Career
Xu was a teenage Red Guard at the time of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, a witness to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. He is particularly noted as a historian of the Cultural Revolution. Xu is one of the signatories of the, a manifesto to promote political reform and democratization in China.
2014: Xu Youyu was conferred with the prestigious Sweden"s Human rights Olof Palme Prize.
