. 162–.
  4. Book: Sujian Guo. Baogang Guo. China in Search of a Harmonious Society. 2008. Lexington Books. 978-0-7391-2623-3.
  5. Book: Andrew G. Walder. Fractured Rebellion: The Beijing Red Guard Movement. 5 March 2012. Harvard University Press. 978-0-674-26818-0. 338–.
  6. Book: Guo Jian. Yongyi Song. Yuan Zhou. The A to Z of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. 17 September 2009. Scarecrow Press. 978-0-8108-7033-8. 206–.
  7. Book: Guo And Guo. China in Search of a Harmonious Society. 15 August 2008. Lexington Books. 978-0-7391-3042-1. 167–.
  8. Book: Daniel Leese. Puck Engman. Victims, Perpetrators, and the Role of Law in Maoist China: A Case-Study Approach. 25 June 2018. Walter de Gruyter. 978-3-11-053365-1. 46–.
  9. News: Looking Back at the Cultural Revolution (21): Theories of Blood Lineage and Family Background. https://web.archive.org/web/20101125050737/http://www.voanews.com/chinese/news/a-21-w2007-04-06-voa42-63065397.html. dead. 2007-04-06. 2010-11-25. Voice of America.
  10. News: Qi Benyu and the Central Cultural Revolution Group. Radio Free Asia. 2016-07-06.
  11. Book: Henry He. Dictionary of the Political Thought of the People's Republic of China. 22 July 2016. Routledge. 978-1-315-50043-0. 595–.
  12. News: A new book release of the brother of Yu Luoke. 2010-03-11. Radio Free Asia.
  13. Book: S. Jiang. Citizen Publications in China Before the Internet. 16 June 2015. Palgrave Macmillan. 978-1-137-49208-1. 216–.
  14. Book: Liu Qingfeng. The Cultural Revolution: Evidence and Analysis. 1996. The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press. 978-962-201-763-4. 273–.