“These kids have never even seen an instrument in their dreams!” Li Delun, who brought donated musical instruments to Communist headquarters at Yan’an in 1946, and became the founder, instructor and conductor of the orchestra. As quoted by Sheila Melvin and Jindong Cai in Rhapsody in Red, 176.
“We told each other secretly in the quiet midnight world….” Adapted from Bai Juyi, “Song of Everlasting Sorrow,” in Witter Bynner, The Jade Mountain, 120.
“I am lovesick for some lost paradise…” adapted from Ch’u Tz’u, or Songs of Ch’u, “The Far Journey,” transl. by J. Peter Hobson, Studies in Comparative Religion, Vol. 15, No. 1 & 2 (Winter-Spring, 1983).
“Family members wander…” Adapted from Bai Juyi, “Feelings on Watching the Moon” http://www.chinese-poems.com/bo3.html
“Moonlight in front of my bed…” Li Bo, “Quiet Night Thoughts,” transl. by Burton Watson in Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), 204.
“The streets our brushes…” Vladimir Mayakovsky, “An Order to the Art Army,” December 1918. Transl. Anna Bostock, as quoted in John Berger, Art and Revolution: Ernst Neizvestny, Endurance, and the Role of the Artist (New York: Vintage, 2011), 44.
“Yellow dust, clear water under three mountains…” Li He, “A Sky Dream,” in Tony Barnstone and Ping Chou’s The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry (New York: Anchor, 2005), 199.
“We shouldn’t be afraid of our own voices….” adapted from Chin-chin Yap’s interview with Ai Weiwei, Ai Weiwei: Beijing — Works, 1993–2003 (Hong Kong: Timezone 8, 2003), 41.
“The beauty is in the machinery,” Prof. Henryk Iwaniec, from Alec Wilkinson, “The Pursuit of Beauty: Yitang Zhang solves a pure-math mystery,” The New Yorker, February 2, 2015.
“…deletes 16 percent of all Chinese internet conversations” David Bammam, Brendan O’Connor and Noah A. Sing, “Censorship and Deletion Practices in Chinese Social Media,” First Monday, 17.3 (March 2012).
“Could I awake now and cross towards her?” Inspired by “Thus, in fainting we yunguoqu 暈 過 去 ‘faint and cross away’, and in awakening we xingguolai 醒 過 來 ‘awake and cross toward here,’ ” Perry Link, An Anatomy of Chinese: Rhythm, Metaphor, Politics (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013), 9.
“Even the beautiful must die…” Friedrich Schiller, as quoted by Jan Swafford in Johannes Brahms: A Biography (New York: Knopf, 2012), 463.
“A birch tree, a spruce, a poplar is beautiful…” Excerpted from the section of Schiller’s letter to Körner of February 23, 1793, which is entitled, “Freedom in the appearance is one with beauty.” This translation is taken from Friedrich Schiller, Poet of Freedom, Vol. II, Schiller Institute, Washington, D.C., 1988, pp. 512-19. See http://www.schillerinstitute.org/transl/trans_schil_essay.html
“Those representatives of the bourgeoisie who have sneaked into the Party…” Mao Zedong, “May 16 Circular”, as quoted in Michael Lynch’s Mao (London: Routledge, 2004), 181.
“Leave their allotted space and march to the centre of the stage” adapted from Jonathan D. Spence, The Gate of Heavenly Peace (London: Faber and Faber, 1982), 22.
“All revolutionary intellectuals, now is the time to go into battle…” Nie Yuanzi, “What have Song Shuo, Lu Ping, and Peng Peiyun Done in the Cultural Revolution?”, Peking Review, Volume 10, May 25, 1966.
“We wash away insects, and are strong,” Mao Zedong, “To Guo Moruo,” in The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry, 360.
“The water of socialism nourished me…” Lyrics from the song, “Longing for Mao Zedong”, arranged by Li Jiefu. Hongweibing gesheng [The voice of the Red Guards] (Beijing: Houdu dazhuan xuexiao Hongweibing daibiao dahui, 1969), 99.
“The old ferryman couldn’t guess what the obstacle was…” Shen Congwen, Border Town (New York: Harper Collins, 2009), 96.
“This is the beautiful Motherland…” From the famous patriotic song, “My Motherland”, lyrics by Qiao Yu and music by Liu Chi.
“Let the rooms be full of friends…” He quotes high-ranking official Kong Rong in chapter 11 of Luo Guanzhong’s 13th-century classic, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, translated by C.H. Brewitt-Taylor. Web edition published by eBooks@Adelaide, https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/literature/chinese/romance-of-the-three-kingdoms/index.html
“The grass in the meadow…” Ibid. The children’s nursery rhyme from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, ch. 9.
“There is no middle road,” Editorial of the Liberation Army Daily (Jiefangjun Bao): “Mao Tse-Tung’s Thought is the Telescope and Microscope of Our Revolutionary Cause,” June 7, 1966. The Great Socialist Cultural Revolution in China (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1966), III, 11–17.
“Before I die,” He Luting said, “I have two wishes.” Based on the life He Luting, as described by Sheila Melvin and Jindong Cai in Rhapsody in Red: How Western Classical Music Became Chinese (New York: Algora Publishing, 2004), 238 and referenced by Alex Ross in The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the 20th Century (New York: Macmillan, 2007), 564.
Shostakovich’s letter to Edison Denisov, as quoted by Laurel Fay, Shostakovich: A Life (London: Oxford University Press, 2005), 199.
“A form of repentance that would bring the individual back into the collective…” Kang Sheng, torturer and high-ranking member of military intelligence for Chairman Mao, as quoted in David Ernest Apter and Tony Saich’s Revolutionary Discourse in Mao’s Republic (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994), 288. Kang was instrumental in aligning Chinese support for Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
“Zero is a definite point from which…” Quote adapted from Friedrich Engels, Dialectics of Nature, as quoted by Wu Hung in Remaking Beijing: Tiananmen Square and the Making of a Political Space (London: Reaktion Books, 2005), 8.
Students Zhang Zhiyong, Guo Haifeng, and Zhou Yongjun kneel on the steps of the Great Hall of the People, April 22, 1989. Between 1989 and 2002, Zhou, a student at the China University of Politics and Law, served five years in prison. In 2008, while attempting to re-enter China to visit his ailing father, Zhou was re-arrested by Hong Kong police and renditioned to China. Initially charged with political crimes, he was sentenced to 9 years in prison for financial fraud. He has not been heard from since 2014. All efforts have been to find the source of this widely-shared photograph, to no avail. Please contact the publisher if you have information about the photographer or rights to the image.
Tofu Liu’s method of hiding artefacts, based on photojournalist Li Zhensheng, Red-Color News Soldier (London: Phaidon, 2003).
“For every vital movement of the world external to us we behold the image of a movement within us…” Philipp Spitta, Johann Sebastian Bach, His Work and Influence on the Music of Germany, 1685–1750, Volume 2 (London: Novello, Ewer & Company, 1884), 602.
“Let me tell you, world / I do not believe…” Bei Dao, “The Answer,” The August Sleepwalker, transl. Bonnie S. McDougall (New York: New Directions Publishing, 1990), 33.