"The 50th anniversary of the start of the Cultural Revolution, which plunged China into a decade of chaos, has been met with silence in state media.
On 16 May 1966 Communist leader Mao Zedong began a campaign to eliminate his rivals. At the same time he called on Chinese youth to "purge" society.
Years of bloodshed and turmoil ensued, ending with Mao's death in 1976.
How to handle the era's contentious legacy has remained a challenge to China's Communist rulers to this day.
On Monday, the main state media outlets made virtually no mention of the anniversary, focusing on coverage of the South China Sea and other domestic issues. No official events were planned by the authorities to mark the 50-year milestone."
I would be worried if they were celebrating that tragedy!
Indeed. Celebrating would be rather odd at best.
Nobody's celebrating, nor has any inclination to do so. Remembering, however, is a good idea - should be done without hype from any direction.
Don't think there's much to celebrate is there?
Why? Are people saying it should be celebrated?
@ Napoleon: My points - there isn't, and nobody is. Remembering is worthwhile, tho - Who, What, When, Where and How - and then Why, most important, which involves more than merely accessing information.
I agree that remembering is important to an event like this. For example the way the US remembers the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima with regret. This year John Kerry attended a memorial in Japan. Not sure I agree with that, but it was remembered. That event is typically celebrated actually in China. As to the Cultural Revolution the remembering seems to be limited to articles from the west or Hong Kong. Is swept under he carpet here in the country it happened in. No remembering at all. And that is too bad.
I think plenty of people over the age of, say, 55 have plenty of memories, but they'd rather not talk about the CR. Sweeping things under the carpet is primarily to avoid the public, interactive inquiry into the 'Why?'
This is China. Lots of things aren't OK to celebrate or erased from history.
Or are presented with ready-made dogmatic interpretations.
