ABSTRACT
This chapter will first provide an account of the social and political context out of which the Cultural Revolution was launched. What merited our attention were the inequalities and tensions in a society supposedly embracing socialism, supremacy of the revolutionary ideal and the need of continuous revolution, and Chairman Mao as an infallible authority. Next, the elements that made the Cultural Revolution a distinctive political movement will be described. For instance, it was essentially a mobilization of ordinary civilians to attack moral, political, and cultural authorities but not the other way round; collective violence committed by civilians was condoned, if not reinforced, by law enforcement bodies; civilian participants were encouraged to persecute, betray, and to inflict harm on their close acquaintances such as friends, colleagues, and relatives. Finally, we will see that if we do not stick to the democratic assumption of transitional justice, transitional justice is still be relevant in the context of China in general and the Cultural Revolution in particular. It will be argued that a sympathetic examination of the predicament faced by the civilian participants and a prudent deliberation over their roles and moral responsibilities, rather than legal adjudication and sanction, would be more conducive to the pursuit of transitional justice.
