Morning Sun | Living Revolution

One group of college students from Huhehaote, the provincial capital of Inner Mongolia, decided to retrace the route of the original Long March from North to South, before going to Beijing to see Mao.

The first leg of their trip, from Huhehaote to Yan'an, the destination of the original Long March, was recorded both on film and in a diary (view video clip).

The students from Huhehaote consciously sought to follow Mao's injunction about the original Long March (view a video clip showing the students on their journey):

It was a manifesto for they had declared war on the four olds. On their journey, they destroyed a temple, a remnant of the feudal past.

They used their New Long March to propagate the message of the new revolution by printing and distributing Mao's works.

And they sowed the message of revolution among the fertile ground of China by working with people they encountered on their journey, and by emulating revolutionary martyrs and Lei Feng, the red Samaritan publicized by the Army from 1964 on.

However, for many the adventure of being on the road waned as they confronted the grim realities of rural life and the destitute condition of China's farmers who had suffered harshly because of the radical socialist policies instituted from the mid 1950s. Their link-ups led some to disillusionment and a reconsideration not only of the Cultural Revolution, but of the Chinese revolution itself.

Related Article: The Long March Detachment of Red Guards Walks 1,000 Kilometres to Peking to Exchange Revolutionary Experience, China Reconstructs, 10/28/1966

When complete, this section of the Morning Sun website will feature documentary footage and an original diary tracking a group of Red Guards on their New Long March from Inner Mongolia to Yan'an, as well as stage shows and feature films glorifying the Long March of the 1930s.