The Cultural Revolution

In 1965, Kim Gordon and his parents moved from Britain to China to see communism for themselves.

At first, it was a time of excitement and adventure. But as the increasingly radical government grew more hostile to foreigners, everything changed.

Arrested as they were leaving the country, the family was detained without trial and taken to a hotel room that would be Kim’s entire world for two years...

When Apollo 11 touched down on the moon in July 1969, Kim Gordon was one of the few British schoolboys who knew nothing about it. Aged 13, he was mad about cars, planes and engines. But he was also shut away from the world, living in captivity in Beijing.

For two long years, Room 421 of the Xin Qiao hotel was both home and prison for Kim and his parents, Eric and Marie. They had no access to a radio or telephone, newspapers or letters from home. Their relatives back in England had no idea where they were, nor even whether they were alive. Their room measured just four square metres – enough for a desk, a chair and three little beds, crammed close together. During those two years the family had no one to talk to but their interrogators, and no diversions except for a couple of books and some sheets of hotel writing paper.