On August 18, 1966 an ecstatic nineteen year old girl pinned a Red Guard armband onto an approving Mao Zedong. The occasion was the first mass rally of the Red Guards in Tienanmen Square. The pinning was Mao's imprimatur for the Cultural Revolution which lasted for ten years. Millions were to die.
The photograph of that moment is an icon of the twentieth century. The beaming girl with the Dentyne smile was Song Binbin, the daughter of an alternate Politburo member. She had already received the honor of being chosen to share the reviewing platform with Mao that day. The pinning made Song a part of history, an accidental historical figure, a (perhaps) insouciant participant in one of the most murderous movements of the incomparably murderous twentieth century. When Mao asked Song the meaning of her given name she replied "suave." Mao suggested that a name more fitting the times would mean "more martial." Song then changed her name to Yaowu, "want violence."
She got it. The Cultural Revolution almost destroyed China. There was a mini-war with the Soviet Union which threatened to go nuclear. The Chinese economy was devastated. All schools closed for a year. On the level of the individual--so unimportant to the Chinese--virtually no one was untouched. Those who weren't murdered were purged, those not purged were sent into internal exile. The families of those murdered, purged, or exiled were ostracized. At the end of it all, after Mao's death, the State held those, principally the "Gang of Four," responsible.
Somehow Song Yaowu survived this preternatural Chaos, the whole period and beyond. She immigrated to the United States in 1980, the same year that the trial of the Gang of Four began. She prospered. Having already secured an education at the elite Middle School for Girls Attached to Beijing Normal University, Song continued her career trajectory by earning a Ph.D in geology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Reportedly she is living under an assumed name in Boston now and working as an environmental researcher.
In 2005 a film documentary was made of the Cultural Revolution and distributed in the West. In a rare interview on her past, Song, looking suave indeed in turtle-neck sweater and well-coifed hair, agreed to be interviewed for the film. Well..."interviewed" is such an..."interactive" word. More accurately, Song was allowed to state without follow-up questioning that she had been a victim of the Cultural Revolution, that her name had been exploited, that when she had learned of the violence of the Red Guards--whose emblem she had so proudly worn and so proudly pinned on one of the Big Three of twentieth century mass murderers--she had changed it back to "suave."
So then use thine real name, Song. So then don't insist, as thou did for Morning Sun, that thy face be blackened out as if thine were a Mafia informer.
At least one other Internet wretch besides the undersigned has expressed dissatisfaction with the explanation for Song's anonymity, that she feared repercussions from the Chinese government. That is laughably preposterous. No subject could be more closed for the Chinese government than the inconvenient details of the Cultural Revolution.
This page does not engage in insinuation. It engages in bluntness. Song should be investigated by the United States authorities to see if she participated directly, as principal, or accessory in the deprivation of human rights during the Cultural Revolution.
You don't have to be Kenneth Starr to "connect the dots" here. Song was already a member of the Red Guards when she pinned Mao. The Red Guards were the shock troops of the Cultural Revolution. Before Song pinned Mao the Red Guards had engaged in violence. She was at the heart of the Cultural Revolution at the beginning, in the universities and schools of Beijing. She knew of the violence. After pinning Mao she changed her name to "want violence." Certainly nothing suspicious there! When did she have her epiphany and become "suave" again?
Song, how exactly were you a victim of the Cultural Revolution? Tell us. What was done to you? And what did you do?
Why did you leave China only in 1980? The Cultural Revolution was already dead four years when you left? The trial of the Gang of Four began in 1980. Was your decision to immigrate influenced by the commencement of that trial? Are those two events totally coincidental?
To the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, what investigation did YOU do into Song's background? M.I.T., you are so exclusive, your admissions policy is based so much on character because all of your applicants have such stellar academic credentials. Did you vet Song's character to your satisfaction, or not vet her at all? Tell us. What did you know and when did you know it, about this applicant who subsequently received one of the most coveted degrees in American higher education? To the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, who reportedly hired Song, did you know anything about her background? Did you care? Do you still employ her? Do you care now? This is Public Occurrences.
PUBLIC OCCURRENCES
The photograph of that moment is an icon of the twentieth century. The beaming girl with the Dentyne smile was Song Binbin, the daughter of an alternate Politburo member. She had already received the honor of being chosen to share the reviewing platform with Mao that day. The pinning made Song a part of history, an accidental historical figure, a (perhaps) insouciant participant in one of the most murderous movements of the incomparably murderous twentieth century. When Mao asked Song the meaning of her given name she replied "suave." Mao suggested that a name more fitting the times would mean "more martial." Song then changed her name to Yaowu, "want violence."
She got it. The Cultural Revolution almost destroyed China. There was a mini-war with the Soviet Union which threatened to go nuclear. The Chinese economy was devastated. All schools closed for a year. On the level of the individual--so unimportant to the Chinese--virtually no one was untouched. Those who weren't murdered were purged, those not purged were sent into internal exile. The families of those murdered, purged, or exiled were ostracized. At the end of it all, after Mao's death, the State held those, principally the "Gang of Four," responsible.
Somehow Song Yaowu survived this preternatural Chaos, the whole period and beyond. She immigrated to the United States in 1980, the same year that the trial of the Gang of Four began. She prospered. Having already secured an education at the elite Middle School for Girls Attached to Beijing Normal University, Song continued her career trajectory by earning a Ph.D in geology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Reportedly she is living under an assumed name in Boston now and working as an environmental researcher.
In 2005 a film documentary was made of the Cultural Revolution and distributed in the West. In a rare interview on her past, Song, looking suave indeed in turtle-neck sweater and well-coifed hair, agreed to be interviewed for the film. Well..."interviewed" is such an..."interactive" word. More accurately, Song was allowed to state without follow-up questioning that she had been a victim of the Cultural Revolution, that her name had been exploited, that when she had learned of the violence of the Red Guards--whose emblem she had so proudly worn and so proudly pinned on one of the Big Three of twentieth century mass murderers--she had changed it back to "suave."
So then use thine real name, Song. So then don't insist, as thou did for Morning Sun, that thy face be blackened out as if thine were a Mafia informer.
At least one other Internet wretch besides the undersigned has expressed dissatisfaction with the explanation for Song's anonymity, that she feared repercussions from the Chinese government. That is laughably preposterous. No subject could be more closed for the Chinese government than the inconvenient details of the Cultural Revolution.
This page does not engage in insinuation. It engages in bluntness. Song should be investigated by the United States authorities to see if she participated directly, as principal, or accessory in the deprivation of human rights during the Cultural Revolution.
You don't have to be Kenneth Starr to "connect the dots" here. Song was already a member of the Red Guards when she pinned Mao. The Red Guards were the shock troops of the Cultural Revolution. Before Song pinned Mao the Red Guards had engaged in violence. She was at the heart of the Cultural Revolution at the beginning, in the universities and schools of Beijing. She knew of the violence. After pinning Mao she changed her name to "want violence." Certainly nothing suspicious there! When did she have her epiphany and become "suave" again?
Song, how exactly were you a victim of the Cultural Revolution? Tell us. What was done to you? And what did you do?
Why did you leave China only in 1980? The Cultural Revolution was already dead four years when you left? The trial of the Gang of Four began in 1980. Was your decision to immigrate influenced by the commencement of that trial? Are those two events totally coincidental?
To the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, what investigation did YOU do into Song's background? M.I.T., you are so exclusive, your admissions policy is based so much on character because all of your applicants have such stellar academic credentials. Did you vet Song's character to your satisfaction, or not vet her at all? Tell us. What did you know and when did you know it, about this applicant who subsequently received one of the most coveted degrees in American higher education? To the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, who reportedly hired Song, did you know anything about her background? Did you care? Do you still employ her? Do you care now? This is Public Occurrences.
PUBLIC OCCURRENCES
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