Chinese Cultural Revolution - Brandon Tran

My topic for this assignment was the Chinese Cultural Revolution. I interviewed Mei Chan, Yu Chan, and Quan Tran. They were all in China during the Cultural Revolution, and experienced it first hand. I mainly focused on getting them to tell their stories, which gave me a variety of interviews.

This is an interview with Mei Chan, a friend of my parents, who lived in China during the Cultural Revolution.
Q: When and where were you born?
Mei: I was born in China in 1940.
Q: Were you in China when Mao and the Communists took over?
Mei: Yes.
Q: Did you trust Mao and the new Communist Party?
Mei: No, I was very worried at the time. There were rumors that the Communists shared property as well as wives. I thought that the Communist Party spoke on behalf of working class people, but I didn't know how well people like us would be treated. So, after the Liberation, I went to take part in a public meeting presided by the household committee. I wanted to know how well the Party would treat us. After the residents' meeting we had a better understanding about Party policies. The party policy regarding national financiers and businessmen was through peaceful reform and redemption (buy-out). Afterwards, our worries gradually disappeared. Later, I began to work for the household committee and came to recognize its importance.
Q: Did you think about leaving China after they announced the Cultural Revolution?
Mei: We didn't think of leaving China before the arrival of the Communists as we didn't have any overseas relations. We also had five children, and it would be difficult to live overseas without any family relations there. We also thought that if other people could survive, we could too. It would have been difficult to sneak all of us out of China past the Red Guard everywhere. Life without any family to support us was an impossible thought for us back then.
Q: How were you affected by the Cultural Revolution and the Red Guards?
Mei: During the Cultural Revolution, my family wasn't what a rich family, or one that was involved with a lot of politics. But the people who came to search our house didn't believe our claim. They said, "Your family lives in such a good house, and has a highly-placed job. How could you not have money?" They searched our house for ten days. The "task team" just refused to leave the house, and carried on with their searching. They also searched our relatives' houses. But they didn't find any money.
Although our family had many kids, in general, our standard of living was better than that of the working class people. But we never squandered money. Because we had many children, we had to plan everything to keep our life going. Whatever political campaigns came, I always comforted my husband. I thought that I should always safeguard my husband. Without him, I would lose my financial means. So I would always comfort him, telling him not to worry about anything. I told him, now even a street vendor selling spring onions and ginger can make a profit... I told him that if these ginger vendors could earn a living and support a family, our situation was still better off than theirs. I would always advise my husband not to worry. I told him I would sort out anything that should happen. It solved his worries.
Q: Were any of your children part of the Red Guard?
Mei: Yes, my oldest son that was in college joined the Red Guard. I was extremely saddened that one of my children would join them, and be a part of the group that goes around tearing cities apart, condemning elders, and tearing up houses to search for any sign of anti-Communism. However, while I am sad that he joined them, I can understand why he did so. The Communists were very rough, and I probably would have joined the Red Guard too, if it meant that I wouldn't be persecuted as anti-communist.
Q: Did you find life difficult at this time?
Mei: There was a difficult period at the time. The company didn't even have money to pay the staff salaries. So, the management on the private side had to secure loans to pay salaries. The situation gradually improved.
Q: What other effects did the Cultural Revolution have on your husband?
Mei: At the time, they wanted to denounce my husband as an anti-revolutionary. I told him not to listen to the rumors. We had even sent our children to be educated by the Party so why should people think we were against the party? I had faith that we had done nothing wrong. We didn't understand what was going on during the campaign. In the beginning, the party treated us relatively well. It wasn't until later that we began to realize why things had changed. Eventually, they forcefully took my husband to jail for being an anti-revolutionary. I didn't understand why they would do this even when he wasn't one.
Q: Were you afraid your husband would be harmed?
Mei: I told them to look after my husband, and not to let him commit suicide. In the past, during the "anti four olds" campaign, he once thought about committing suicide. After his release, my husband told me that there were two big holes on his door. One hole was for food; the other was for surveillance to prevent him from committing suicide.
Q: What was your husband's prison experience like?
Mei: I asked the person in charge of my husband's case if could I visit him. He said that I could go. I almost couldn't recognize my husband. He was locked up in a small room, about the size of two single beds. A straw mat was laid on the floor. He looked very pale from the lack of exposure to sun. He was confined to the room... The rebel member told me that my husband had serious problems to confess, and he would be subjected to an isolated investigation. They also asked me for my opinion. I said that I had nothing particular to say, and it would be a good thing if the problem regarding my husband could be cleared up.
Q: What was it like when your husband was released?
Mei: I was surprised when I saw him. I told him that the rebels had tried very hard to help him. Now, more than half a year had passed and he still hadn't confessed his problems. He answered that he had no problems, so he didn't know what to say. My husband was released after a year, but the case was still unsettled.
Rebels asked me to pick him up... then they asked my husband to continue his soul-searching when he went back home. The rebels asked me to pick him up when he was released because they feared he would commit suicide.
My husband said to me after his release, "Having read Chairman Mao's writings, I always find that they are not in accordance with the actual situation. Why?" My husband couldn't figure out... I asked him whether he thought about committing suicide during the imprisonment, as he did during the time of the "four clear-up" campaign. But he said he didn't want to die. He said that he thought the Communists were different. Otherwise, the Communists would be no different from the Nationalists... He studied Mao's works. He wanted to see how China would change under Communism. So, he didn't want to die.
Q: Do you think you were treated as scapegoats?
Mei: ....I asked myself if I had done anything wrong or shameful to the Party or the people, and the answer was no. At that time, at the beginning of whatever political campaign occurred, they usually targeted financial or business communities or capitalists... We always became the targets because we were at the bottom of the political society. We were the living targets. Every campaign would eventually target us. Why? It was mainly because of Mao's "whatever" theory: political reform should be handed down from one generation to other. During the Cultural Revolution, while many landlords or rich peasants were already dead, their sons and daughters, regardless of their good working records, were summoned back to villages for receiving denunciation on behalf of their ancestors. They had a bad family background. We were only in our 40s, but even people in their 70s and 80s . . .
Q: Was your house searched during the Cultural Revolution?
Mei: When the Cultural Revolution started, I thought that this time we wouldn't be affected because I thought my husband was cleared in the "removal of the four olds" campaign. At the beginning... the rebels came to my house to have a look. They said to me, "Life is not easy for you. You have already sent two children away to Xingjiang. . ." They said that they came here for the "anti-four old" campaign. . . At the time, I was also on the household committee. I saw things found in some households, such as hand guns or pictures of Chiang Kai-shek (member of the Kuomintang). I thought there was something wrong with these families. Why on earth would they want to hide those things? Our family was also searched. . . Later, I realized that families like mine were at the bottom of society, and were targets of the class struggle. Whenever political campaigns came, they would always land above our heads.
Q: How did they inspect the houses?
Mei: When the task team suspected something was hidden inside the ceiling, they simply opened the ceiling; when they suspected something was hidden in the walls, they broke into the wall. All the trees and plants in my garden were uprooted. But they found nothing, and they finally withdrew from my house after a week or two.
While the search team remained in our house, I was confined to one room, and my husband was confined in another room. They didn't allow us to have any contact. The search team bombarded us with questions everyday, and then carried on with their searching.

This was an interview with a friend of my family, Yu Chan.
When were you born?
I was born in 1942, and I was the first child of my family.

How was life like during the Persecution of Intellectuals, the Four Olds, and Enemies of Mao?
At the time, my father was being incarcerated for mass criticisms of Mao. He stayed in a room by himself for six days of the week, but he got to come out every Sunday because the guards had that day off. The criticism sessions were originally held once every three days. But because they were too monotonous and repetitious, they were eventually held only once a week. Despite all of that, the most horrible thing that happened to us, was that my father's work pay was suspended. When that happened, the work unit only gave the family 26 yuan for 'living expenses.' At the time, all targeted individuals were given the same 26 yuan standard 'living expenses' all around the country. I have no idea which department in Beijing made up this figure. I have gone through all sorts of documents from the Cultural Revolution era and I cannot locate this source. This is a bitter number for me, because I keep thinking about it over and over. What sort of person took the thirty days of a month, subtracted the four Sundays and then gave one yuan per day?

Of course, they had figured that it was a single person. But did they not know that many targeted individuals have families with many members? And that the targeted individuals may be the sole wage earner in the family? Moreover, did they not know that people have to eat on Sundays as well? I hated that they gave us so little money, that even one person would have barely been able to survive on that.

For my family, the 26 yuan per month was needed to sustain the following people:

My 45 year old father, because they did not provide free meals, my grandmother, who was 75 years old, my mother, who was 44 years old, me, when I was 21, my female cousin, who was 19, my oldest brother, who was 15, my second brother, who was 10, and my youngest brother, who was 7.

There were eight of us and we had no other source of income... We all had to live off of 26 yuan for a month. We obviously had no savings -- nobody did at the time. On the average, we got ten cents per person per day. After subtracting the rent, water and electricity, we got seven cents per person per day. This was not extra spending money -- this was our entire daily personal budget. All of our money was spent on food, and even then, that wasn't enough for us.

Relatives who live in extreme hunger should not be together. Looking at the little food on the table, we would always offer it to the others. My mother would say that she ate already. My grandmother would say that her stomach did not feel good. Those were all lies. Even my eight-year-old little brother could see through them and he put down his chopsticks too. We were all frustrated with our situation, but there was nothing we could do about it.

How was your father while he was incarcerated?
I went with my cousin and my younger brother to visit my father. He looked tired. He stared at us for a while. He called out our names. It frightened me to hear him say next, "I am okay. The uncle in Anhui province will help with the family affairs. You must obey your grandmother and your mother." Then he smiled again and he instructed us, "Please bring the khaki uniform with the paint stains on the shoulder the next time. I would like to wear it."

I didn't want to accept it, but it was shouting right out at us. It was clear to us that my father intended to commit suicide.

Why did your father want to commit suicide?
My father had seen that the longer the criticism sessions go, the more problems will emerge. The only way to shorten the duration was to commit suicide. After a suicide, there is usually a mass session held in front of the body but that is liable to pass by quickly as attention goes towards new targets. He was hoping that his children would get by while the world forgets about him.

My father had figured that he was already forty-five years and he has lived long enough already. None of his eight siblings had lived past 30 years old. His little brother in Anhui was a lot younger than him. He was only waiting for news from this brother, whom we had not heard from for more than two months. He didn't want to kill himself without making sure there would be someone to watch over us.

He did not dare to write his brother about how bad things were here in Shanghai. If things were going well in Anhui, then such a letter would spoil things; if things were not going well in Anhui, then a letter would only make it worse. He hoped that things were well over there. If there was someone to look after the family, he can leave quickly so that people can forget about him. So when my mother went to see him again several days later, he asked for that khaki uniform again. He had intended to leave the world wearing it.

While my father waited for news from my uncle, my grandmother and mother waited at home. They did not know if they should write my uncle. Finally, one day, my grandmother said, "We are going to all starve to death if we don't write." So I ended up writing the letter to my uncle and I mailed it out to Anhui about our situation.

What happened after you sent the letter?
After about a week, I went home. When I entered, I sensed that something was terribly wrong. My grandmother and my mother both rushed over to meet me. Everything that happened to me that day still remains in my head as if it happened yesterday.

My mother blurted out the first words: "Your uncle has passed away."

"What!?" I was stunned. My mind had went blank over the sudden news.

"It was a stomach problem." My grandmother's voice came from far, far away.

I woke up suddenly and I turned to look at my grandmother. This was the face of a mother of ten children who had just lost her youngest son! I was at a loss for words.

My grandmother added: "Your mother and I went to Bangbo (Anhui) to retrieve his ashes." I thought that she might cry, but she did not.

She was too distant, I could tell that there was something else wrong. My grandmother and my mother were both really bad at lying. I got my grandmother to sit down and I said to my mother, "Tell me!"

Briefly, my mother told me that my uncle had committed suicide. I was shocked to hear that even my uncle was affected by the actions of Mao. My grandmother realized that suicide was a crime in those days, and did not want to tell us. My uncle was just an ordinary technician. He was hardly an authority figure. Why did they pick on him?

My mother told me that when the Cultural Revolution began, they were looking for the "forces of evil" and the "reactionary academic authorities." But Bangbu was just a tiny place and there were certainly no academic authorities there, so they picked on my uncle. He had said that he liked the novel <> and he was therefore poisoning the people.

<>? I could not believe that it was over this book. My uncle did not let me read that book, because he insisted that it was too "pessimistic." Why would they attack my uncle all because of a book that he read?

My mother told me that they hauled him onto the garbage truck and paraded him around the city. When they got back, he continued to argue with the rebels that <> was an excellent classic. For this, they said that he had a bad attitude and they paraded him around the city again. In the end, he slit his wrists with a razor blade.

For the Yu family, this was an earth-shattering event.

My father immediately realized that he no longer had the right to commit suicide. Without our uncle, he could let our family go without any support. He could not let our grandmother lose her youngest son first and then her only remaining son now.

What happened after that traumatic event?
My cousin and I applied to every school in order to go to the countryside so that we can live on our own. My oldest brother was 18 years old already; he would join a fishing fleet and help out the family. My mother would take care of the two young boys. Later on, I found out that she went to perform manual labor at a small factory. My grandmother would stare at the sky everyday and say her Buddhist prayers.

This is an interview with Quan Tran, my father.

When were you born?

I was born in 1949.

So you were around 17 when Mao started the Cultural Revolution?

Yes.

What was your life like in the time leading up to the Cultural Revolution?

Our family lived in Guangzhou during the Communist rule over China. I had a sister 2 years younger than me, a brother 5 years younger than me, and another sister 6 years younger than me. My dad worked at a steel factory, and my mom worked as a tailor, producing clothes for the people of China. Apparently, it was incredible that my mom was given the chance to start working, as before I was born, women weren't given many rights at all. In fact, because of Mao, she received new rights such as the ability to work and many other rights that men had but she didn't. We were a happy family, and I loved every part of it. My oldest sister, my brother, and I all went to school so that we could make a good life. Times were good back then, but it didn't last that long until the Cultural Revolution started.

Were you a part of the Red Guards?

Yes, but it wasn't of my own free will. The other students at my school in Guangzhou basically forced me to become a part of the Red Guards. To them, it was either join the Red Guards and go against my own parents, or to be punished by all of the Red Guards for being anti-Communist. Now, there were a lot of Red Guards from around our area, and I was honestly scared of what they could have done to me, but the thought of having to go against my parents sounded like such a horrible idea to me. It was an extremely hard choice, but I caved and joined up with the Red Guards.

At first, we had officials from the Communist Party of China watching over to make sure that our movements were kept under control. Some groups of Red Guards in my home town went rebel, swayed by the officials, and attacked members of the Red Guard that were from a family that had an ancestry of supporting Communism or that used to be a land owner. I considered myself extremely lucky for not being attacked by these rebel groups of Red Guard. My biggest fear at that time was to be attacked by one of these Red Guard groups. However, my fears were resolved temporarily around a month later when Mao ordered the removal of the Communist officials from our towns, and the removal of rebel Red Guards groups.

Did any of your other siblings join the Red Guard as well?

I wouldn't know, as I have not seen or heard of them ever since I joined the Red Guard, and they were in a different school at the time. However, I have a feeling that they did join the Red Guards, as even though I don't know what happened to them, I have a feeling that they are alive somewhere out there.

What were you forced to do as a Red Guard?

As a Red Guard, we were forced to do many things for the glory of Mao. The first thing that he made us do was to go to Tienanmen Square, and listen to his speech about what he intended for us to do. We all had to take the railroads over to Beijing, but all the trips were paid for by Mao. By the time that all of the Red Guards met up at Tienanmen Square to see Mao, there were probably millions of Red Guards there. I still remember all of the sights and sounds there. Mao and Lin Biao would often appear to talk to all of us, and whenever they went up to speak, every one of us would cheer at them. They would take their turns to speak to us about how we were doing a good job at spreading socialist ideas and democracy. Mao even put on a red arm band, the sign of the Red Guards, to show that he supported us.

What else did Mao and Lin Biao talk about at Tienanmen Square?

After praising us for our effort, they told us all that we had a job to do for communism and China. Mao told us that we were to destroy the “Four Olds” of China, so that he could start anew with his ideas. At the time, many of us were all basically brainwashed by his words, so we all immediately went to work to destroy the “Four Olds.” Mao explained to us, that they were Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas. Additionally, we were to persecute any intellectuals, as they were said to have represented the Four Olds, and were the people that would try to bring them back. Mao didn't really explain in detail what “old” was to him, so many of us simply decided to eliminate everything that wasn't Communist.

Did you go through with this act?

I did help destroy the Four Olds, but I did not in any way want to do such an act. I was deeply interested in the history of China, and I didn't want to destroy any of the things that they told us to destroy, such as architecture, literature, paintings, antiques, and information about family lines. However, if I didn't commit such acts, I would have been prosecuted as being capitalist or anti-Communist, and punished just as any other people were at the time. I believe that our group of Red Guards destroyed hundreds or possibly thousands of artifacts in Guangzhou, and were forced to punish any people that were found to be in possession of any of the Four Olds. We also looked for any scholars or teachers, and used them as examples of what would happen to the Four Olds. We harassed, imprisoned, tortured, and even killed some of these intellectuals endlessly to show to the people that Mao wasn't playing around, and that the Red Guards weren't either. However, I was disgusted that we were forced to do such things to people. Additionally, I was thankful that I did not have to see my parents during our actions, and see their suffering to see their son be part of the Red Guards.

What else were you forced to do?

Although we weren't really “forced” to do so, many Red Guards groups started to attack people that we believed had bourgeois elements instead of settling peacefully. We attacked any people we believed to be against Mao or Communism physically and mentally. Some of them would be sent off to work in demeaning tasks such as cleaning toilets or they would just be imprisoned until they fixed their ways. For some groups of bourgeois that we captured, we brought in firing squads to randomly shoot people, while others were left alive. Seeing their faces full of fear will stay forever on my mind, and I can't get it out. However, I honestly doubted that some of these people were really bourgeois, but I couldn't really object to the other members of my group or face severe punishment. Eventually, Mao gave us a job to look for capitalist members that had a position of power, even up to the highest rankings of the Communist Party. We attacked many top party officials for their right wing views, and it was scary to think that in our nation that day, anybody could have been attacked for being capitalist.

Did your group of Red Guards ever face any opposition to your actions?

Yes, eventually, in some of the buildings that we visited, we face opposition form the workers and peasants there. We would get into many fights with those workers and peasants to get entrance into the buildings so that we could fulfill the will of Mao. Additionally, some Red Guards became extreme radicals, and found our actions to not be the correct way of doing things or our backgrounds weren't good enough to be part of the Red Guard. These groups attacked us, and I believe that other groups did the same, so there was some inner conflicts in the Red Guard groups.

What happened after that?
Well, I got tired of seeing all the chaos, killings, and fighting, so I decided to run away to a different place. During the night, when the other Red Guards were sleeping, I decided to run away from them, Mao, and China. I remembered that the closest place was probably going to be Vietnam, so I made my way from Guangzhou all the way to Vietnam. It was an extremely long journey, and I felt like giving up on my journey a couple of times, but I eventually found my way to Vietnam after what seemed like an eternity of walking, hiding from Red Guard, and looking for food. I also found out that some of my family members also lived in Vietnam, and eventually made my way over to their house, to find my uncle and aunt. Because I was now in Vietnam, I was forced to change my last name to Tran, and after a few years in Vietnam, our family eventually moved over to America.

Looking back on it, why do you think that so many people joined the Red Guards?

Hmm... I think that many of them joined because of all the ideas that Mao had pouring into our heads. He was seen as our great leader, and was very charismatic. Growing up, we were basically taught to follow the red flag of Communism. We were taught that whenever Mao told us to do something, we should do that. He heavily advertized being a Red Guard all over China, and after some students joined up with the Red Guard, I guess that the others were persuaded to follow them.

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.”