Red August
The Red August (), originally meaning August 1966 of the Cultural Revolution, is also used to indicate a series of massacres in Beijing which mainly took place during the period. According to the official statistics in 1980, from August to September in 1966, a total of 1,772 people—including teachers and principals of many schools—were killed in Beijing by Red Guards; in addition, 33,695 homes were ransacked and 85,196 families were forced to leave the city. The killing by the Red Guards also made an impact on several rural districts of Beijing, causing the "Daxing Massacre", for example, during which 325 people were killed from August 27 to September 1 in Daxing District of Beijing. The oldest killed during the Daxing Massacre was 80 years old, while the youngest was only 38 days old; 22 families were wiped out. Scholars have also pointed out that, according to the official statistics in 1985, the actual death toll during the Red August was over 10,000.

On August 18, 1966, Mao Zedong met with Song Binbin, a leader of the Red Guards, on Tiananmen of Beijing, which greatly encouraged the Red Guards who then started their massive killing in the city and destroyed the "Four Olds" at the same time. Methods of slaughter during the Red August included beating, whipping, strangling, trampling, boiling, beheading and so on; in particular, the method used to kill most infants and children were knocking them against the ground or slicing them in halves. Many people, including the notable writer Lao She, committed suicide after being persecuted. During the massacres, Mao Zedong publicly opposed any government intervention to the students' movement, and Xie Fuzhi, the Minister of Ministry of Public Security, also ordered to protect the Red Guards and not arrest them. However, the situation had grown out of control by the end of August 1966, forcing the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chinese government to take multiple interventions that gradually brought the massacre to an end.

The Red August of Beijing is regarded as the origin of Red Terror in the Chinese Cultural Revolution, instigating Red Guards' movement in multiple cities including Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing and Xiamen, where local political leaders, intellectuals, teachers and members of the Five Black Categories were persecuted and even killed by the Red Guards. There has been comparison between the date "18 August 1966", which was the crucial moment of the Red August, with the "Kristallnacht," which was the prelude of Nazi Germany's Holocaust. In addition, the Red August along with the subsequent massacres across China during the Cultural Revolution has been compared to the Nanjing Massacre conducted by the Japanese military during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Q8690
Cultural Revolution
Concept
Q3199915
massacre
Concept
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Beijing
LOC
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Red Guards
Concept
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Daxing Massacre
Concept
Q393445
Daxing District of Beijing
LOC
Q5816
Mao Zedong
PER
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Song Binbin
PER
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Tiananmen of Beijing
LOC
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Four Olds
TIME
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Lao She
PER
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Xie Fuzhi
PER
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Ministry of Public Security
ORG
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Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
ORG
Q8690
Red Terror
Concept
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Shanghai
LOC
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Guangzhou
LOC
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Nanjing
LOC
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Xiamen
Concept
Q3144424
Five Black Categories
UNK
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Kristallnacht
EVE
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Nazi Germany
Concept
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Holocaust
EVE
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Nanjing Massacre
MEDIA
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Japanese military
ORG
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Second Sino-Japanese War
EVE
Q79546163
Red August
Concept
Q79546163
Red August
Concept
Q79546163
Red August
Concept
Q79546163
Red August
Concept
Q79546163
Red August
Concept
Q79546163
Red August
Concept
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