Primary Source: This is a source from a China Pictorial from 1969. It shows a poor mother and father who lived very bad lives before the Revolution and Chairman Mao. They believed that Mao led them out of their suffering and that this Communism helped them to be happy. They owed everything to Chairman Mao and became what was to be known as a "red family". This family went to the extreme, even memorizing songs and chants to spread.
Reddest Red Sun
The Whole Family is Red
China
Pictorial, May 1969, Vol. 251, p. 31
During the vigorous great proletarian cultural revolution, Mao
Tse-tung's thought has been propagated and popularized on an
unprecedented scale among hundreds of millions of people. Their
spiritual outlook has undergone a profound change and numerous stirring
happenings have occurred. Among these, for instance, are the deeds of
the Ting Lai-yu family Mao Tse-tung's thought propaganda team.
Ting Lai-yu is a poor peasant of the Lunghua brigade in Polo County, Kwangtung
Province. His family of eight includes six children, the oldest 14 and
the youngest not yet three. Cherishing boundless love for our great leader
Chairman Mao, the red sun in our hearts, they enthusiastically propagate
Mao Tse-tung's thought in literary and art form. With song and dance,
they warmly praise Chairman Mao, the great Chinese Communist Party and
the great Chinese People's Liberation Army. The broad masses of workers,
peasants and soldiers give them a name: "The 'Whole Family Red' Mao
Tse-tung's Thought Propaganda Team".
Before liberation, oppressed
by the exploiting class, Ting Lai-yu's family lived a life worse than
that of beasts of burden. When he was 13, his parents died one after the
other of poverty and illness. His five brothers and sisters either died
of starvation or were sold. Within a year, Ting Lai-yu found himself the
only survivor of the family. When Ting's wife Chang Chiung was young,
she was also sold as a slave-girl to a landlord's family and underwent
untold sufferings.
The east is red; the sun rises. After
liberation, Ting Lai-yu was emancipated and became master in his own
house. He raised a new family and lived a happy life. Now his family
again has eight members. Bit the two families, just as the old society
and the new, are poles apart. Ting often teaches his children: Now that
we are emancipated, don't forget the Communist Party; we owe our
happiness to Chairman Mao!
In March 1967, with the enthusiastic
help of the People's Liberation Army, a Mao Tse-tung's thought study
class was set up in Ting Lai-yu's family. This further promoted their
ideological revolutionization and aroused an inexpressibly deep class
feeling of loyalty to Chairman Mao. Every member, with the exception of
Hung-ping who is less than three, can recite the "good old three"
articles and over 100 quotations from Chairman Mao. Every bit they
learn, they apply, combining study with application. The invincible
thought of Mao Tse-tung is the life-blood of the revolutionary people.
They feel that in addition to studying and applying well Mao Tse-tung's
thought themselves, they should also propagate it among more people. They
study and practise every day. So far they have learned to sing more than
100 revolutionary songs and perform 50-odd minor revolutionary items of
literature and art.
They disseminate Mao Tse-tung's thought with
soaring enthusiasm, giving expression to their boundless love for and
loyalty to the great leader Chairman Mao. Ordinarily they perform for
the local poor and lower-middle peasants. When arrangements for them to
go on tour are made by the departments concerned, they think nothing of
crossing mountains and rivers to perform for the workers, peasants and
soldiers. They are always compiling material about the moving deeds of
the poor and lower-middle peasants which shows their fervent love
Chairman Mao, elaborating it and arranging it into new items. Whenever a
new instruction of Chairman Mao's is published, they find it set to
music in the newspaper, learn to sing it as quickly as possible,
sometimes adapting dance movements to it, and propagate it among the
revolutionary masses. At present, a total audience of 400,000 have
enjoyed their performances. The broad masses of workers, peasants and
soldiers acclaim them as "singing what is in the bottom of our hearts
and expressing our deep feeling of infinite loyalty to Chairman Mao".
The Whole Family is Red
China
Pictorial, May 1969, Vol. 251, p. 31
During the vigorous great proletarian cultural revolution, Mao
Tse-tung's thought has been propagated and popularized on an
unprecedented scale among hundreds of millions of people. Their
spiritual outlook has undergone a profound change and numerous stirring
happenings have occurred. Among these, for instance, are the deeds of
the Ting Lai-yu family Mao Tse-tung's thought propaganda team.
Ting Lai-yu is a poor peasant of the Lunghua brigade in Polo County, Kwangtung
Province. His family of eight includes six children, the oldest 14 and
the youngest not yet three. Cherishing boundless love for our great leader
Chairman Mao, the red sun in our hearts, they enthusiastically propagate
Mao Tse-tung's thought in literary and art form. With song and dance,
they warmly praise Chairman Mao, the great Chinese Communist Party and
the great Chinese People's Liberation Army. The broad masses of workers,
peasants and soldiers give them a name: "The 'Whole Family Red' Mao
Tse-tung's Thought Propaganda Team".
Before liberation, oppressed
by the exploiting class, Ting Lai-yu's family lived a life worse than
that of beasts of burden. When he was 13, his parents died one after the
other of poverty and illness. His five brothers and sisters either died
of starvation or were sold. Within a year, Ting Lai-yu found himself the
only survivor of the family. When Ting's wife Chang Chiung was young,
she was also sold as a slave-girl to a landlord's family and underwent
untold sufferings.
The east is red; the sun rises. After
liberation, Ting Lai-yu was emancipated and became master in his own
house. He raised a new family and lived a happy life. Now his family
again has eight members. Bit the two families, just as the old society
and the new, are poles apart. Ting often teaches his children: Now that
we are emancipated, don't forget the Communist Party; we owe our
happiness to Chairman Mao!
In March 1967, with the enthusiastic
help of the People's Liberation Army, a Mao Tse-tung's thought study
class was set up in Ting Lai-yu's family. This further promoted their
ideological revolutionization and aroused an inexpressibly deep class
feeling of loyalty to Chairman Mao. Every member, with the exception of
Hung-ping who is less than three, can recite the "good old three"
articles and over 100 quotations from Chairman Mao. Every bit they
learn, they apply, combining study with application. The invincible
thought of Mao Tse-tung is the life-blood of the revolutionary people.
They feel that in addition to studying and applying well Mao Tse-tung's
thought themselves, they should also propagate it among more people. They
study and practise every day. So far they have learned to sing more than
100 revolutionary songs and perform 50-odd minor revolutionary items of
literature and art.
They disseminate Mao Tse-tung's thought with
soaring enthusiasm, giving expression to their boundless love for and
loyalty to the great leader Chairman Mao. Ordinarily they perform for
the local poor and lower-middle peasants. When arrangements for them to
go on tour are made by the departments concerned, they think nothing of
crossing mountains and rivers to perform for the workers, peasants and
soldiers. They are always compiling material about the moving deeds of
the poor and lower-middle peasants which shows their fervent love
Chairman Mao, elaborating it and arranging it into new items. Whenever a
new instruction of Chairman Mao's is published, they find it set to
music in the newspaper, learn to sing it as quickly as possible,
sometimes adapting dance movements to it, and propagate it among the
revolutionary masses. At present, a total audience of 400,000 have
enjoyed their performances. The broad masses of workers, peasants and
soldiers acclaim them as "singing what is in the bottom of our hearts
and expressing our deep feeling of infinite loyalty to Chairman Mao".