Commemorating the PRC’s first artificial satellite: The contested legacy of “The East is Red-1” in today’s China

Abstract

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of the first Chinese satellite—“The East is Red-1” [Dongfang hong-1东方红一号 (DFH-1)]—an exhibition dedicated to it was held online on the website of the National Museum of China. Such an exhibition signals the on-going nationalist revival of the historical memory associated with the DFH-1 in today’s China. However, having been built during a time that remains a kaleidoscope of divergent memories—that of the Cultural Revolution—the satellite’s legacy remains contested too. Indeed, in the Party’s official historiography, the satellite has been presented as a survivor from the “ten years of chaos,” mostly thanks to the commitment of the Chinese scientists and of the far-sighted leaders Zhou Enlai and Nie Rongzhen. Conversely, for some current “leftist” stances, the DFH-1 did not “survive” the Cultural Revolution—it was one of its greatest outcomes. Aiming to discuss such disputed memories, this essay will first outline a brief history of the DFH-1, analyzing how the activities of mass factions had a harmful impact on its construction. Then, the paper will focus on the ways in which the history of the DFH-1 has been framed by the Party’s official historiography and contested by other unofficial “leftist” accounts—mostly untranslated and ignored by Western scholars—for example those that appeared on the “red websites” such as Utopia (Wuyouzhixiang 乌有之乡).