It had been clear for weeks that China was heading for some sort of momentous crescendo, but no one knew exactly what to expect. Last week, as the impact of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution abruptly spilled out across the land, the nightmare of it all became chillingly clear. Mao Tse-tung aimed to blot out not only all traces of foreign influence, but to tear out China's own cultural and historical roots as well.
Yearning to subject his country to the same hardships that he had endured on the Long March, Mao chose as the weapon for his campaign a new organization whose name derived from the civil war of the 1930s: the Red Guards. Originally, they were peasants who served Mao's Red army as porters and scouts. Today's Red Guards are high school and university students, often clad in military-type khaki trousers and belted jackets, and always wearing a red arm band. They seemed to be under the command of Mao's longtime ghostwriter, Chen Pota, 62, now a leader of the Cultural Revolution. Chen's order: "You must temper yourselves by going among the masses and getting yourselves covered over and over again with muck."
Red Is for Go. The Red Guards began carrying out Chen's version of Mao's "thinking" early last week by posting along Peking's major streets a "Declaration of War on the Old World." The Guards' vow: "To mercilessly destroy every hotbed of revisionism." Down the streets they rampaged, roughing up Chinese in foreign dress, ordering shopkeepers to stop selling books except those that reflect Mao's thinking and to rid themselves of imported articles or luxury items. In the place of cosmetics, ordinary floor-scrubbing soap was put on sale for facial care. Also on the taboo list: goldfish, exotic birds, flowers, antiques, elaborate coffins, signs with gilded instead of red lettering, and jewelry.
Barbers were warned not to give Western-style cuts, and Peking girls rushed home to wash the Western-style curls out of their hair and change from knee-length skirts into shapeless "revolutionary" pantaloons. The use of pedicabs was barred unless the customer was willing to pull the cab himself, with the driver as passenger, and pay the driver just the same. Chinese checkers and Western chess were abolished. Lovers' trysting places in Peking's parks were declared off limits as unconducive to Mao reading. Under pressure from the Red Guards, the staff of the famed Chuan Chu Teh Restaurant changed the establishment's name to the Peking Roast Duck Restaurant, smashed the old sign and promised from now on to serve workers, soldiers and peasants "cheap and tasty" meals costing only half as much as the previous menus.
Eager Red Guards pulled down old street signs. The avenue in front of the Soviet embassy was renamed Struggle Against Revisionism Street. The Gate of Heavenly Peace, scene of Communist mass rallies, became The East Is Red—a favorite Mao slogan. Legation Street, location of most foreign embassies in Peking, was changed to Anti-Imperialist Street. The Guards also ordered a change in the traffic lights: green now means stop and red means go because red is the color of the forward-moving revolution.