Oral History Vs. The Death Of Lao She

Historical background: May, 1966, the enlarged session of the Polit-bureau of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party passed the "May 16th "notification to launch the "Cultural Revolution". Later the Red Guards movement started. In 18, August the same year, Mao Zedong inspected a million people including representatives of the Red Guards on the Tian An Men Square. As a result, a nation wide political youth movement took shape. At the end of August, the Red Guards in Beijing had targeted at the top-level political leaders and elite intellectuals, relegating them to "black gang","monsters", etc.,thus starting a violent, barbarous and bloody attack on these people. Historical site: 23rd of August,1966, as the Chairman of the Beijing Federation of Literature and Arts, "People's Artist" Lao-She took part in the cultural revolution. He was criticized as a "monster" and was sent by force to the Confucius Temple for criticism. Then he was taken back to the Federation. In both places he was lambasted and severely beaten. At the same evening, he got back home with his wife. But early next morning on 24th of August he committed a suicide plunging into the Taiping Lake. Historical narration: Thirty years after the death of Lao-She, his contemporaries and friends told the story from different perspectives and many facets of it were revealed. But these narrations sometimes contradict with each other and so it is hard to reveal the whole thing. What's more it made the story more complicated and confused. They made the "unusual death"of Lao-She part of the legend of history. Historical reflection: It is futile to criticize anyone as intentionally concealing historical truth. As truth is truth, which is an abstract word and which could only be alive when time and events are brought into it. As to the death of Lao-She, it is the event itself that makes history. To study and represent it in varied and artistic ways is to document it as the imprints on history. The process of interviewing people has nailed the tragic day of his death on history. Historical re-echo: The death of Lao-She can't be treated as a "myth"at all and could not be confined at the museum of history either. His death should not be treated as a specimen of the past "historical heritage". Instead it should be regarded as a living life for the present and for the future as well. It has been part of the history. But the truth of his death might be a question mark for ever!...