chinese communist party, chinese history, cultural revolution, lu hongen, political persecution, public execution, shanghai symphony orchestra

Lu Hongen: Heroic Conductor Silenced by the Cultural Revolution (Part 2)

According to the Chinese Cultural Revolution Library (third edition), on April 20, 1968, Lu Hongen and 14 other detainees in the cell were called to the guidance room and they sat on the floor. Behind the desk sat the guiding officer, the interrogator, and another government agent sent by the higher authorities. The guiding officer ridiculed ...

Michael Segarty

Lu Hongen conducting an orchestra.

Lu Hongen: Heroic Conductor Silenced by the Cultural Revolution (Part 1)

Lu Hongen, conductor of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, was the first high-profile intellectual to be publicly executed during the Cultural Revolution. The day after he was killed, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Public Security Bureau went to his wife and said: “You have to pay 20 cents; this is the cost of the bullet that ...

Michael Segarty

Chinese conductor Lu Hongen.

Happiness Is Living Without Fear

Happiness is politicians who don’t fear assassination, and protesters who don’t fear suppression. The rich have no fear of being kidnapped, and the poor have no fear of their last bowl being confiscated. The middle class has no fear of a civil revolution, and the general public does not fear that their leaders’ words may ...

Emma Lu

Young woman sitting on the end of a dock on a lake.