1966 My Time in the Red Guards

More preoccupied with history than Wus other works My Time in the Red Guards is a record of his fascination with the missed moment Maos Cultural Revolution In 1966 the Red Guards ironically represented the official avantgarde a movement carried forward by youth determined to become heroes of the Revolution Wu interviews people who had joined the Red Guards as high schoolers most now successful professionals some Party members The miscalculations and cruelties of this extreme cultural campaign are spread out before us detailed by personal recollection and further illustrated by old agitprop newsreels Misgivings and fond remembrance vie for position as the interviewees seem to confuse the nostalgia of youthful action with the excesses of historical fact