Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Who is Sonia J. Song?

Below is from a self-published book, "Donkey Baby: From Beijing to Berkeley and Beyond" (2008), by Sonia J. Song. I know of no such person by that name, which is almost certainly a pseudonym, who attended the High School for Girls Attached to Beijing Normal University. Nor have I heard this account of the announcement over the loudspeaker being attributed to Song Binbin. Anyone with information on the identity of Sonia J. Song or the accuracy of this information please email me at publocc@gmail.com.

"On August 18... Mao received tens of thousands of Red Guards in Tiananmen Square...The head of the Red Guards in our school, Song Bin-bin, pinned a Red Guard armband on his sleeve...So Song Bin-Bin changed her name to Song Yao-Wu." (42)

"Since ours was a girls' school, the detention center at my school, in a corner house, detained female 'bad eggs.'  A first cousin of mine was a Red Guard in my school.  In the fashionable Red Guard outfit of faded army uniform, army cap, and a heavy buckled belt, she often boasted about how hard she had beaten a detainee. Horrible screams came out of that house day and night.  Nobody dared to go near."
...

"One day when I did go [to school], I heard that our school principal, Bian, had been beaten to death the day before in the schoolyard. I sat in the classroom, listening as Song Yao-Wu's voice came through the loudspeaker. 'Counter-revolutionary revisionist capitalist-roader Bian Zhong-Yun died of a heart attack yesterday. We Red Guards had no responsibility for her death. Whoever dares to say things contrary to this fact, be aware of the consequences.' " (43)