Yongyi Song | |
|---|---|
 Yongyi Song Speaking at a Conference | |
| Born | Yongyi Song December 15, 1949 Cixi, Zhejiang, China |
| Occupation | Author, political activist, lecturer |
| Education | Shanghai Normal University University of Colorado Boulder Indiana University |
Song Yongyi (Chinese: 宋永毅; born 15 December 1949)[1] is a Chinese American historian who specializes in the study of Chinese Cultural Revolution.[2][3][4][5] He currently works at the California State University, Los Angeles, and previously served as a college librarian at the Dickinson College in Pennsylvania.[6][7]
Song Yongyi was born in Shanghai, China in December 1949.[1][8] During the Cultural Revolution, Song became a Red Guard who followed Mao Zedong, but was jailed when he was 17 for several years because he was part of the "counter-revolutionary clique" that challenged Zhang Chunqiao.[2][3][8]
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.[8] He came to the United States in 1989 and obtained a Master of Arts from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1992, and was awarded another master's degree at the Indiana University Bloomington in 1995.[8][9][10]
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".[1][8][11][12] More than 100 scholars and researchers called for his release.[8][12] United States senator Arlen Specter and U.S. Representative Matt Salmon intervened in the case and negotiated with Jiang Zemin, then General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese President.[3][5] Song was finally released from prison after more than 100 days.[4][5][8]
