Red Guard
4
9.2
- noun
:
Guardia Roja
- During the Cultural Revolution, many students joined the Red Guard to show their loyalty to Mao Zedong.
- Mao's Red Guard
- radical Red Guards
- Red Guard Cultural Revolution
Examples
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So the Red Guards were the ones that Mao Mao used to launch the revolution and lasted about two up to three years.
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Feng Tsu had been forced to join the Red Guards as a result, but he had soon fallen out of favor.
Fiction book (1991) -
You were lucky I was there when the Red Guard attacked you.
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No wonder the Red Guard attacked you.
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I'm joining the Red Guard.
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"The Red Guards came into my house and burned my books."
Fiction book (1991) -
The two Red Guards let go of her arms, and she followed them quietly into West Street.
Fiction book (1993) -
They are all afraid of the Red Guard.
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The Red Guards took Mu to the front entrance of the building.
Fiction book (1993) -
"The fanatical student movement known as the Red Guard has emerged as a genuinely potent reactionary political force which will seize upon any excuse to justify the expulsion of all foreigners from China.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'red' (which can signal communist/revolutionary affiliation) and 'guard' (a group or person who protects), so a learner who knows both words might infer a politically affiliated group. However, the expression refers to a specific historical Chinese movement and its radical role during the Cultural Revolution, information not recoverable from the constituents alone, so full meaning requires cultural/historical knowledge.
Etymology
Red Guard comes from the image of students wearing red armbands who acted like guards for Chairman Mao's ideas. That's why a Red Guard is a young person who 'supported' and helped enforce Mao Zedong's policies during the Cultural Revolution.