As the 50th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) approaches, reflections on the tumultuous period have been gaining momentum while a minority of radical leftists is holding commemorative events to challenge the long-held official judgment defining the movement as "10 years of catastrophe," a decade experts believe will not be repeated in China.

On May 16, 1966, a circular was passed at a conference of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, in which Party leader Mao Zedong believed that the power usurped by the capitalist-roaders could be recaptured only by carrying out a great cultural revolution. The notification marks the start of a decade-long campaign which some historians said threw China into the abyss of chaos and lawlessness.

Books depicting the Cultural Revolution were published this year, including the English version of The Cowshed: Memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, a book written by Ji Xianlin, a prestigious Peking University professor, in which narrated his life as a prisoner of the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution, according to news portal thepaper.cn.

Many people, especially those who mistreated others during the Cultural Revolution, have publicly apologized to the victims.

After Chen Xiaolu, a former Red Guard and son of Chen Yi, a marshal who was among those who led the revolution, made a public apology to his high school teachers for attacking them during the Cultural Revolution in 2013, others who participated in the revolution have showed public remorse.

During the Sixth Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1981, a resolution on "certain questions on the history of our Party since the founding of the People's Republic of China" was passed, in which the Cultural Revolution was completely negated and criticized as "a long drawn-out and grave blunder."

Divisive period



Despite the government's acknowledgement, the Cultural Revolution remains divisive. The topic has even become a proxy of the current debate, where leftists and rightists have long clashed over China's political route.

Some, like Xia Guozan, a 40-year-old Mao admirer from Jingzhou in Central China's Hubei Province, said the Chinese society's disavowal of the Cultural Revolution has partly led to some of today's social problems, including the "conflict between the average citizen and those with vested interests."

Those who share Xia's views commemorated the period in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province on May 8, pledging to support the Cultural Revolution to the end, as well as to glorify it with songs idolizing the late Chairman Mao Zedong, according to the Shaanxi-based leftist website zgsddh.com, which has become unavailable as of press time.

Others have blamed the current social problems on the lack of a complete and thorough reflection of the Cultural Revolution.

"The leftists regard the Cultural Revolution as a people's movement against  the bureaucracy and yearn for its return. Others question the Party's leadership by calling for a so-called radical reflection. Both have deviated from the official definition of the Cultural Revolution and should not be encouraged," Su Wei, a professor at the Party School of the Communist Party of China Chongqing Committee, told the Global Times.

"As long as the [country] upholds the correct Party leadership and adhere to the Party's basic line, the Cultural Revolution cannot be restored," Su said, adding that it is an unwavering principle to completely negate the Cultural Revolution.

"Generally speaking, China's reform and opening policy is successful, which has led to the country's rising power and booming economy," Zhuang Deshui, a deputy director of the Research Center for Government Integrity-Building at Peking University, told the Global Times.

Zhuang added that there is no "economic and political space for the Cultural Revolution."