The Second Society
The Second Society
This chapter uses a variety of primary sources, from party archives to published memoirs, to undermine the picture of mass obedience that is sometimes thought to have characterised the Mao era. The Cultural Revolution aimed to transform every aspect of an individual's life, including their innermost thoughts and personal feelings, but in many cases it only managed to create the appearance of conformity. People fought deception with deception, lies with lies and empty rhetoric with empty slogans. Many were great actors, pretending to go along, knowing precisely what to say when required. They often managed to keep a diversity of cultural traditions alive, reading forbidden books, listening to clandestine radio or opening house churches, sometimes even performing traditional opera with the connivance of local cadres. But paradoxically, the very existence of this 'second society' also allowed the regime to indefinitely postpone meaningful political reforms.
Keywords: Second society, culture, Cultural Revolution, Mao
Hong Kong Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
