Now, helpless and indignant in the face of such ugly modern realities as environmental degradation, income disparity, pervasive corruption, theft and murder, drug abuse, human trafficking, land seizures and forced demolitions, many who lived through the Cultural Revolution have begun to wax nostalgic. That’s because, when Mao was lord and everyone was under the regime’s thumb, social problems were not so widespread and contradictions were not so acute.

Since efforts to confront the Cultural Revolution have so long been stifled, people born since then have no idea what happened. In June 2012, members of the graduating class of Central China Normal University in Wuhan took a graduation photo, all dressed in Red Guard uniforms. To these young people, the Cultural Revolution seems to have been nothing more than one huge party. Canny businessmen have latched on to this, using the Cultural Revolution to peddle their wares. Last August, on my way to Hangzhou Airport, I saw a huge billboard on the expressway that featured a female Red Guard, arms outstretched. “Comrades, here I am!” she cried.

China’s dispute with Japan over the Diaoyu Islands has ramped up anti-Japanese sentiment among the Chinese population. In September 2012, there were anti-Japanese protests in more than 50 cities. Japanese restaurants and Japanese cars were attacked, and Japanese businesses were set on fire. At the same time, many films and TV productions set against the backdrop of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945 have been made in China’s largest film studio: Hengdian, in Zhejiang Province. There’s a joke that more Japanese have been “killed” at Hengdian than at all the actual battlefields put together — more, even, than the total population of Japan.

The attitude of the Japanese government toward its nation’s history infuriates Chinese people. But the Chinese government also needs to reflect on its own record. We keep warning Japan that it runs the risk of repeating its mistakes if it will not face up to its history of aggression. Surely there is a lesson for us to learn, as well.

In today’s China, more and more people speak in positive terms about the Cultural Revolution and hanker for a return to that era. Most of them don’t really want to turn the clock back: It’s mainly their dissatisfaction with current realities that fuels their interest in revolution. The itch for revolution, of course, may have different triggers. Some people are alienated by the increasing materialism of Chinese society, but many more are outraged by the emergence of interest cliques that marry political power to business profits. Even those who totally reject the Cultural Revolution are, in their own discontent, coming to think that its real mistake was the timing: It’s now that we need a Cultural Revolution.

Yu Hua is the author of “Boy in the Twilight: Stories of the Hidden China.” This essay was translated by Allan H. Barr from the Chinese.