New documentary based on ULS initiative puts China’s Cultural Revolution in context

Zhang in a collar shirt and sweater

A new feature-length documentary is in production that will highlight the CR/10 Project — an ongoing University Library System initiative that records, preserves,and publishes video interviews with Chinese citizens sharing their memories of China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.

Launched in 2015 by the ULS East Asian Library, CR/10 illuminates a watershed 10-year period in China, where an attempt by Chairman Mao Zedong to protect the Communist Party’s purity resulted in a serious class struggle. From 1966 through 1976, universities and schools were forced to close; teachers and scholars were publicly beaten and tortured. The oral histories in CR/10 present a variety of memories — views not from scholars or politicians, but from the common man. The project began with around 30 oral histories and now hosts more than 100.

With funding from the Henry Luce Foundation, the 90-minute documentary, “Unreconciled Memories: Reflections on China’s Cultural Revolution,” will help put the CR/10 project in context. In addition to online accessibility, hundreds of DVDs will be produced and distributed in 2020, mainly for use in high school and college classrooms and conferences. The project’s academic director is Edward Gunn, professor emeritus of Modern Chinese Literature at Cornell University. He is supported by Haihui Zhang (pictured), executive director and head of the ULS East Asian Library, and Kun Qian, professor of modern Chinese literature and film at Pitt.