Les Massacres de la Révolution culturelle is a collection of numerous rare testimonies from scholars at work inside China today—and obtained at times pseudonymously—on the crimes perpetrated during the Cultural Revolution in China from 1966 to 1976. Through the use of many uncovered documents, Song Yongyi’s contributors all shed new light on the atrocities committed by the Chinese government in the name of ideology and to further the greater glory of Mao Zedong.

The book presents eight specific examples of inhumanity and horror, such as “The Tragedy of 20, Dahongluochang Alley South in Pekin,” by Li Xiang, which describes how and why Huang family members were slaughtered and betrayed by their neighbors; “The Slaughters in Dao District’s Villages in the Region of Hunan,” by Zhang Cheng; and “The Muslim Genocide in the Shadian Village in the Region of Yunnan,” by Ma Ping. Each collaborator chose to tell the story of a family, a neighborhood, a village, or a region over a period of a few days to several months.