A Chinese Newspaper Reports on the Red Guards in Action
Kwangsi Daily August 23
Chapter 41


According to a Kwangsi Daily report, on August 23, Red Guards and revolutionary teachers and students in the city of Nan-ning, inspired by the revolutionary spirit of revolt shown by the Red Guards in the capital, and filled with great revolutionary pride, took to the streets to post revolutionary leaflets and big-character posters and carry out oral propaganda. Using the thought of Mao Tse-tung as a weapon, they violently attacked all the old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits. They demanded that Nan-ning be built into a great school of Mao Tse-tung's thought.

A group of Red Guards in the Second Middle School in Nan-ning climbed up to a traffic policeman's stand and, through the medium of loud-speakers, read aloud to the people their Manifesto of Revolt: "Today, the clarion call for the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution has been sounded, and the battle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie has begun. We must promote the fearless spirit of the proletariat -- the spirit of staining our bayonets with blood -- and the revolt against feudalism, capitalism, and all demons and monsters. Backed by Chairman Mao and the Party Central Committee, this revolt is sure to succeed. Let the thought of Mao Tse-tung shine upon every corner . . . ."

Revolutionary "young generals" of the Kwangsi College of Arts formed four propaganda teams for the purpose of replacing bourgeois ideology with proletarian ideology and getting rid of the old to make way for the new. In no time they composed a revolutionary song entitled "Raise the Iron Broom of the Revolution," and it in the streets and shops. With revolutionary pride, they sang: "Sweep and break. Raise the iron broom of the revolution to sweep away the vestiges of feudalism, uproot the bourgeois ideology, hold aloft the red banner of the thought of Mao Tse-tung, establish proletarian and destroy bourgeois ideology, destroy a lot and build a lot, and construct a new socialist country." The masses around them sang with them.

Red Guards of the Kwangsi Nationality College in a remote suburban area arrived in the morning at the Station for the Reception of the Masses operated according to the revolutionary rules. These Red Guards proposed to change the names of the streets, places and stores -- such as People's Livelihood Road. People's Rights Road, Emperor Ridge, and White Dragon Bridge -- into new names with Revolutionary content. They proposed getting rid of all poisonous things in barber shops, tailor shops, and book-lending shops immediately. In shops that the Red Guards of Nan-ning Ninth Middle School and revolutionary teachers and students visited, they were received warmly by the workers and employees, who were determined to respond to their revolutionary proposals.

The workers of the Handicraft Product Center of Nan-ning said, "We have long wanted to discard artistic products decorated with emperors, kings, generals, prime ministers, scholars, and beauties. Now that you have come to support us, we'll take immediate action." They immediately tucked away the carved standing screens and hanging screens and hung more portraits of Chairman Mao in the shop.

The workers of the New South Barber Shop at the suggestion of the Red Guards took down the pictures showing decadent bourgeois hair styles such as the "wave-type" and "big western style" and indicated that they would in future refuse to do such bizarre hair styles for their clients.

Fourteen Chinese and Western medicine shops under the Medical Company of Nan-ning held worker's forums one after the other and, after discussion, that the same night adopted new signboards expressing revolutionary ideas.

The revolutionary masses of the city's cultural palace and museum listened to the broadcasts at eight o'clock in the morning and by nine had posted a big-character poster at Prince Liu Park. They thought that the term "Prince Liu" reflected feudal bureaucratic ideas and was incompatible with the spirit of the times. They thought the name should be changed into "People's Park," so immediately wrote "People's" on the piece of paper and pasted it on top. This suggestion was warmly supported by the revolutionary masses passing by.

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