hongweibing means A red guard, a member of a mass movement of civilians, mostly students and other young people in China, who were mobilized by Mao Zedong in 1966 and 1967, during the Cultural Revolution. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 93 out of 100.
Why “hongweibing” is a great word
HONGWEIBING — [Noun] A member of a mass paramilitary movement of young people, primarily students, mobilized by Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution in China (1966–1967). From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 紅衛兵 / 红卫兵 (hóngwèibīng), literally meaning 'red defense soldier' or 'red guard'. Unlike the “Red Army”—the formal, professional military of the revolutionary period—or the broader “zaofanpai” factions challenging authority, the hongweibing was a sanctioned civilian instrument of ideological fervor. It is the frayed red armband staining a cotton sleeve, the crackle of a megaphone shredding the academic silence of a university quad, and the acrid smell of burning books on a humid Beijing afternoon—a generation weaponized against its own past, believing itself to be the future.
Etymology
From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 紅衛兵 /红卫兵 (hóngwèibīng, “red defense soldier; red guard”).
noun
- A red guard, a member of a mass movement of civilians, mostly students and other young people in China, who were mobilized by Mao Zedong in 1966 and 1967, during the Cultural Revolution.“The Chinese are hastily obliterating all traces of hongweibing pogroms in Moslem mosques and other holy places. Mao's successors have been clamouring for Moslems to preserve the Islamic cultural heritage. The blame for all the excesses in the Islamic policy has been heaped upon the "gang of four" and Lin Biao.”