Red Guards: China's Teenage Revolution Quiz

Answer: Capitalist Roaders.

The name "Capitalist Roaders" is fairly self explanatory; Mao was worried that Liu and Deng were paving the road to capitalism. Mao was already annoyed that he'd been forced to abandon his programme for rapid improvements in agriculture and industry after it backfired and killed around 45 million Chinese people.

Due to this spectacular failure, Mao withdrew from public life although he was still technically Communist Party Chairman. In practise, Liu and Deng mainly ignored him causing Mao to plot their removal. The Cultural Revolution was his revenge!

Answer: She was considered too bourgeois.

Before marrying Mao, Jiang Qing was a popular actress in 1930s China. Although she had dabbled in Communism, she was still looked on as an outsider by the other members of the Communist party and far inferior to Mao's previous two wives. Mind you, considering Mao's second wife had successfully withheld information under torture and his third had been an accomplished guerrilla fighter, Jiang Qing had a lot to live up to.

Therefore,in a bid to keep his colleagues happy, Mao decided that he would marry Jiang Qing but she was to keep out of public view for thirty years.

Answer: He collected antiques.

Collecting antiques might not sound that interesting until you realise that Kang Sheng built up his substantial collection by confiscating artefacts from his rich victims. Although this was by no means unique, Kang Sheng took it to a new level taking 12,080 rare books and 1,102 antiques!

Apart from brutally purging the Chinese populace, Kang Sheng was responsible for crimes of a different kind. It was he that persuaded Chairman Mao to support the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, thereby being indirectly responsible for the massacre of around 25% of the Cambodian population.

Answer: Water

Lin Biao was commander of the Chinese Army and a close supporter of Mao. He was always ill and was something of a hypochondriac. Apart from water, his other phobias were light, wind, cold and noise! Water was by far his biggest fear; the sight of water (even in paintings) could make him acutely nervous while the sound of running water was supposed to bring on virulent attacks of diarrhoea.

Oddly enough, Lin had become leader of the army almost by accident. He disliked high offices and shunned them; he only agreed to lead the army after being informed that Mao would take his refusal as a personal insult.

Answer: The Yangtze River

On the 16th July 1966, Mao announced his return to public life when he joined 5,000 swimmers in their annual crossing of the Yangtze. The purpose of this piece of blatant political theatre was to show that Mao (who was by this time seventy one years of age) was physically fit and ready to fight it out with his enemies.

Mao appeared perfectly relaxed throughout the event, joking with other swimmers as he gently floated down stream. This is surprising considering that Mao was stark naked; perhaps he considered swimming trunks too decadent!

Answer: He was a lorry driver.

Lei Feng became a household name after he was used in a nationwide propaganda campaign by the Communist Party. Millions of young teenagers were inspired to "Follow the examples of Comrade Lei Feng". His published diary was a bestseller and was held out as an example for all Communists to aspire to.

Although someone called Lei Feng probably did exist, his diary was almost certainly completely fabricated by the Communist propaganda department. Lei Feng died before he became famous; aged twenty one, he was killed by a falling telegraph pole whilst directing the driver of a reversing truck.

Answer: Opera

Incredible as it may, opera was very popular among young Communists. Under the direction of Jiang Qing, opera performances on revolutionary topics were widely staged even though all of them were on the same theme: the victory of the proletariat over their oppressors.

The names they were given were not particularly snappy either; one of the most successful was named Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy! The fact that the film version of this opera received 7.3 billion viewings owes more to the Chinese public's lack of choice rather than the brilliance of the production.

Answer: She had been a better actress than Jiang.

Sun Weishi was guilty of just one crime in the eyes of Jiang Qing. Sun had once auditioned for a play with Jiang where Jiang was given a minor role and Sun was given the lead. Jiang Qing was so upset that she never appeared on stage again. She got her revenge in emphatic style. Sun was arrested, tortured and put to death without a trial. Her body was cremated and her ashes quietly disposed of.

Jiang Qing's partner in crime was another powerful woman, Lin Biao's wife Ye Qun. Ye hated Sun as intensely as Jiang did; her husband Lin had originally proposed to Sun before he married Ye.

Answer: He was thrown through a window.

As a prominent moderate Deng Xiaoping and his family were an obvious target for the Red Guards. Xiaoping's son Deng Pufang was arrested by the Red Guards; whilst being tortured in a three story building, Deng was thrown out of the window badly injuring his back. Turned away by the nearest hospital, by the time he was given medical aid he was completely paralysed.

Despite being confined to a wheel chair, Deng went on to become Vice-President of China between 2008 and 2013. He helped organise the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and was given a UN Human Rights Prize for protecting the disabled within China.

Answer: Civil War between different Red Guard factions.

Every single Red Guard pledged their loyalty to Mao. Most Red Guards believed that their actions were not only morally justifiable but would lead to a socialist utopia. Some of their actions bordered on ludicrous; earnest Red Guards would minutely examine the sayings of Mao, searching for the hidden wisdom within the quotes even if the sayings were perfectly ordinary.

While all Red Guards were loyal to Mao, they were not so loyal to each other. Large groups of highly motivated and heavily armed teenagers quickly led to vicious fighting; it took the army's intervention to end the resultant chaos.