Son of the Revolution

As the symbol of the Communist Party and the Cultural Revolution, the color red naturally becomes a symbol in Son of the Revolution as well. At first, red symbolizes Liang’s hope for acceptance and approval from the Party, as he realizes “those students who had the right to wear the Pioneers’ triangular red scarf received much more praise than those who didn’t” (15). Liang’s tainted family background keeps him from becoming a Young Pioneer, so the moment he receives his Red Guard armband before the New Long March is particularly gratifying: his “proudest moment” is when “Peng Ming [pins] on [his] red armband, not a makeshift paper one, but one of [the] finest red silk”(102). The color red also symbolizes collective revolutionary fervor, such as in the case of a crowd lost in the ecstasy of an appearance by Chairman Mao. In one such instance, Liang cries out over and over, “You are our hearts’ reddest, reddest sun!” (124).

The color red develops a darker connotation as the memoir progresses: when the New Long March leads to sickness and lack of food for so many people, Liang describes “still more young people pour[ing] down like red ants” (109) amid the chaos.