Xu Weixin with one of his portraits in his Beijing studio. Photograph: Dan Chung for the GuardianChina's Cultural Revolution: Portraits Of Accuser And Accused -- The Guardian
The Cultural Revolution was a time when pupil turned on teacher, when friend turned on friend… Now artist Xu Weixin has painted both victim and perpetrator. Tania Branigan asks him why and hears the personal stories behind the portraits
No portrait is more important to Xu Weixin than his first. It was 1966; the artist was eight; and he had learned, to his shock, that his kindly young teacher was the daughter of a landlord – an enemy of the people. Outraged, he drew a hideous caricature and pinned it to the blackboard. When Miss Liu entered the classroom, "She turned pale but didn't say a word," he said.
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My Comment: What was unimaginable decades ago .... is now accepted as normal. This is good for China .... and for us who do not want to see China ever experience that hell again.
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