2/8 Witnessing the First Red Guard Murder and the Contested Apologies — Tanya Branigan — This segment examines the 1966 murder of educator Bian Zhongyun by teenage Red Guards at a prestigious girls' secondary school. Her husband, Wang Jingyao, clandestinely preserved physical evidence including bloodstained clothing and photographic documentation of her body, ensuring the atrocity would not be forgotten and pursuing potential justice. Branigan argues that memory itself constitutes an act of historical creation and resistance. Apologies offered by former Red Guards like Song Binbin remain deeply controversial, with critics contending that such statements fail to comprehensively reckon with individual responsibility for targeting and murdering innocent victims.
1966 RED GUARDS