Chinese Cultural Revolution - Yang Yu

My topic is the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The interviews I conducted with Cong Xu, Jun Yu, and Nina Qian are all shown below. These three people were all in China at the time of the Cultural Revolution and were all directly affected by it as well. My interviews focus on what it was like for their education and regular life before, during, and after the Cultural Revolution.


Interview: Cong Xu
Q: How old were you when you were first affected by the Cultural Revolution? How was School?
A: “I was 6 years old, I was supposed to start school that year but I had to wait a year because all the schools were closed. Then, once school started, we didn’t even take regular classes. All we did was study Mao’s book. All of the text books were revised by Mao and had communist propaganda. The only two classes I had were Language class and Math class. Math was extremely basic and Language was devoted to Mao. All the other classes were terminated, except for music class where we sang songs praising Mao and the cultural revolution. They taught us that without Mao, we would lose nearly everything valuable to us in our life. Before we started each class, we had to stand in front of Mao’s picture and recite a prayer-like statement of adornment and appreciation of Mao.”
Q: Did you believe that Maoist thought was the right thought?
A: “At the time, I believed everything they told me because that’s what they taught you in school, newspapers, media all talked about Mao. I don’t think my parents believed in Mao’s revolution, but at the time they were afraid to say it. They were afraid to tell me the truth about the revolution. Even when I asked them, they didn’t say anything and they agreed with Mao. Everything with Mao’s picture or quotes had to be hung up in a nice place in the room. We weren’t allowed to use that section of the newspaper in any other way. “
Q: How did the youth feel about the Cultural Revolution?
A: “At first, I didn’t really understand why we had to do everything we were forced to. I just believed it was the right way. We were so young, none of us really understood it. The older kids were very different, they were more involved in it. I wasn’t allowed to be a Red Guard because they said my father was an enemy and that I should be clearly separate with my father. They didn’t trust my dad so they didn’t trust me.”
Q: What did they do to grandpa (your father)?
A: “They took him away from home for 3 years. I was only allowed to visit him every once in a while. The whole time he was sent to a place where he was forced to think about why he was wrong and write papers about why he was wrong. Similar to an apology letter, but he was forced to go into extreme detail and list specific things he did wrong. They made him quit his job, he was the chairman of the physics department at a Chinese academy.”
Q: What were some things Mao imposed on the youth?
A: “Every 8-10 years, people needed to stop what they’re doing and be alert. Mao believed that his power would be taken over by the “enemies,” he believed that there was always an enemy. He said every 8-10 years you should look at the people around you who are against Mao. Mao did not believe in only studying books, he thought that kids should go to the country side to learn from farmers, factory workers, and army soldiers, rather than going to school. He believed that the poor people had pure hearts and were the good people. He taught that anyone with knowledge or wealth should feel sinful or guilty. He glorified the poor man’s life and wanted everyone at an equal status with basic necessities. Mao himself went to school, but he didn’t finish. He hated school and the system of education.”
Q: Are there any other experiences, stories, or feelings about the Cultural Revolution that you’d like to share?
A: “During the cultural revolution, I was generally scared. I felt like I wasn’t the same as other kids because I was supposed to be guilty of my father. They said my parents weren’t nice people. I liked my parents but I also believed my father’s co-workers and my teachers when they told me that my parents were bad people. The people at my father’s institute wore the red armband and were Red Guards. Before the cultural revolution at my dad’s institute, there was a specific system (people with higher degrees had more power), but once the cultural revolution started, the president of the institute was fired. A lot of positions of powers were replaced by Mao’s people. Those were the people who told me my father was a bad person. They told me to question everything my father told me.”
Q: What was it like after the Cultural Revolution?
A: “I was 16 years old, everyone was so happy because things were going back to the old system. The way it directly affected me was that I could apply for college. 1977 was the first year that real college started the way it once was (before that, many colleges were not public and the others weren’t very good. You didn’t need academic performance; they measured things like farming skills). After I graduated high school in 1978, I went to college directly and I was so happy. The cultural revolution ended because Mao died. At that moment, we were all so sad. We thought the world was going to end, everyone was really scared. But then, afterwards everyone realized that life moved on without Mao. All the educated people who could benefit the country came out and set China back on the right path. For all those years, Mao stopped a lot of development that he thought was “unnecessary.” China was very behind compared to other countries because of the Cultural Revolution. Only a half year after Mao’s death, things started to improve. A lot of people wanted to run the country and take positions of power to help China get on the right path to being a productive and big power, but they didn’t have the power to do such things. Once Mao died, these people had the opportunity to take leadership and improve China as a country.”

Interview: Nina Qian
Question: How old were you when the cultural revolution started?
A: I was eleven years old, I was in 4th grade.
Q: What was school like?
A: “Before the revolution, everything was normal. We just went to school like all the kids here do. Between 1st-4th grade, we learned solid fundamentals for math and reading. This was the basis of my education. After that, we didn’t really learn anything at all, we had to study independently and take the college entrance exam. Ever since 4th grade, we didn’t have a formal education. We missed 5th and 6th grade. School closed from 1966-1969. We didn’t go to classes, we just went on busses and public places and read Chairman Mao’s quotes. For three years we didn’t go to school at all. After that, at the beginning of 1969, we started 6th grade. We didn’t even have real classes, we studied things about Mao. We wrote articles to criticize wrong ideas. We were to take a big brush and write wrong ideas on a big piece of paper, and put it on the wall. We criticized our teachers too. Before 1977, there were no universities open, and the ones which were open were only open to the working class people (workers, peasants, and soldiers).”
Q: Why the working class?
A: “Mao thought they should be the leaders of the country, so for universities the peasants were either selected by the leaders or go through the back doors of the educational system.”
Q: At the time, did you believe that the Cultural Revolution was benefitting China?
A: “You know, we were too young to doubt Mao. Mao was like a god. Nobody dared to doubt. We weren’t mature enough to say anything against Mao. Mao was considered the savior of China, because he thought he led the Chinese Communist Party to liberate China. He was the father of new China. From a very young age, we learned to love him and the Communist Party. We didn’t know anything else because that’s how we were educated. Right after the Cultural Revolution, when I went off to college I thought it was wrong. We were all happy because we didn’t have to go to school, but as the Cultural Revolution dragged on, we started to think “Okay, we can’t really go to school anymore. We miss school,” but we dared not to say that at the time. My mom was a middle school teacher, so we lived next to the school. I still remember that day, our summer vacation had already started. From the window of my room, I could see the yard of my mom’s school. One day, all of the sudden the students and teachers had a meeting/gathering in the yard. I knew the teachers very well, and I saw some students walk up onto the platform. I knew this woman, she was my moms friend, and I saw the students cut her hair. Some students cut all the hair off on one side, others cut their teachers hair however they wanted. They also would put a board infront of the teachers that said “My name is _____, I’m a counter-revolutionary.” I remember afterwards, they were burning books. My brother who was 1 year older than me, ran into the fire to grab books. Then, he went and hid books in his bed so nobody would see it. These were two things that have kept with me ever since.”
Q: Were you a red guard?
A: “Later on, yes. In 1970, you have to be in middle school to be a Red Guard. My brother wanted to be a Red Guard really bad at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, but he couldn’t because he was in Elementary school. Also, my family wasn’t a working class family. My mother was a teacher and my father was an engineer. You can’t be a Red Guard if you come from a family like mine; you have to be in a working class family. But later, they changed it so that if you were good at school, you could be a Red Guard. Basically, later on everyone who wanted could be a Red Guard.”
Q: What was it like being a Red Guard?
A: “We felt honored to be Red Guards. Just like kids nowadays, if everyone was a part of this organization, you would want to be a part of it too. A lot of it was peer pressure. A lot of the times there were activities which were only available if you were a Red Guard. Activities like concerts, sports events, etc. But, at the time, we didn’t only criticize the teachers. It was worse, similar to harassment but more severe. Many extremely famous authors or high authority people couldn’t stand it. After one of these harassments, they would just commit suicide. My mom’s friend who had her hair cut, she cleaned the bathroom and everyone could go to her and harass her. You’d have to be really strong to want to live; otherwise you’d just commit suicide. It was really humiliating.”
Q: When you were a Red Guard, was it really violent with your experiences?
A: “When I was a Red Guard, it wasn’t violent. At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, it was really violent. At the beginning of the cultural revolution, all my mom’s students became Red Guards. The Red Guards there would come into our apartment and move us around. Our dorm, for example had 20 rooms. 5 teachers lived in those 20 rooms with their families. At the beginning of the cultural revolution, the teachers were forced to live in only 5 rooms, and the rest of the 15 rooms were given to the Red Guards. We lived with the Red Guards, we were scared to death. They were high school kids and middle school kids and Red Guards, while we were elementary students and the children of teachers. There was a huge difference in authority. Our parents were sent to the country side. We lived by ourselves. At that time, I was eleven. I didn’t know how to cook or take care of myself. My mom just gave me money to go and buy food from the cafeteria. Since we were younger, they could tell we weren’t students at the school. The Red Guards would ask us questions like “who are you? Who are your parents?” After that happened once, we were too scared to go back. We taught ourselves to cook, and that’s why I can cook now haha. During the time from when our parents weren’t there, my brother would say “let’s take turns sleeping so we don’t get hurt.” He gave me a big bat and a big pot, he said if someone knocks on the door, don’t open the door, just bang on the pots so we all woke up and fought them off. However, no matter how loud I banged on the pot, he would never wake up. He was a really deep sleeper. Experiences like these I’ll probably never forget.”


Q: What was it like for you once the Cultural Revolution ended?
A: “Nobody was happy for what happened during the Cultural Revolution. It was the golden time for us to learn and go to school, but we just completely missed that time. But on the other side, we experienced a lot. It’s a useful experience. If we didn’t have this experience, we would be very naïve, just like the youth. This experience made us more mature and knew to not simply trust the government and political leaders. We learned to question them and have our own thoughts. We just felt like it was a pity to have missed the golden time to have an education. Since there had been so many years of holding up college education, when the college entrance exams started, the acceptance rate was only 2%. Out of 100 students, only two could enter. We studied SO hard in college. A lot of people I knew had to go to college at 30 years old because right after they graduated high school, they had to go to the country side. There was nothing they could do.”
Q: what do you think about the 70-30 saying about Mao?
A: “That’s a complicated question. We still think he was good as a nationalist. Before Mao, China was invaded by foreign countries like Japan, France, and Britain, they even destroyed the Royal Garden (the Emperor’s garden). There were a lot of treasurers in it, and when the British and the French invaded, they just stole the treasures. Some of the soldiers just put the treasures in their pockets, and in order to cover it up, they just burned the royal garden down. In that respect, Mao was good. He was good for China because he wanted China to be independent from foreign influence.”

Interview: Jun Yu
Q: How old were you when the Cultural Revolution started?
A: “I was 10 years old, in 3rd grade.”
Q: What was school like before the Revolution?
A: “It was normal, we went to school, took classes in math, reading, just like a regular grade school.”
Q: How and when did the Cultural Revolution begin to effect you?
A: “The Cultural Revolution was characterized by “Da Ming” which means 4 big. The four main things were: Loud Noise, Freedom to express, Debate, and Writing criticisms on paper. All of a sudden in the middle of my 3rd grade year, my regular classes stopped and everyone joined the movement of the Da Ming. The government sent notes to everyone May 16th, the notes said the Cultural Revolution had the purpose of putting down enemies. Our classes all changed. Our biology classes changed to agriculture and how to farm, physics changed to industry, Russian changed to military slogans. Sometimes we went to school, sometimes we went out and on the street to talk about Mao, and sometimes we stayed at home because it was too violent. From 1967-1968, it became severe and people were using guns and cannons. The different groups started to fight. During the fights, most of the schools closed. When my school closed I went to my hometown in the country side. I had to hide in the country side to avoid the chaotic situation.”
Q: At the time did you believe that Mao was the right leader for China?
A: “Yes, at the time I did. I was brainwashed and I thought Deng Xiao Ping was the enemy and supported Mao. At the time grade schools were from 1-9th grade, Mao combined all the grade schools (elementary 1-5, middle school+highschool 5-9). After I graduated grade 9, in 1973, I had to stay at school for a year because the government didn’t know where to send us. Then, in 1974, all the graduates would go to the countryside. I went to Inner Mongolia for reeducation. The government wanted all the young people to go to the countryside to be reeducated. After 2 years in the country side, in 1976, I started to think about myself and my future. I thought to myself I couldn’t be a herdsmen for the rest of my life. I wanted to go to school and go to a university, I wanted to be a scientist, an author, an artist. 1975-1976 were the two hardest years for me. In 1976, the Cultural Revolution was over. Deng Xiao Ping restored the educational system in China, I took the college entrance exam in 1977. He restored the national entrance exam in 1978.In 1977, I took the entrance exam for history, but I didn’t like history. So in 1978, I took the entrance exam for science. I went to Ji Lin University in 1978, which was where I met your mother. After the Cultural Revolution ended, a lot of people began to question. Most people thought it was unnecessary and it ruined a lot of things. People began to evaluate whether or not it was worth it.”
Q: What was living in the countryside like?
A: “It was like a countryside. I basically worked as a herdsman and a farmer. We grew corn, wheat, tomatoes, potatoes, etc., but that was only the smallest part of it. I mainly was a herdsman. I herded sheep, horses, cows, and also milked cows. I also collected medicinal herbs when I had time, it was fun for a young kid. I was like 18-19. I was pretty well off in the countryside; a lot of people in the countryside had to live a rough life. For a short period of time, my father was classified as an “enemy,” since he was a vice-chairman of a department of Chinese Literature. Because our family was poor, he was released soon and we were always classified as Mao’s people after that.”
Q: Any stories?
A: “In Elementary school, I went through 10 teachers. We had this one teacher once whose name was Ji Yang. She never married anyone. When the Cultural Revolution started, she had retired already but she volunteered to teach our class. She brought all the flower pots from her own home into our class and spent a lot of time telling stories and engaging the class. Her family was rich before the Revolution, especially her brother who was a capitalist. Although she herself was not rich; she was just a teacher. However, since her family was rich, she was classified as an enemy. Everyday all the teachers would line up in front of Mao’s portrait and recite statements about Mao. Then, One day, while she was lined up in front of Mao’s portrait, a few kids in my class started to attack the teachers. These were all kids I knew, they were my classmates. The kids kicked my teacher Ji Yang in the back. She turned around I saw a look of confusion and sorrow. She treated them so well, like her own grandchildren. I could see the tears forming in her eyes as she had to take the kicks from the students. The next day in the news it said she had committed suicide. When I went to her apartment, I turned around the corner outside of her apartment and I saw her dead body hanging on a pipe. Soon afterwards, people came to take her body down. After people searched her apartment, people found coins that her brother had given her, which were worth a lot. She had never spent the money because she wanted to live a simple life as a teacher.”
Q: What was it like for your family during the Cultural Revolution?
A: “During the Cultural Revolution, your uncle and my brother was 3 years old and he didn’t suffer that much. But your aunt, she suffered a lot too, she didn’t even get to learn pin yin. She started school right at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution so she missed two school years where she was supposed to learn how to use pin yin. My father joined the Peoples Liberation Army and he joined in on many parades and activities. It was extremely similar to religion, you had to pray in the morning and evening, you had to acknowledge Mao before you ate dinner. People were brainwashed to believe in him.”
Q: What did the end of the Cultural Revolution mean for you?
A: “For me, it meant that I could go to college. It meant I could pursue a normal career and I had to think a lot about my future. It was a chaotic time and it meant for many people the restoration of ordinary life. China was back on the right direction, our economy started again. I was so excited when the Cultural Revolution ended, especially when the Gang of Four was arrested.”