I live in Fauquier County, Virginia. Loudoun County is a close neighbor. Both are within 50 miles of our nation’s capital. With such close proximity to the country’s power center, there are times when our local news can become national news depending on the subject matter.
Such was the case when Xi Van Fleet, who was born in China, spoke out against CRT (critical race theory) at a Loudoun County School Board meeting in June 2021.
Her comments went viral on social media, followed by requests for appearances and interviews with a myriad of media outlets, including The Epoch Times. Admittedly reticent by nature, Ms. Van Fleet has been propelled into the national spotlight.
“Mao’s America: A Survivor’s Warning” is her story, and it’s a compelling one. More than that, it is alarming as yet another indicator that America, as we’ve known it, is being systematically eroded by a cultural revolution not dissimilar to China’s Cultural Revolution. Ms. Van Fleet refers to it as American Marxism, and the progressive left is pushing the pedal in insidious ways.
Indoctrinated as a Child
Ms. Van Fleet describes her life growing up in Mao Zedong’s China. As a young child, her main text was Mao’s “Little Red Book,” in which he shared many of his thoughts on class struggle and correcting mistaken ideas. While millions were persecuted or killed during the Cultural Revolution, billions of copies of this small book were in circulation. Many families had several copies.There were scant opportunities to read other texts; many libraries and cultural centers had been destroyed. The knowledge of Chinese history and traditions that had flourished for thousands of years had been erased to usher in Mao’s communist vision.
Ms. Van Fleet shares startling memories of Mao’s Red Guards, many of whom were teenagers, running amok in chaos while damaging people and property all in abject devotion to their leader.
As a teenager, Ms. Van Fleet was sent to the countryside to work in the fields. This was part of a process to reeducate young people to the merits of hard work and a simple life shared by the peasants.
Mao’s death in 1976 marked the end of the Cultural Revolution. By 1977, Deng Xiaoping came to power. He wanted to open up China to the West and work to improve their economy. Colleges and universities were now open.
Seeing as an Adult
By 26, Ms. Van Fleet arrived in Kentucky and began an academic journey as well as a personal one. She became a U.S. citizen, furthered her education, launched into a career, married, and established a middle-class lifestyle in a land that she now called home. She was confident that she had escaped communism to live in a free country. She lived under this belief for several decades, until she began seeing signs that perhaps not all was well.
Ms. Van Fleet writes: “I consider it unique, maybe even privileged, that in my lifetime I have experienced not just one but two of the most important cultural revolutions in human history, Mao’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and the American cultural revolution of the 2020s (with roots dating back much earlier). Both are cultural Marxist revolutions and are synonymous with Communism.”
When Ms. Van Fleet decided to speak out at the Loudoun County School Board meeting against what she perceived as pervasive and encroaching woke-ism in the public school system, it wasn’t an easy decision. She didn’t consider herself an activist. She just felt it was necessary to speak about what she saw as a danger and a threat to existing institutions, traditions, and social norms—in essence, Western civilization. She knew, from direct experience, what Mao had done in China. Was it happening here?
Ms. Van Fleet does a highly credible job showing the parallels between Mao’s Cultural Revolution and disturbing trends she sees happening today: the destruction of family values, a war on religion—specifically Christianity—attempts to cancel culture and alter history, an emphasis on collectivism rather than rugged individualism, and shunning of Euro-centric history and aesthetics.
Readers will appreciate her clarity and writing style. It’s well-researched with copious notes, well-organized, and very convincing. Hers is a heartfelt plea to wake up and join efforts to fight against “what couldn’t happen here.”
Her book carries weight. It should resonate with many who are trying to figure out what is happening, where things went wrong, and what can be done to stop it.
As a survivor who has experienced the horrendous effects of the Chinese Communist system, Ms. Van Fleet has now put on the armor of an activist fighting for the America that she has come to love and cherish. She wrote this book with encouragement from many who share her views.
Hers is a crucial message, a warning against the woke cultural revolution taking place in America, a country where it should have no roots.
