Review of A Comrade Lost and Found: A Beijing Story (Hardcover)

There are many biographical narratives about life in the Cultural Revolution.There is a whole genre for survivors who find a way out of the country. Another genre like the now classic, Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China puts the Cultural Revolution in a generational context. Yet another genre represented by Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China gives a then and now report. There is also fiction for each of the categories. I believe this book is unique because it is written by a former true believer, that is, a former persecutor who admits guilt.

The writer arrived in China in 1970, one of the first foreigners to study after/during the Cultural Revolution and participated in the denunciation of a classmate. While her act was small in comparison to what others had done, being on the persecution side, she is able to give clues as to the pshchology and temper of the times.As one survivor in Chinese Lessons observes, everyone claims to be a victim, but "do the math".

The breezy narrative ("Cult Rev") and the travelogue belie the serious content. This it the first volume I've read that compares this history to other mass hysteria movements like the Holocaust, where citizens were proud to inform, to destroy and to generally participate. This is also the first volume I've read that even mentions the psychological fallout, such as the compartmentalization of the persecutors and the damaged self of the persecuted.

Also important is that this is the first story I know of that reports on an every day (not a Deng Xiouping, etc,) fully persecuted survivor who is still in China.We learn about the many years she suffered, like an abandoned child, or a victim of child abuse and/or poverty, and of her careful steps in her own rehabilitation - it did not "just happen".

The author speaks to her own psychology of joining the movement. She wanted to fit in, to prove herself to the group.With the benefit of distance, life in Canada, knowledge of history and psychology she had the tools to understand what happened. China is collectively wiping this out today. In this book, many young people don't know much about the formerly life and death issues of "left' and "right".Wanting to leave China is not a crime and the youth probably don't know that once it was.Since so much of the literature of this time is created by the persecuted survivors who have escaped to the west, it may be that the whole sad generation of "Cult Rev" persecutors takes their stories to their graves.






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