Reviewed by: Rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution: Impact on Chinese Thought, Culture, and Communication William Belk Rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution: Impact on Chinese Thought, Culture, and Communication. By Xing Lu. Columbia: University of Southern Carolina Press, 2004; pp xiii + 235. $49.95. Rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution is a fresh, highly personalized, and provocative assessment of what remains the most enigmatic period in modern Chinese history. The author takes a broad interdisciplinary approach to examine the Cultural Revolution's symbolic language and ritualistic practices to shed light on why the event happened; the central role of rhetoric in fostering this "chaotic nightmare"; the influence of this rhetoric on larger Chinese culture, thought, and communication processes; and ultimately the relationship of Mao's Cultural Revolution to other totalitarian regimes such as Hitler's Germany or Stalin's Soviet Union. Rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution significantly illuminates the largely ignored rhetorical processes and practices of China's lost decade, an inquiry in many ways initiated with Shaorong Huang's To Rebel Is Justified (University Press of America, 1996), which treats the Cultural Revolution as a rhetorical movement. In his foreword to that study, Jeffrey Wasserstrom noted the importance of an emerging body of scholarly Cultural Revolution literature transcending the earlier bifurcation between participant observer narrative and analytical (usually Western) scholarly treatments. Xing Lu's study stands as testament to the value of this approach, combining immediacy and poignancy with a strong analytical framework that maintains the unique Chinese cultural context at its center. Informed by the premise that "language influences thought, culture, and human action" (3), Lu examines the power of political slogans, dazibao (big character posters), revolutionary songs and operas, and political rituals. However, before proceeding to her analysis, the author powerfully and vividly recounts the Cultural Revolution experiences of her immediate family. Lu's father, a mid-level public security official, and mother, descendant of a relatively prosperous pre-Revolution peasant family, were among the tens of millions of Chinese publicly criticized and humiliated, rhetorically and physically isolated from society, imprisoned, and savagely beaten. This experiential context drives Lu's inquiry and indeed sets this work apart from (and above) other scholarly treatments of the period. During the Cultural Revolution, political slogans, used to simplify complicated issues, unify public thought, and agitate for specific public action, "were the primary rhetorical symbols used to justify violent behavior, dehumanize class enemies, encourage anti-traditional acts, and elevate the cult of Mao" (53). Slogans such as "never forget class struggle" (denigrating traditional Confucian harmony and polarizing society), "to rebel is justified" (sanctioning [End Page 506] mass action against Party authorities), and "destroy the four olds and establish the four news" (breaking away from traditional culture) were the primary leadership mechanisms to radicalize mass action, alienate and dehumanize large segments of Chinese society based upon class background and consciousness, and elevate Mao and his thought to unassailable mythic heights. Citing Hannah Arendt, Lu also contends that this simple and banal language impoverishes thought processes and obscures conceptual clarity, contributing "significantly to a general thoughtlessness still evident in today's China" (72). Although influenced, and often specifically endorsed, by the Cultural Revolution leadership, the dazibao or wall posters represented at least a superficial semblance of genuine mass participation. A traditional form of Chinese elite communication, the practice of writing and reading dazibao rapidly became a ubiquitous form of discourse among Cultural Revolution participants from all social strata and in fact was the most distinctive form of mass communication during this decade. Often relying upon traditionally rooted moral/ethical appeals to condemn class enemies, these dazibao largely were confirmatory rather than investigative; used crude, profane, and violent language; and not only served as the catalyst for an unprecedented mass mobilization but also provided a medium that fundamentally transformed Chinese thought patterns through appeals to absolute certainty (93). Revolutionary songs and operas represented another striking rhetorical form of the Cultural Revolution. While acknowledging the cross-cultural transformative nature of music and its role in inculcating culturally appropriate thought and action, Lu specifically points to Mao's long-standing views (beginning in the 1940s) that the arts broadly considered should serve the interests...