5/18/89: Working Class Heroes

New, creative links were being made, reflected in the flags and slogans draped on industrial strength trucks with factory logos packed to the brim with red-sashed workers. WORKERS SUPPORT BRIGADE! WORKERS UNITED WITH STUDENTS IN SUPPORT! But the really eye-catching, breath-stopping slogans took aim at the most powerful man in China. XIAOPING GAODE RENREN FENFEN BU PING “Wow! You see that Lotus? It says Xiaoping is ruining it for all of us!” Quite a few posters and political cartoons were openly critical of Deng, representing a logical but politically dangerous turn of heart. But the most novel element today was the large number of Mao portraits. Militant workers proudly held portraits of Mao aloft. Mao? Where did they dig Mao up from? Was this Cultural Revolution nostalgia or an oblique way of insulting Deng, who was thrice-purged under Mao? Open-back trucks crammed with factory workers were festooned with flags. Nearly all the banners proclaimed “shengyuan xuesheng” in one form or another, it was the orthodox and politically correct way of mouthing support for the students. “It’s like a second Cultural Revolution!” I suggested. Lotus who had visited China during the middle of that turbulent period, found some validity with my hyperbolic statement. The crew was unconvinced