The Guardian view on culture in China: artist Gao Zhen is paying again for the country’s painful history | Editorial

The 70-year-old has been prosecuted for his artworks under a law that did not exist when they were created. He should be freedSixty years ago, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution – a decade of fanaticism that consumed China. Perhaps 2 million people, from top leaders to impoverished farmers, were killed or driven to suicide for political “crimes” or their family background. Tens of millions more, including the father of China’s leader, Xi Jinping, were hounded.The party, and most of those who lived through the movement, prefer to forget it. But the years of chaos, violence, zealotry and stagnation, which ended only with Mao’s death, have left deep scars. Among the many victims was a factory worker whose young sons grew up to become celebrated artists. Their work addressed the devastation wrought by the era, including through .