Trauma, Indoctrination, and Red Guard Status: The Psychological Impact of the Chinese Cultural Revolution An Undergraduate Thesis

Abstract

In this undergraduate honors thesis, I examined the impact of Cultural Revolution era trauma on people categorized as revolutionary or counter-revolutionary. Red Guards (n = 44) and non-Red Guards (n = 56) completed online questionnaires 40 years after the revolution assessing perpetrator and victim status, endorsement of Maoist ideology, posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, and depression symptoms. I recruited participants from six countries, as well as 13 different provinces within China, and all questionnaires were in Chinese. Results indicated that Red Guard membership and belief in Maoist ideology during the revolution were not consistently protective against victimization, trauma, and possible PTSD. However, people from the five “red” types of good revolutionary families reported significantly lower incident of victimization and trauma during the Cultural Revolution, and significantly fewer possible PTSD symptoms than people not from such a background. Thus, despite the revolution’s unique victimization criteria involving punishment for thought crimes, the psychological impact of Cultural Revolution era trauma was more strongly associated with individuals’ inherited class status than their revolutionary actions and beliefs. 

Note: [Note: This was an undergraduate thesis based on work completed in 2006-2007, and it has not gone through peer review. In 2024, I’m making it available by recent request, despite its shortcomings, in the hope that it may be helpful. The anonymized raw data are freely available by request.]

Keywords: trauma, Chinese cultural revolution, PTSD, depression