Damn man, pain in his eyes shows how ashamed he was, he is

Most people are incapable of existential introspection; this man is an exceptional case to actually admit regret and on media even. People need his example.

I'm grateful there are people like this that are able to tell their tale and explain the consequences of these movements.

If you don't learn from history... it tends to repeat itself

My family went through this, my grandfather got paraded but he was tough enough to survive that.

Such sadness and pain when he spoke of his teacher. I hope more people his age realize the evil and horrors they committed during that period in China.

Towards the end of Qing dynasty, these people were called Yi He Tuan. During the cultural revolution, they were called Red Guard. Now they are called Wolf Warrior. The mentality and mindset haven’t changed much, just the name changes

My father was born right around the time it had started. Thankfully, he never joined and focused on his studies and when he turned 30, moved out of china. It was truly a horrible time

Apparently nobody at UC Berkley every bothered to listen to him.

All my ancestors’ assets vanished overnight as well as their existence culprits got away with it and everyone acts like nothing had happened this makes me nauseous we can’t even retrieve what belonged to us justice never manifested itself Series of policies made by mao in turn cause over 40millions of deaths This dictator,ruthless murderer and this regime brought countless sufferings to Chinese people

I'm from America, and this makes me so scared and sad to watch. You can see the pain and regret in his eyes. I really hope nothing like this happens in our country's future.

My dad was a rightist, went to a concentration re education camp for 8 years and almost lost his life. Let’s just say he has the right to his beliefs.

no shame on him, shame on the people who went that far. he wanted to help.

It is important to see how people who look completely normal, happy, and sane, can commit and ascribe to such evil. Horrifying.

Sadly, today’s equivalent of the Red Guard would laugh at this man. It’s the human condition to think you know it all when you’re young. It’s a tragic irony that the wisdom to make good choices comes long after the choices are made.

I hope one day in my life I could see that Mao's big picture is removed from Tian An Mun Square forever !

I kind of expected a more horrible story from him than "they cut her hair while she was sleeping", I mean not a good thing but with all the buildup and tears it was a bit weird.

Feel for this guy. He seems like a lovely bloke. That is still scarred by these events to this day. Bless this man

Who would win? Mao or a bunch of birds?

My grandfather was murdered by the red guard, they really are a taint to Chinese society whose violence went unchecked. However many of them now are unable to find jobs or build families as people avoid former red guards

I don't know that whats the idea behind the chainese cultural revolution but seeing him crying for her teacher punishment just broke my heart.

I hope he repeats this story over and over at Berkeley-of all places.

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups

Here I am in 2020 USA and we are at the start of this atrocity happening here. Open your eyes!

The Red Guard only stopped when the Higher ups told them to cool off. I can only imagine if they had told them the very opposite.

My grandpa was born in the 40s he wasn’t one of the Red Guards but he surely experienced the Cultural Revolution Of China. He told me it was taken too far, teachers, doctors and all intellectuals are being humiliated, shaving hair, cutting off shirt sleeves etc. It was surely a great mistake by Chairman Mao, which I respect

My grandparents once told me how thier life were destroyed by those fanatics. Never thought that I would able to see it myself.

Fascinating interview. It is natural for adolescents to want to rebel against their elders, whether in China or here in the USA, as we see.

It’s sad that my grandma still thinks the CCP did nothing wrong😔

OK ... (first off - I used Wade-Giles Romanization here - which is what was in use back when I was studying China. I also am tired now and have not spell checked some of these names - which I'm recalling from memory ....). After the collectivization campaigns of the mid '50's Mao decided that he would mobilize the masses of humanity in China to equal Britain in Steel Production in 5 years - this was PART of the Great Leap Forward. The Peasants were told to create these kilns that were called Back Yard Furnaces. Mao didn't have big steel plants so he was going to have millions of small ones. The problem was - they didn't actually have enough ire ore to smelt - but - they did have quotas that required them to produce so much pig iron. With no iron ore - they had to take the metal instruments they already had - like plows and cooking utensils - and melt those down to make their quotas. So they did. The pig iron that was produced was so bad - the metal could not be used to make anything else. But that was a moot point - as they didn't have the infrastructure to haul it away. So it just sat there. Thus - all they had accomplished was destroying the metal items that they had already had. Another thing they did was they launched a campaign to rid China of The Three Pests - which were rats, sparrows and something else I don't remember. The way they killed the sparrows - was the whole city would turn out - EVERYONE - because the communists could make people do things like that. Then - these people (who apparently still had their pots and pans) would bang them together and scream to make noise and frighten the sparrows. This worked. The frightened birds would take to the sky but could find no where in the city that was free of noise - so they had no where to land that they weren't frightened away from. The sparrows (as was the plan) flew until they were exhausted then fell to the ground and someone would come stomp on them. The problem was - all the insects the birds had eaten - such as locusts - were no longer being eaten because the birds were dead - and they had plagues of locusts devour their crops. These are not the only things they did - these are the things I remember. The end result was that 20 million people died of starvation - because of Mao's stupidity. These were not like the land lords he had killed on purpose - these were people he killed by accident because he was stupid. Then something happened. The Cadres of the Communist Party - who had made the people do these things - watched them die - and were horrified at what they had done. At that point - they turned from being the nemesis of the people - to their protectors. Mao would issue an order. The Cadres were say "Yes! Sir! Yes! Sir! Three Bags Full!" - and then ... not do it. They would report back what a glorious success Mao's orders had been. Meanwhile at the top - the #2 man, Liu Shao-chi - convinced Mao that it was a waste of his precious time to be involved in the mundane running of the country and that the people needed him to be off thinking great Mao Tse-dung Thought to enlighten all of them. The problem was - Mao was stupid about economics but he wasn't stupid about politics. He knew that he'd been promoted out of power. So - with the aide of the Army under Lin Piao - which provided transportation and food, he mobilized the high school kids who still believed in him - to Question Authority - and remove from power all those Cadres who had been circumventing his will. The Cadres organized their own Red Guards - and the two groups started killing each other - all in Mao's name. The problem was ... Mao had told these kids to Question Authority - so they did. They Questioned Authority at the local, provincial, regional and national levels (Liu died in jail ... he was old and didn't take well to it) - but then - they started questioning Mao ... At that point it was time for all the Red Guards to go down to the Country Side to Learn From the Peasants - and all these city kids were wading in human excrement that was fertilizing the rice paddies. And that is the story of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. (As an aside - Lin Piao (who had taken over as #2) saw what had happened to Liu Shao-chi - and decided that Mao was going to get him next - and tried to have Mao's train bombed ... but the guy couldn't do it ... and turned himself in. Lin and his wife were sitting on the runway in a business jet - and when they saw fuel trucks moving to block off the runway - had the plane take off - hitting one of them. Lin's plane, fleeing to the Soviet Union, ran out of gas over Mongolia - and he died. After losing Lin's support and that of the Red Guards ... Mao didn't have many people left. He had a few - but when he died - they were all in jail a month later (the Cadres who had been rehabilitated waited a month out of respect for Mao). After that China was run by people much more practical in their approach. They were going to retain power - as those kids at Tien An Men found out - but their economics was based on what worked - not silly politics. Deng Xiao-ping was rehabilitated by Chou En-lai (always #3 !!!!) - and began running things. He was most famous for saying "I don't care if it's a black cat or a white cat - as long as it catches mice." And that has set China on the road it is on today. .

He learned it the hard way, watching someone you support torture someone you love. It really doesn't have to be like that, you know?

My grandfather was murdered during the cultural revolution my father witness this, my grandma went insane with depression. My father had to take care of his 4 younger siblings especially the harshest famine times. My father always told me communism feels threaten by the intelligent people, they feel threaten by free thinkers and independently competent people. Anyone who works too smart or too hard was seen as a threat. Communism likes the young and dumb and obedient people. They like conformity. Also communist followers also like their witch hunts. Many people were falsely accused for not being communistic enough. Human nature of envy and jealously always comes with a false accusation as well. This is what happens when you preach about everyone is the same and some people feel threaten when someone is better than another even if something was small.

It should be called Cultural devolution

history repeats itself once every lifetime.

bbc show this today go on I dare you

As Indonesian Chinese born , i was called by my teachers or the elder people that i was a kind of human race and do not have tradition , manners even religion like most of Indonesian people are muslim and treat other people very well. So sad this is part of my people history....

It’s happening right now

The video shows a message what happens when young people (and some a little older) follow a movement and it goes out of control. It’s the same in this generation the year 2020. 😔😬

This is live and well right now. Please bring it to full exposure

The irony is he said he went to Berkeley to study...if he went there now he would see a new red guard at work, we never learn

Labour politician Diane Abbott said that Mao did more good than harm

Sincerely hope our people, our party, our government, our president learnt from this tragedy and prevent it from happening again.

Oh, it is very nice to listen to this person explain things. Thank him for having the time to speak with this "BBC". I hope it wasn't taken out of context. A lot of internet trolls want human stupidity to increase, pro communists can be happy that a lot of people from current generation are terrible at (more complex than abridge) math- makes it easier to make them in to communists supporters. But it also comes from the fact that in some countries RIGHT-wing politicians make the poverty double and even health benifits for disabled people disappear. Thirdly you must understand that they usually don't believe that Mao, Stalin etc. killed millions of people at all. They find their own justifications for their conclusions. People have the right to support what they want as long as it doesn't harm others too much... But if you are planning on traveling in time, it would be best not to take pro communists too seriously. If you do believe in their version of history too much, you might be surprised how much real life was different.

The cultural revolution 2 xi’s way

This broke my heart.

I like Asian youth coming to the U S. They have learned what communism is Really about. Youth in the U S, born in the U S, haven't a clue what it is about, or how deadly it is.

culture revolution created such a chaos in china. luckily Deng corrected it afterwards.

So y'all cut her hair off... That's the worst thing you were involved with in the Red Guard?

My grandma was a teacher during this revolution, so she learnt the new simplified chinese and she was lucky to survive but today she still idolizes Mao and tbh idk why she does that, maybe fear or brainwashing

This is why i hate young people being in political activity, they always resort to violence

Now people with the same mentality are tearing down statues in the west.

P.S. I had Mao's little red book ! " The West is a paper tiger " Was my favorite quote !

A man can only admit when he is wrong, I hope if anyone who was a victim of him personally who is still alive forgives him for what he did.

Feels like we’re going through our own Cultural Revolution in the US right now.

Great documentary we should learn this and never let this happen again moving forward to create a better society for mankind

Dear Saul, l am your age .All young people "who care " get sweept along by their youthful enthusiasm ! That's all it is . Just part of life's great tapestry and journey ! Love from England .

The hardest thing for most societies is too admit they have made mistakes and own up to it

Unlike the North Koreans right now, some Chinese back then actually loved their leader and regime

“They cut her hair, and I found my way to the west to take pictures with Bush”.... oooooookaaaaaay.

*Can BBC News kindly make a detailed documentary film about how Americans took over the country from Native Americans please?*

Chiang Kai-shek's career showed that power corrupts; Mao Zedong's career showed that absolute power corrupts absolutely. "We've fed the heart on fantasies, our heart's grown brutal with the fare: More substance in our enmities than in our love"--WB Yeats

Amazing how this feels so similar to what is happening with young generations today in the USA.

There are people in China today that killed their teachers and never saw punishment, take Song Binbin "She is known for beating her deputy principal Bian Zhongyun to death with wooden sticks" She received her doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1989 and lives happily today.

I have been doing my own study of the cultural revolution, as I was never taught about in school. I recently read Ming Wang's book from darkness to sight and was moved by his story, and how he overcame truly impossible odds to become educated. Ming is a real life hero!

I wonder if he sees parallels between the Chinese cultural revolution and America's youth touting such slogans as "silence is violence."

I understand the regret you feel. The cultural revolution really scared me and when I learned about it I was baffled and speechless because it brought the insanity out of young people. I hope it never happens here in America but the possibility is starting to become inevitable.

And no one seems to connect Mao’s Cultural Revolution with the Culture War in America…..

Anyone else here after reading the opening chapter of the Three Body Problem?

Some lessons, you just have to learn by experience

He has a crush on his beautiful teacher.

Important to never forget this

2:50 "After reports of rioting, beatings up, and even murder, the Red Guards seemed to have gone to far..."

During the cultural revolution, Chinese people had much more freedom to demonstrate on the street than today. xD

Oh cmon BBC, "even murder"? D'ya think? The way you guys sanitized the cultural revolution in that piece, one would think that the worst tragedies that occurred were people getting a forced haircut.

3:46 I hope they reflect, they regret, they re-examine, which will prevent this kind of human tragedy from happening again..."

It feels like people needed a purpose and belonging. when they find it. it doesn't matter what it does as long they're in it.

What about the wretched French intellectuals Barthes Kristeva Quel Tel editors, etc,,,where is their shame

He was like the Ayatollah Khomeini. Very charismatic and ruthless.

During CR , The entire family of my grandparents have been tortured for being intellectuals , some were dead including my grandma’s new born baby, and my grandpa has been left disabled for the rest of his life. He is turning 92this year in China with everything stripped off , no house , no income.

I applaud this guy for his bravery and honesty.

This is happening again, only in the west this time.

Much respect for China successfully fending of western imperialism prior to 1948, a profoundly difficult achievement. Look at the result of the other major regions that failed in this regard (Africa, India, even aboriginal Australia, etc). Respect to Mao and vast bulk of the ordinary population for protecting China from outside interference. Mao also did the forgotten but crucial work of rural health development programmes saving 100 million lives and modernizing architecture which set the conditions to make the industrialisation that followed being possible. Life span increased dramatically, rights of females and literacy increased from 10% to 90% under Mao.

Human can be evil, for hiding the darkness to be waken up, once it happened, he has got no mercy !

It's good this man realized the errors and evils he participated in. We all have committed terrible sins, and God is always willing to forgive and heal us, if we repent and turn to Him.

We are seeing a repeat here in the states with young people, socialism, and communism

Let us not remember British imperialism’s effect on China, BBC.

Thank you so much for sharing your heartfelt pain. It is good for all human beings to know that anyone; placed in the right environment can do awful things! I am so glad that you are an American citizen with your family!

He escaped to HK and became who he is today. Yet today HK is destroyed by a particular powerful person who is after Mao's ideas.

not to agree with cultural revolution, this guy seems tricky

UC Berkeley 2017.

Ive heard guys whove driven TV detector vans for the BBC say the shame never leaves you.

Wish him harmonious elderly life. I am sorry but I must say he is a rare man not commiting crimes at that time if he is honest. Most tragedies surged in China due to politics are reflecting the lack of the sense of shame that is always demonstrated by suicide in Japan.Only everyone realizes huge mistakes should be paid at the price of own lives, then the whole country will treasure reputation and avoid such nightmares. But now in China, most red guards get old and flatter themselves as heroes in that period, no doubt ridiculous man-made catastrophes will circulate forever in that land.

3 years later the BBC would be promoting struggle sessions in America

the only thing that annoys me throughout the video was the rhetoric consensus being jammed down our throats for YEARS, that the US is this saving grace that we should all comply to for any chance of freedom or independence. From the american flag casually waving in the background to pictures of US presidents (ironically one of which is George Bush🤣🤣), when the US is one of the biggest reasons for all these fascist groups to even emerge. These ideologies (especially in foreign countries) stem as a result of repeated cultural oppression and power vacuums that emerge due to the US (and previously UK and France's) colonization and military raids. They leave no choice for the oppressed other than to cling onto radical groups as a form of protection. There's a reason the East hates the West so much, and that is because it has a reason to. So many wars started with civilians dying ONLY FROM ONE SIDE OF THE EQUATION! The american public knows nothing from the outsider's perspective yet they have more power in our internal politics than the ones living in these countries. Bush is literally one of the biggest war criminals out there, the only thing that differentiates him and Mao is that Mao had a direct propaganda and most of these videos were Internal affairs, while the US strives at exerting its power and propaganda outside of its borders while brainwashing its people with petty political discourse and low art entertainment. Bush exerted even more power into an already exhausted region, and the middle east can never recover from all t he crimes they've practiced on us for THEIR supposed freedom. Nonetheless, don't get me wrong Mao and his ideology is harmful and wrong, and what happened during the cultural revolution is horrifying, and I appreciate this man's honesty and introspection, it's is very brave. But the US is not the answer, nor is it our savior.

You Sir are to be respected,I'm proud of you and people like you are an asset to our country.Godspeed.

Mao said to destroy the old culture but still taking the Philippine Sea saying that it was China's OLD territory

I find the end where he says he hopes to prevent this tragedy from happening again very funny in light of the recent riots in America. Some people never learn.

That's communism for you

I’m amazed that the BBC made this

Why ashamed? Be proud