Finding China's Lost Generation

This book provides a detailed and in-depth study of a group of volunteers among the much larger group of rusticated youth, who were mainly only “forced volunteers”. This specific group, although not representative, is interesting because it shows how idealists (considered as “models”) reacted on the long term to an unexpected reality.

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This is a book about one of the first groups of young Red Guards who, inspired by Maoist ideology, volunteered to leave their city and become rural laborers, potentially for life. The book presents their experience of a decade in a difficult rural environment, their final return to their city and their fate after this return. The book draws lessons from that historical event.