The story “The Execution of Mayor Yin” takes a perilous look at the dark side of events during the Cultural Revolution. Chairman Mao's Red Guards were responsible for a cultural cleansing that left many people more confused about the role they played in society than strengthening the social class structure. The story tells of a young member of the Red Guard and the personal conflict he suffered during the cleansing of Hsingan, which left his uncle and perhaps even a good friend to rest. The torment suffered by the people and the personal struggle Hsaio Wu fought against strongly coincides with the age-old question: “Are humans inherently evil?” » In a last-ditch effort to take political control of China, Chairman Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution. This effort was due to the changes he saw happening in the Soviet Union. To avoid becoming more like the Soviet model, the Cultural Revolution aimed to eliminate the methods of “old China” (Harper). Met with disdain and seeing that his party was failing in its mission, he launched the Red Guards. The Red Guards were a group of militant high school students recruited for the sole purpose of spreading the word of Chairman Mao. Students were usually recruited through posters in schools, and after recruitment, student groups would travel to areas of China where they were generally unknown or had no family connections (Lieberthal). The stories of the Red Guards remind me much of the Stanford Prison Experiment, in which 24 university students were recruited for a psychological experiment in which half the group would become prison guards and the other half prisoners. The young men had rules that they had to follow for a week to two weeks. Middle of the paper, it was still Hsaio Wu who put the gag in Mayor Yin's mouth by killing him. sentence. If Chairman Mao had been present during the proceedings and during the execution, how would things have gone for Mayor Yin? The people who participated in the Stanford Prison Experiment as prisoners and those who suffered during the Cultural Revolution have many things in common. , both suffered extreme acts of inhumane treatment and humiliation. But both also agreed that they deserved the treatment they received. Hsaio Wu and the guards shared a lust for power and control, which ultimately led them both to perform acts that they could not carry out without the guidance of a leader to prevent these acts from happening. . Without a true leadership perspective, humans might be more than capable of the most extreme and inhumane acts imaginable..