Son of the Revolution

A detailed Summary of Son of the Revolution

The struggles that Liang Heng went through in the story "Son of the Revolution" during the reign of Mao are an incredible story of loyalty towards political Party versus family. You can slowly see how Liang Heng's absolute loyalty towards Socialism is slowly swayed through personal trauma and strife as he slowly starts to disregard what the Party says and puts him and his family first.

During the time of the Hundred Flowers Campaign, the party urged the masses to speak out and criticize the Party's shortcomings. Liang Heng's mother was originally skeptical about speaking out but after the urging of her superiors, she decided to speak out to please the Party. She said that her Section Head sometimes used crude language and liked to criticize people, that he should give his housekeeper a bed to sleep on instead of making her sleep on the floor, and that sometimes when it came time to give raises, the leaders didn't lead to the masses opinion (page 8). The Hundred Flower Movement then suddenly switched to the Anti-Rightist Movement in which every unit was given quota to find a certain number of rightists to meet and Liang Heng's mother name was a part of her unit quota, she later found out this label was attached to her because

of what she had written in The Hundred Flower Campaign. She was sent away for labor reform which was the first division of his family. This incident not on labeled Ling's mother as a rightist but his entire family. Liang Heng's father a firm Party supporter did not believe the Party could be wrong and divorced his wife and forbid his children to see their mother to try and distance themselves from her as much as possible, and clear the family name, as soon as his mother was reformed his parents divorced. Although the family cut off their ties with their mother Liang Heng and his family were permanently labeled as having a rightist mother.

During his fathers reform Mao ordered a new directive. One of their main tasks was to put into effect Chairman Mao's call for lower and upper-middle school graduates to "go up to the mountains and down to the countryside." They delivered "mobilizing reports", saying that the peasants were waiting for the students warmly, that in the countryside fish could be scooped out of the flooded rice fields with a hat and wild turkeys were so numerous that they could be killed with a stick (page 142). Liang Heng's two sisters signed up excitedly to continue their work for the Party and Chairman Mao, this would leave Liang Heng at home alone to take care of himself at the young age of thirteen. The split of his the family is complete; father away at Chairman Mao Thought Study Class, Liang Fang at Jing County, and Liang Wei-ping at the Yuanjiang District near Dongting Lake. During this time Liang Heng joined a gang and learned how to live on the street. A year later Liang Heng's father returned and that put an end to his wandering the streets.

One of the most startling things in this book is the absolute destruction and terror China's people and Liang Heng had to live through during the reign of Mao. This time in China's history required you to have absolute loyalty towards the Party and even though the Party is very corrupt and often unfair with self seeking political leaders and Mao a senile, crazy leader leading movements forward that often ruined families and killed millions. Ling Heng's story is one of millions in this time in China. Luckily, there were enough people from this time like Liang Heng who became a free thinker and took risks to change the Party's policies within China.

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Approximate Word count = 1854
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History