Longing for the Cultural Revolution in China Today

Today’s guest contributor brings a fascinating analysis of young online leftists in China, focussing on their ideology, social and political context, and how a Feng Xiaogang film inspired them to romanticize the Cultural Revolution.

Shijie Wang is an open-source researcher and Deputy Editor at The Jamestown Foundation’s China Brief. He completed a Master’s in Public Policy at Georgetown University. His research focuses on China’s domestic issues, foreign operations, and critical minerals; he also analyzes China’s strategic moves in the minerals sector through his personal Substack.

The “Fanghua” Incident

In November 2025, a content creator named “Liao Hui Dian Ying Ba” (Let’s Chat Movies, 聊会电影吧) on Bilibili, China’s largest video-sharing platform, uploaded the first installment of his analysis of Feng Xiaogang’s (冯小刚) film Fanghua (Youth, 芳华). Released in 2017, Fanghua follows the lives of several young members of a military performance troupe in southwestern China from the 1970s to the 1990s. The film places them against a backdrop of turbulent historical transitions: from the tail end of the Cultural Revolution and the Sino-Vietnamese War to the rise of Shenzhen during the Reform and Opening-up era, depicting the divergent fates of its characters. At the time of its release, the film was a box-office success, launched the careers of several young actors, and earned a respectable 7.7/10 rating on Douban Movie, China’s IMDB. However, once it left theaters, the film largely faded from public discourse — until this creator’s analysis surfaced.

Subsequently, the creator uploaded a second analysis video. In his commentary, he frequently referenced other critically acclaimed Chinese cultural products, such as Ming Dynasty 1566 (大明王朝1566), Let the Bullets Fly (让子弹飞), and In the Heat of the Sun (阳光灿烂的日子). By cryptically hinting at the film’s hidden political metaphors, he quickly attracted a massive audience of young viewers. They showered the video with likes, reposts, and “coins” (投币) — a Bilibili feature that allows users to tip or donate to content creators as a sign of endorsement.

The climax of this saga occurred on November 29, when “Liao Hui Dian Ying Ba” uploaded his third analysis of Fanghua. Perhaps frustrated by persistent questions in his private messages, he began the video by declaring that he would no longer hide behind euphemisms; instead, he would explicitly reveal the film’s “true” political agenda. In doing so, he completely overturned ...