Introduction

In August 1966, a 14-year-old boy in Beijing is thrust into violence and chaos as Mao Ze-dong's Cultural Revolution begins to blaze across China. In this riveting memoir, Wei Yang Chao now tells his story—how rebels attacked and publicly humiliated his family, upended his education, and sent out into a the country rendered unrecognizable by violence and radical ideology. At first he is swept up by the Red Guards but finds himself at the center of a bloody revolution. After mass rallies at Tiananmen Square, he witnesses attacks on teachers and professors, and the disintegration of his parents’ lives as tolerance and freedom begin to crumble he finds himself cast into exile. Red Fire gives readers an unprecedented account of a young survivor—a story told with real force and heartbreaking honesty.

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Discussion Questions

As young teen, Wei Yang tries to keep new friends in Beijing, even as the rules of society are reversed—his parents and teachers become ‘enemies’ of the government. He has to make hard choices about family and loyalty in a shifting culture. What influence helps amid violence? How do you think a 21st century teenager might cope with radical social upheaval?

China was closed off from other countries in 1966. Do you think the lack of contact among many Red Guards from made them more vulnerable to radical ideology, or to the idea of sweeping away the ‘old’ culture?

Does the story of Red Fire help us understand how individuals caught in social chaos endure and survive?

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