Red August () is a term used to indicate a period of political violence and massacres in Beijing beginning in August 1966, during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. According to official statistics published in 1980, Red Guards in Beijing killed a total of 1,772 people during Red August, while 33,695 homes were ransacked and 85,196 families were forcibly displaced. However, according to official statistics published in November 1985, the number of deaths in Beijing during Red August was 10,275.
On August 18, 1966, Chairman Mao Zedong met with Song Binbin, a leader of the Red Guards, atop Tiananmen. This event instigated a wave of violence and mass killings in the city by the Red Guards, who also started a campaign to destroy the "Four Olds". The killings by the Red Guards also impacted several rural districts in Beijing, such as in the Daxing Massacre, in which 325 people were killed from August 27 to September 1 in the Daxing District of Beijing. Meanwhile, a number of people, including notable writer Lao She, committed suicide or attempted suicide after being persecuted. During the massacres, Mao Zedong publicly opposed any governmental intervention to the student movement, and Xie Fuzhi, the Minister of Ministry of Public Security, instructed police and public security organs to protect the Red Guards instead of arresting them. However, the situation went out of control at the end of August 1966, forcing the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chinese government to take multiple interventions which gradually brought the massacres to an end.
Red August is considered the origin of Red Terror in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. It has also been compared with Nazi Germany's Kristallnacht, as well as with the Nanjing Massacre conducted by the Japanese military during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
History
Historical Background
On May 16, 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution in mainland, China. On August 5, Bian Zhongyun, the first vice principal of the Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University, was beaten to death by a group of Red Guards—mostly her students—and became the first education worker in Beijing killed by the Red Guards.
Massacre in Beijing
On August 18, 1966, Mao Zedong met with Song Binbin, a leader of the Red Guards, atop Tiananmen of Beijing. Mao asked Song Binbin whether the "Bin" in her given name was the same Chinese character as that in Chinese Chengyu "Wen Zhi Bin Bin (文质彬彬)"; upon receiving confirmation, Mao commented that, “Yao Wu Ma (要武嘛)”, meaning "be valiant" or "(you'd) better fight". After this meeting, the morale of the Red Guards was significantly boosted, triggering their massive slaughter in Beijing. In particular, on August 25, 1966, thousands of Red Guards started a week-long massacre in Langan Market () of the Chongwen District. At the same time, Red Guards launched a nationwide campaign to destroy the "Four Olds". In Beijing alone, a total of 4,922 historic sites were ruined, and the Red Guards burned 2.3 million books as well as 3.3 million paintings, art objects, and pieces of furniture.