Song Yongyi (Chinese: 宋永毅; born 15 December 1949) is a

Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...

historian who specializes in the study of Chinese Cultural Revolution. He currently works at the California State University, Los Angeles, and previously served as a college librarian at the

Dickinson College , mottoeng = Freedom is made safe through character and learning , established = , type = Private liberal arts college , endowment = $645.5 million (2022) , president = J ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Biography

Song Yongyi was born in Shanghai, China in December 1949. During the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

, Song became a Red Guard who followed

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

, but was jailed when he was 17 for several years because he was part of the "

counter-revolutionary A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part. The adjective "counter-revoluti ...

clique" that challenged Zhang Chunqiao. After the Cultural Revolution, he was accepted into the Shanghai Normal University in 1977, when the National College Entrance Examination was resumed by

Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CC ...

. He came to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1989 and obtained a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

from the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado syst ...

in 1992, and was awarded another master's degree at the

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana University and, with ...

in 1995. In the summer of 1999, Song went back to China to collect documents related to the Cultural Revolution, but was arrested by the Chinese government for "stealing state secrets". More than 100 scholars and researchers called for his release.

United States senator The United States Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives being the Lower house, lower chamber. Together they compose the national Bica ...

Arlen Specter and U.S. Representative Matt Salmon intervened in the case and negotiated with

Jiang Zemin Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004, and as pres ...

, then

General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party The general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party () is the head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Since 1989, the CCP general secretary has been the paramount leader o ...

and Chinese President. Song was finally released from prison after more than 100 days.

Awards

* “The Eighth Cultural Award,” The Chan’s Journalism and Culture Foundation in New York on July 7, 2000. * “Award for Scholarship and Promoting Intellectual Freedom,” The Pennsylvania Library Association, September 26, 2000. * “The 21st Century Librarian National Award,” School of Information Studies, Syracuse University, October 10, 2004. * “Paul Howard Award for Courage,” American Library Association, Chicago, June 28, 2005.American Library Association. “2005 Paul Howard Award For Courage recipient named,” 2005-05-25. http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=News&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=95110 * “Champion of Freedom of Speech Award,” Visual Artists Guild, Los Angeles, May 27, 2006. * “Zoia Horn Intellectual Freedom Award,” California Library Association, November 11, 2011. * “CALA Distinguished Service Award,” Chinese-American Librarian Association, June 16，2013.

Selected publications

* Song, Y. (2021). ''Mao Zedong he Wenhua Dageming: Zhengzhi xinli yu wenhua jiyin de xinchanshi'' ao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution: A new interpretation from perspectives of political psychology and cultural gene Taibei: Lianjing chubanshe. * * Song Yongyi; Zhou Zehao. ''Heterodox Thoughts During the Cultural Revolution, Parts I and II'', Contemporary Chinese Though
32, no. 4 (Summer 2001)33, no. 1 (Fall 2001)
* * Song Yongyi (2011)

Sciences Po , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public university, Public research university''Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , a ...

. * Guo Jian, Yongyi Song, Yuan Zhou (2015)
''Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (Historical Dictionaries of War, Revolution, and Civil Unrest)''

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an independent publishing house founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns the book distributing compa ...

References

Shanghai Normal University alumni University of Colorado Boulder alumni Indiana University Bloomington alumni 1949 births Living people American librarians of Chinese descent Historians of the Cultural Revolution {{China-historian-stub