A film intended to explore the trauma of the Cultural Revolution sparked millions of views and nostalgic Maoist slogans before censors stepped in.

By Probe International

In a poignant irony, the 2017 film Youth (Fanghua)—once meant to lay bare the psychological wreckage and lasting impact of the Cultural Revolution—suddenly resurfaced in late 2025 after a high-profile influencer’s review exploded online. The fresh take? A reinterpretation of Mao’s mission to enforce a radical socialist ideology as a critique of modern woes.

Gen Z viewers on the popular Bilibili video-sharing platform couldn’t get enough of content creator Liao Hui Dian Ying Ba (“Let’s Chat Movies”) reframing Youth as a righteous war against “privilege.” It hit different amid sky-high unemployment, cutthroat competition, and the daily twilight of strict censorship, permitting an unexpected catharsis in state-approved nostalgia.

Before the censors inevitably pulled all three of the review-related videos, they racked up tens of millions of views and a flood of comments from Chinese youth reciting vintage Mao-era slogans—a romanticized revival perversely fuelled by decades of rigorous censorship that has blurred the real body count and trauma of the era.

While official narratives continue to suppress the complexities of this history, the voices of survivors and researchers battle on against the erasure of the past, and its distortions, emphasizing the need to remember the individual suffering that characterized this deeply dark chapter in Chinese history. For the results of these dedicated efforts, see: Archival Recommendations on the 60th Anniversary of the Cultural Revolution by China Unofficial Archives. From the website:

“Reminiscing about Mao Zedong—who once famously called the youth “the rising sun at eight or nine o’clock in the morning”—and framing his Cultural Revolution as a “great anti-privilege movement” has become one of the few remaining avenues for public expression.

In the wake of this interpretation, the actual reality of the Cultural Revolution seems to have lost its importance. After the Youth commentary videos exploded in popularity, they were removed from the Chinese Internet. Furthermore, previously permitted content regarding the Cultural Revolution on domestic video sites—mostly material that viewed the era positively—has also become unsearchable. As a result, the Cultural Revolution has become even more mysterious; affirming the Cultural Revolution has evolved into a new form of political dissent—a suppressed narrative.”

中国民间档案馆 China Unofficial Archives is a reader-supported publication dedicated to digitizing and preserving censored, underground, and independent Chinese historical materials. It provides open-access books, magazines, and films covering topics often omitted by official narratives, such as the Great Famine and the Cultural Revolution.