My (indigenous) girlfriend said something recently that I just have no clue how to grasp.
Disclaimer: I've always been really bad at explaining opinions/making arguments to people.
We are amerikkkan (sorry)
We we're talking about china and it's modern government. This had always been a sensitive topic for us: I usually state something to the effect of "there are some very real problems with china but the country is an overal good for not only the people but the whole world." Whilst they take strong problem with destruction of historical artifacts/art during the revolution (they are an art historian) and find it irredemable. The thing that really confused me recently was them equating the "nepalese cultural genocide" (I have no real knowledge of what they are talking about) to the genocide of their people. For added detail, they and their tribe are currently fighting for the preservation of what remains of the tribe's historical artifacts.
I don't want to add many personal details but it should suffice to say their tribe was almost completely wiped out.)
Am I just off base for not understanding what they are talking about here? This comparison seems completely wild to me and I don't know if I'm just being insensitive or something.
If you want to convicnce your partner of something here, its probably best not to. This is obviously a sensitive subject. You said your piece and they said theirs. Sounds like your partner went through graduate school brainwashing and came out being a mega lib. Now, it's totally reasonable to be upset about the destruction of artifacts. It's understandable that they really value art artifacts.
The destruction of artifacts wasn't done by an alien force, it was done by the Chinese people. The CPC central committee didn't want destruction of objects and worked to preserve archeological findings - but the did instruct people to get rid of the "Four Olds" and members of the red guard and various student movements really did destroy a shitload of art and artifacts. This is a common sinophobic meme, that the CPC is actually a sinister alien force and the Chinese people yearn for their liberation - and while the communist party of China has made mistakes and makes them today, they are the party of the Chinese people and the Chinese people in general support and agree with decision made by the party. They aren't an outside settler force
I am also indigenous, I'm dene and metis. Your partners tribe, my people, and first nations all over turtle island suffered under a process of settler colonialism who undertook a process of genocide and cultural genocide from outside forces for the benefit of the settlers. This is materially different from what happened during the Cultural Revolution and your partner is conflating the two likely owing to these liberal brainworms they picked up from the academia and university and the wider propoganda effort against China.
You've said the exact same thing that I've thought. I appreciate your thoughts as some times I feel like I'm crazy when I'm the only person around me who isn't a lib.
I've pretty much come to accept that certain things may take a long time to deprogram, so I was more just wanting to understand a little better, so I can better target the root problem (libness).
Being extremely white it can be difficult for me to feel ok about pushing back on certain things, especially when I'm surounded by white people that do the standard liberal thing of "explaing" someone's oppression to them.
It really doesn't help that I'm horrible at talking.
I wonder if it would help if she read why the red guards did what they did by their own accounts. I'm not aware of any English language books for this, which is unfortunate but perhaps not unsurprising. I hope she's not afraid that by understanding why the red guards acted how they did or the cultural revolution in general that she'll suddenly become a communist that goes and destroys monuments or something, lol.
Whatever anyone thinks of it, chud, lib, commie, anarchist, the cultural revolution was an enormous undertaking and its impact echoes through to today 50 years later - and is highly unusual in all world history as the leadership told the people to rebel even against themselves. I think it's fair to understand why it happened and ideally from the people who were actually involved instead of far-off western academics (who have their own agendas beyond mere accounting of facts).
Can you point me to any of these accounts?
Since I commented that, I tried to look around and see what I could find. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, it's coming by mail to my library, but apparently Gang of One by Fan Shen - I don't have super high hopes for it, but the guy claims to have been a red guard so there you go. They have a whole genre called scar literature which I know was denounced by the CPC at the time in the late 70s. I've been trying to find autobiographies of at least people from the time, but the ones I find are like Red Scarf Girl, but theyre kind of like the DPRK defectors you know? Not always fully trust worthy, hand picked for a reason, etc etc. Apparently there's a lot of nostalgia for the Cultural Revolution so I don't think it can only be these dreary tales.
I know there's quite a few government reports from the PRC on the cultural revolution. There's one from 1981 titled "Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China" which I really should read in full. But I've only stuffed it into machine translation and tried to sort it out, I want to get a proper English translation.
Reminds me a lot of the executions of Batista loyalists by the Cuban revolutionaries. If they didn't do it then the people would have, and it would've been much more violent