One group of college students from Huhehaote, the provincial
capital of Inner Mongolia, decided to retrace the route of the original
Long March from North to South, before going to Beijing to see Mao.
The first leg of their trip, from Huhehaote to Yan'an, the destination
of the original Long March, was recorded both on film and in a diary
(view video
clip).
The students from Huhehaote consciously sought to follow Mao's
injunction about the original Long March (view a video
clip showing the students on their journey):
It was a manifesto for they had declared war on the
four olds. On their journey, they destroyed a temple, a remnant of the
feudal past.
They used their New Long March to propagate the message of the new revolution
by printing and distributing Mao's works.
And they sowed the message of revolution among the fertile ground of
China by working with people they encountered on their journey, and
by emulating revolutionary martyrs and Lei Feng, the red Samaritan publicized
by the Army from 1964 on.
However, for many the adventure of being on the road
waned as they confronted the grim realities of rural life and the destitute
condition of China's farmers who had suffered harshly because of the
radical socialist policies instituted from the mid 1950s. Their link-ups
led some to disillusionment and a reconsideration not only of the Cultural
Revolution, but of the Chinese revolution itself.
Related Article: The
Long March Detachment of Red Guards Walks 1,000 Kilometres to Peking
to Exchange Revolutionary Experience, China Reconstructs,
10/28/1966
When complete, this section of the Morning Sun website
will feature documentary footage and an original diary tracking a group
of Red Guards on their New Long March from Inner Mongolia to Yan'an,
as well as stage shows and feature films glorifying the Long March of
the 1930s.