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Society forAnglo 1

Chinese ^Understanding

INVITATION

SACU presents a folk-song festival

China's National Day Anniversary

SEE BELOW

OCTOBER 1966 VOL.1 No. 12

ANOTHER VIEW OF THE RED GUARDSIn the September issue of SACUNEWS we published an introduc-tory article on the Cultural Revo-lution which summarised some o/the earlier Chinese press reportsand statements on the subject.Later developments, in particularthe Red Guards, have been widelyreported by the British Press, radioand television. One of our mem-bers, Mrs Frida Knight, recentlyvisited China and we are fortunateto be able to publish her first-handobservations.

ON RETURNING to England recentlyafter a month in China, it was some-thing of a shock to hear of violenceand outrages in Peking; Shanghai'scultural revolution, which 1 saw atfirst-hand, was being carried on withso little visible roughness, and so muchevident good humour.

When we arrived there after a tourof central China, at nightfall on 23August, Shanghai railway station wasa seething mass of people, a riot ofscarlet flags, a deafening cacophony ofdrums, gongs and cymbals, with thestation radio blaring out patrioticsongs in the background. We had tojostle our way out through millingcrowds of excited young people whohad assembled to give a send-off to agroup of students going as regionaldelegates to a meeting in Peking,about the Cultural Revolution. Wehad seen a lot of marching and fiag-waving wherever we had been, but thisscene of mass excitement was some-thing new; we soon found it wastypical of Shanghai: every day of thelast week of August, from .early morn-ing till far into the night, the streetswere filled with marching groups, somea mere handful headed by a drum,others a hundred strong, others half amile long, with a band on a lorry,dozens of immense portraits of Chair-man Mao, and flags of every shade ofred from pillar-box to puce, variedwith green, yellow, blue, orange, anddozens of small pink and mauve pen-nants— a moving rainbow. The march-

ing youngsters and older workers alikewere immensely cheerful and friendly— it was all more like a carnival thana political demonstration, what withthe banners and the bunting and theskyscrapers along the waterfront alllit up with coloured lights, and sloganslike ' Serve the People', and ' PutPolitics First' glittering in illuminatedcharacters along th.e side of boats,reflected in the river.

Traffic was slowed down to a crawlby the processions, which came fromall directions, marching from theirschool or factory or club to show theirsolidarity, or to present criticisms ordemands to the authorities at Com-munist Party Headquarters. Criticismsand demands were also posted up in

FOLK SINGERSTO MARK THE occasion ofChina's National Day (1 October,1966, being the I7th anniversaryof the establishment of theChinese People's Republic), SACUinvites all members and theirfriends to an evening of enter-tainment on Tuesday, 4 October,1966, at St Pancras Town HallAssembly Rooms, Euston Road,NW1.

The programme, running from7 to 11 pm, will feature singersPeggy Seeger, Frankie Armstrong,Brian Byrne, and Dennis Turner,under the leadership of EwanMacColl. Taped authentic Chinesemusic will also be heard. Alicensed bar and buffet will beoperating.

Members living in or nearLondon should have receivedtickets, for which payment mustbe made at the door.

the form of big placards all over thetown; every wall, window, gate, post-box, was plastered with posters, eventraffic control posts and buses borethem. Each criticism had to be writtenin duplicate and signed, and while onecopy was posted up the other went tothe authorities for consideration. Even-tually, they say, every case will be in-vestigated; and the individuals whohave been accused of shortcomings willbe able to defend themselves and willeither be reinstated or sent for a courseof manual labour or some other formof re-education.

SuperstructureUnlike the Western observers who

explain the Cultural Revolution interms of an inner-Party power struggle,ordinary people in Shanghai tell youthat it is just what its name implies —the aim is nothing less than the re-building of th,e superstructure of thenew Chinese society. The social andeconomic basis is now secure, theworkers and peasants are content, andsolidly behind the Government; givena period of peace th.e country willrapidly develop into a prosperousmodern state; but this, they say, car-ries with it the danger of the develop-ment of a bourgeois attitude in educa-tion and culture, such as they considerhas appeared in the USSR, where revo-lutionary fervour has lapsed, andWestern-type films, novels, and artprevail; this could, they think, leadback to predominance in China of acapitalist ideology. The governmentwants to avoid the emergence of aneducated class divorced from themasses, hence the stress on part-work,part-study schools, the proposals thatstudents should spend half the yearon communes or in industry, the sug-gestions for opening wider the doorsof universities to the children ofpeasants and workers.

The plans for reorganising schoolprogrammes and college courses arenot so drastic nor so sudden as theyseem. There has long been part-work,

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RED GUARD (continued)part-study education attached to fac-tories, and talk of overhauling theexamination system and the very longschool life of Chinese youth — a left-over from thfi days when a scholarwas a highly privileged person withundue influence and position. In acountry which is crying out for skilledand highly trained technicians it isonly to be expected that they shouldbe encouraged to develop practicalskills as fast as possible, while subjectsirrelevant to material progress takesecond place. Older teachers no doubthave considerable reservations aboutthe changes proposed; they are allowedto voice their opinions in this debate,which has been thrown wide open, butthey are unljkely to carry much weightif they are suspected of conservativeideology. Many ' revisionists ' have beensuspended from responsible posts, anddiscussions on their future are goingon among their fellow-teachers andstudents, before being referred tohigher authorities, who will examinethe evidence for and against each case.This business of criticism and self-defence is going to be a lengthy one,and schools (apart from primary) willnot be opening for several weeks ormonths later than usual.

Mainly EducationThe Chinese tell the foreigner very

little; but as one teacher said to me,1 if we are making the change, wemust make it thoroughly, once andfor all.' The change applies mainly toeducation, but every branch of cultureis affected. Only 'ideologically sound'films are being shown (the cinema in-dustry is at a halt pending decisionson the correct line); new-style opera,in which PLA (People's LiberationArmy) men and Brigade heroines re-place the former gorgeous Pekingladies, Generals, and Monkey ^Kiags,Musicals and films alike are packedwith propaganda — rather tedious fora Westerner, but clearly enjoyable forthe Chinese, as the theatres andcinemas were sold out in every case.For some time, of course, books havebeen thoroughly censored, and theeditorial boards of periodicals purged,but the purification of bookshops isrecent, and so is the investigation ofbig stores to make sure that bourgeoistendencies do not creep in by way ofgoods for sale on the counters. Manyof the shops in Shanghai were closeddown for a few days during my stay,and obviously re-arrangement wasgoing on behind the great red flagsand portraits of Chairman Mao in thewindows. There was talk of the Friend-ship Store (where foreigners mainlyshop for gifts to take home) and the

Antique Shop being permanently shut;but I bought presents at both as easilyas at the big Department Store oppo-site; and on departure at the airportI was given a bouquet of lilies andgladioli which must have come fromone of the flower shops which wereall rumoured closed.

Changing NamesDrastically changing were the names

of shops, public buildings, streets; newnames had not b.een decided on, thoughsuggestions were being submitted andconsidered. One could only hope thatNanking Road would, after all, beallowed to keep its name, and not beentitled 'Anti-Revisionist and Anti-irnperialist Road J~as proposed. Fac-tories and schools we visited were busydiscussing possible new titles — suchas ' Great Cultural Revolution FertiliserFactory', and 'Red World MiddleSchool'. In the time I spent in Shang-hai I heard of many cases of roughhandling of property — shop signsbeing altered (in the case of partiallyprivately-owned businesses of whichthere are, or were, many) without per-mission; decorations with a foreign orbourgeois flavour being removed —thebrass lions outside a big bank on thewaterfront disappeared overnight, asdid the British Consul's Lion and Uni-corn— symbols of colonial rule; somestatues had their heads covered withsacking, and their chests adorned withplacards. But even at the height of theweek's excitement there was littlehooliganism or destruction. AlthoughI heard of property being damaged andindividual 'capitalists' being verballyabused (in person or by placardsaffixed to the door) not one case ofassault or physical harm was reported,in spite of the .efforts of some foreignsensation-hunters. The day after we

--h«ard---of incidents-4n-Pekingr-the-order—went out in Shanghai that the RedGuards must show restraint andmoderation and 'study the 16 points'of the Government, insisting on respon-sible behaviour from its youthfulmonitors.

No HoodlumsIncidentally, the Red Guards, who

have been built up by press and radioas some sinister police force, are morelike school prefects or scout leaders,who have been elected by their factoryor school groups to represent theirfellows and take some responsibilityin the current activities. Most of themseemed to be very decent, friendlyyoung men, such as some of the liftboys and waiters in our hotel, whodonn.ed red arm-bands and showed

them off very proudly to us. It wasdifficult, indeed, to imagine they wouldbe involved in hoodlum goings-on — ifsuch existed. Our Chinese guides andinterpreters toid us that they knew ofno ' incidents' in Shanghai and hopedthere would be none; but in thepresent situation, they said, any pro-vocateur or 'enemy agent' might welltake advantage of excited crowds tomake trouble, and foreigners mightfind themselves the centre of unwel-come attention if anything untowardhappened (such as a street accident,or a misunderstanding in a shop). Atfirst we followed our guide's advicenot to walk alone through the crowdedstreets, but later, finding nothing butfriendliness, we went shopping andsightseeing and got the usual clappingand handshaking typical of Shanghai."From the experience of so short a

time one must not be tempted togeneralise. I can only speak as an eye-witness, who saw nothing horrible orhateful (though much that seemed tome stupid) in this huge upsurge of amovement; what I did see, both inShanghai and in the three or fourprovincial towns I visited, was animmense enthusiasm for the regime,fervent confidence in Mao's leadership,and a solid determination to carry thesocial revolution right through to itscultural conclusion — something whichhas never been attempted in the his-tory of revolutions.

FRIDA KNIGHT

SPEAKERS SERVICEIN AUGUST a detailed questionnairewent out to over sixty known or pros-pective speakers for SACU, an earlystep in the development of the Panel'sactivities (see SACU NEWS, Septem-ber).

To date 25 replies have been re--ceived, a most encouraging response— and more are expected. They comefrom people in different walks oflife, and from most parts of England.London is best represented, but Cam-bridge, Birmingham and Bristol arealso promising as centres of activity.

The information gained is now beinganalysed and turned into a usefulform; before long speakers should behearing the outcome of this, and newsof events in their areas.

Meanwhile potential audiences arebeing contacted, and already manyenquiries have been received for theforthcoming season.

We look forward to a year of vigor-ous development in this importantaspect of SACU's activities.

P.J.M.

COUNCIL OF MANAGEMENT-1966MRS MARY ADAMS, QBE, vice-chair-man of SACU. A pioneer of BBC tele-vision, now member of the Indepen-dent Television Authority. Associateof Newnham College, Cambridge.Author of papers on genetical cytologyand heredity. Other interests includemental health and family planning.Visited China in 1965 as a sponsorof SACU.

MR WILLIAM ASH; born in Dallas,Texas. Education: University of Texas(classical languages) and Balliol Col-lege, Oxford (philosophy, politics andeconomics). RAF fighter pilot inBritain, shot down in 1942, a prisonerfor three years, awarded MBE for escap-ing activities. Now a writer, Mr Ashhas published three novels and a bookon moral philosophy.

MR ROLAND BERGER. Since 1952Director of British Council for thePromotion of International Trade andConsultant to '48' Group of BritishBusinessmen trading with China. For-merly senior official of Technical As-sistance Department of United Nations,New York. Has visited China everyyear since 1953.

MR GEOFFREY CARRICK; chairman,Barnet branch of SACU. Education:University College School, Hampstead;Magdalene College, Oxford. Teacher inUniversity College School since 1950.Half-master, 1953. Vice-Headmaster,1955. War service: 1943-46; IntelligenceCorps, Japanese translator. Before de-mobilisation attended Chinese inter-pretation course at School of Orientaland African Studies- University ofLondon.

MR RAYMOND DAWSON; chairmanof the Oxford branch of SACU. Fellowof Wadham College, Oxford, since1961 and University lecturer in Chinese.Mr Dawson was Lecturer in the Chin-ese Language and Civilization at Dur-ham University from 1952-61. Duringthe last two years of his stay at Dur-ham, he was Keeper of the GulbenkianMuseum of Oriental Art. In 1958 hespent six months in China, studying.

MR ANDREW FAULDS, Labour Mem-ber of Parliament. Born Nyasaland(now Malawi) of Scottish parentswho were missionaries. Has taken partin more than thirty films and dozensof television programmes. Was ' JetMorgan' in a popular radio series.Won Smethwick for Labour in thelast general election.

MISS MARGARET GARVIE; CurrentlyPrincipal of Furzedown Training Col-lege, London. A graduate of LondonUniversity, Miss Garvie has taught ata number of colleges in England. Bet-ween 1945-51 she was on the staff ofthe Student Department of the Nation-al YWCA of China. During this timeshe spent one year on the administra-tive staff of the National StudentRelief Committee.

MR ALEC S. HORSLEY; Co-Treasurerof SACU. Well known Quaker busi-nessman and chairman of the NorthernDairies Ltd. Mr Horsley visited Chinain 1952 on a trade delegation.

DR NICHOLAS KURTI, FRS; Co-Treasurer of SACU. Reader in Physics,Oxford University, since I960. SeniorResearch Fellow at Brasenose Collegesince 1947. Associated with ClarendonLaboratory, Oxford, since 1933. DrKurti's published works include paperson cryophysics and magnetism. He andhis wife visited China in 1964 as guestsof the Academia Sinica.

PROFESSOR JOSEPH A. LAUWERYS;Professor of Comparative Education,University of London, since 1947. Visit-ing professor in many foreign universi-ties. Consultant to UNESCO, 1946-48.His publications include: ' EducationalProblems in the Liberated Countries ';' Morals, Democracy and Education';and numerous textbooks, articles andpapers.

MR JOHN LONGSTAFF; secretary,SACU Trade Union Committee. Untilrecently President of Board of TradeCivil Service Clerical Union. SpanishCivil War veteran, wounded threetimes. Served with British Army inItaly, wounded three times. AwardedUS Bronze Star for gallantry. Foundermember of the ' Seventh Club of theEighth Army '.

MR EVAN LUARD; Member of Parlia-ment for Oxford. Formerly a memberof HM Foreign Service. Served in HongKong, and in Peking for two years.Since 1957, a Fellow of St Antony'sCollege, Oxford, working on Chinaand the Far East, and internationalrelations in general, joint author of' The Economic Development of Com-munist China1 and author of 'Britainand China'.

MR EWAN MacCOLL; Well-knownfolk singer, producer and actor. Oneof the leading pioneers of the folkrevival. Original member of the TheatreWorkshop. »

DR JOSEPH NEEDHAM, FRS, chair-man of SACU, Master of Gonville &Caius, Cambridge. Sir William DunnReader in Biochemistry, CambridgeUniversity, 1933 to 1966; visiting pro-fessor or lecturer in many foreign uni-versities from 1929. Head of theBritish Scientific Mission in China andAdviser to the Chinese National Re-sources Commission. Director of theNatural Sciences Division, UNESCO,1946 to 1948. Has published numerousscientific books including * ChemicalEmbryology ' (1931); ' Biochemistry andMorphogenesis' (1942) and a largework in progress ' Science and Civilisa-tion in China' (7 vols), started in1954.

MR E. A. C. ROBERTS; AssistantGeneral Secretary of AEU. Speaker onChinese Trade Unions at many meetingsand conferences. Individual member ofthe Labour Party for 25 years. CoventryCity Councillor for nine years. Presi-dent, Coventry Trade Council for manyyears. Visited China 1965 at invitationof Foreign Cultural Association.

PROFESSOR JOAN ROBINSON, FBA;D,eputy Chairman of SACU. Professorof Economics, University of Cambridge.Professor Robinson's publications in-clude: 'The Economics of ImperfectCompetition ', ' Essay on Marxist Eco-nomics', 'Collected Economic Papers',' The Accumulation of Capital', andmany articles in the ' EconomicJournal '. She went to China in 3953,1957, 1963 and 1964, as guest of theChina Committee for Promotion ofInternational Trade and the Associationfor Cultural Relations.

SIR GORDON SUTHERLAND, FRS;Master of Emmanuel College, Cam-bridge, since 1964. Director of theNational Physical Laboratory, 1956-64.President of the Institute of Physicsand the Physical Society, 1964-66. Hisprincipal scientific work was in thefield of infra-red spectroscopy, mole-cular spectroscopy and biophysics. Hevisited China in October 1962 as amember of a Royal Society delegation,and again in June 1966 at the invitationof the Academia Sinica.

MR JEREMY THORPE; Liberal MP forNorth Devon, and broadcaster. Hon.Treasurer of th,e Liberal Party. LiberalParty spokesman on Commonwealthand Colonial Affairs, Overseas Develop-ment, the Post Office and HomeDepartment. Hon Treasurer of UNParliamentary Group, executive mem-ber of Commonwealth Parliamentary

(Continued overleaf)

COUNCIL (continued)

Association. Former President of Ox-ford Union and Secretary of WorldCampaign for Release of South AfricanPrisoners.

DAME JOAN VICKERS, MBE; Con-servative and National Liberal MP forDevonport Division of Plymouth since1955. Member of the London CountyCouncil for the Norwood Division ofLambeth, 1937-46. She served with theBritish Red Cross in South-East Asia.Visited China 1962.

MRS ETHEL M. WORMALD; Memberof the Liverpool City Council andchairman of the Liverpool EducationCommittee. Past president of the As-sociation of Education Committees and

"still an active member of the ExecutiveCouncil of that organisation.

LANGUAGE STUDYCHINESE LANGUAGE CLASSES re-sumed on Monday, 26 September, atWarren Street. There are still somevacancies in the Beginners' Class, whichis due to start on Monday, 3 October.Members who wish to enrol shouldapply immediately to central office.

The BBC is broadcasting a series of10 lessons ' Introduction to Chinese'in its Third Network Study Sessionon Tuesday evenings, with repeats onSaturday mornings in the Home Ser-vice. SACU members who would liketo join a group to follow these lessonsare invited to get into touch with thecentral office of SACU.

WEEKEND SCHOOLSTHE RECENT WEEK-END school atPhilipps House, Dinton, Wiltshire, wassuccessful in every way. Those whoattended took part in a series of ses-sions dealing with China historicallyfrom 1840 onwards, with special em-phasis on developments since 1949and on the present day. The schoolbenefited greatly from the combinedexperience of Isabel and David Crook,at present on leave in this countryafter many years teaching in China,and a series of excellent discussionstook place, aided by the presence ofa number of other members with con-siderable knowledge and experienceof China.

The setting of one of the stateliestof England's stately homes, in themiddle of beautiful countryside, andperfect weather, all contributed to amemorable week-end.

The Week-end Schools Committeewill shortly be discussing details ofthe programme already mapped outfor 1967.

PRESS OFFICERAT ITS LAST meeting the Council ofManagement discussed the implemen-tation of the Resolution on the appoint-ment of a Press Officer passed at theAnnual General Meeting in May. It wasagreed that at the present time theSociety could not afford to employ aPress or Public Relations Officer, butthat members should be encouragedto write individually to the Press onmatters concerning China, after con-sulting SACU central office for in-formation if they felt it necessary.

BRANCH NEWSAT THEIR ANNUAL meeting on 14September members of the _CAMDENbranch discussed their programme forthe forthcoming year. On Wednesday,5 October, Isabel and David Crook arespeaking at a public meeting organisedby the branch on ' Some Aspects ofChina's Cultural Revolution '. Thismeeting will be held in the OldHampstead Town Hall (opposite BelsizePark tube station), at 7.45 pm.

Details of other meetings, to be heldon Wednesday, 23 November, in theCentral Library at Swiss Cottage andon Tuesday, 13 December, in theKentish Town Library, will be givenin forthcoming issues of SACU NEWS.The branch is to make special effortsto consolidate and expand its member-ship.

CAMBRIDGE members are holdingthe Inaugural Meeting of the branchon the afternoon of Saturday, 15October, in the Small Guildhall. Themain speaker will be Stuart Gelder,SACU member and well-known writeron China.

DISCUSSION GROUPTHE TWICE-MONTHLY meeting anddiscussion group at Warren Streetannounced in last month's SACUNEWS should be of special interest tospeakers on China. Participants in lastyear's speakers' training course foundthe fortnightly discussions very valu-able, and the new group has arisenpartly out of their desire to continuethem.

All members interested in regularinformal discussion of events and presscomment on China are welcome. Thenext meeting of the group will be onFriday, 7 October, at 8 pm, when ColinPenn will introduce a discussion of theCultural Revolution on the basis of theChinese Government's 16-point state-ment (referred to in Freda Knight'sarticle in this issue).

Society for Anglo-Chinese Understand-ing Ltd (Founded 15 May 1965)

Office: 24 Warren Street, London W.ITelephone EUSton 0074-5

Telegrams ANGCHIN London W.l

Chairman: Dr Joseph Needham

Deputy-Chairman:Professor Joan Robinson

Vice-Chairman: Mrs Mary Adams

jotnt Treasurers: Mr Alec Horsley andDr Nicholas Kurti

Secretary: Mr Derek Bryan

Council of Management: Mrs MaryAdams, Mr Peter d.e Francia, Mr AlecHorsley, Dr N Kurti, Dr E R Lap-wood, Mr Jim Mortimer, Dr JosephNeedham, the Rt Hon P j Noel-Baker,MP, Professor E G Pulleybank, MissVanessa Redgrave, Mr Ernest Roberts,Professor Joan Robinson, Sir GordonSutherland, Mr JPeter Swann, ProfessorGeorge Thomson, Mr Jeremy Thorpe,MP, Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper,Dame Joan Vickers, MP, Professor K WWedderburn.

Believing that understanding be-tween Britain and China is of thehighest importance, SACU aims tomake information about China widelyavailable in order to help every in-terested person in Britain to makehis or her own assessment.

Membership of SACU is open to allwho subscribe to the aims of theSociety. Members are entitled to re-ceive SACU NEWS monthly free ofcharge, use the library at head office,call upon the Society for informationand participate in all activities of theSociety.

Annual subscription: £1.0.0. Reducedrates (5s.) for old age pensioners andfull-time students.

SACU NEWS IB published by theSociety for Anglo-Chinese Under-standing Ltd, 24 Warren Street,London, Wl. (EUSton 0074-5), andprinted by Goodwin Press Ltd<TU), 135 Fonthill Road, London,N4.