"Worker-Peasant-Soldier students did not have the knowledge they should have had."

Interviewer: Hello. Thank you for accepting my interview.

Interviewer: First, please tell me in which decade you were born. You don't need to say the exact year.

I was born in the 1950s.

Interviewer: 1950s. Next, could you tell me where you lived in China from 1966 to 1976?

Changchun.

Someone your age probably has quite a few memories of the 10 years from '66 to '76.

Interviewer: Even given days and nights to speak, you might not be able to talk about them all. So, if I only give you about 10 minutes,

Interviewer: and say you don't need to organize your speech or think about what we need, what memories would you most want to share with us?

Everyone's situation during the Cultural Revolution was different.

Everyone's impression of the Cultural Revolution is also different.

Interviewer: I agree.

For example, back then, class struggle was emphasized.

For landlords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries, and bad elements, plus rightists,

and later "capitalist-roaders" as well,

the persecution they felt during the Cultural Revolution would certainly have left them with a certain perception.

If you were a worker, a farmer, or a soldier, or if you were just a regular person in society, that is to say not one of the "five black categories,"

and not one of "those in power," your impression would be different as well.

So, I get the feeling that besides a person's environment,

a person's position or status at the time [also influenced] his or her understanding [of the Cultural Revolution].

Interviewer: I agree.

At that time, I had just graduated from junior high school.

In 1966, if you had just graduated junior high school, then you should have taken the high school entrance exam, but to the contrary, I didn't.

At the time, I was at Jilin Province's best junior high school.

It had a great influence in the northeast, and in the whole country; it was the junior high affiliated with Northeast Normal University.

I can't say I was a top-notch student, but every student in our school was quite good.

Interviewer: So modest.

Each year, our students were separated into four classes, about 180 or 190 people, no more than 200.

They all tested in, so everyone was pretty studious.

In 1966, the Cultural Revolution started. At that time, we students didn't understand social class, or politics; we didn't get all that.

We were just responding to the government's call by joining studies and the great criticism.

If it was said that so-and-so was a "capitalist-roader," how he or she was "taking the capitalist road," we'd criticize that person with righteous indignation.

That was how we responded to the call.

But when the Cultural Revolution started, it started in full-force; it was a mass movement.

Great criticism, the Destroy the Four Olds campaign, searching houses to confiscate possessions, violent struggle--

at that time, many cities, including the one we lived in, were engaged in violent struggle.

[These activities] were concentrated in a period of about two years, until the establishment of the revolutionary committee in 1968, when things calmed down a bit.

Something I remember well is that some people seemed half-crazed, while others seemed intoxicated as they joined in the movement.

In many families, the father and children, or the husband and wife had different points of views, and they'd debate at home.

Of course, it wasn't that they had an individual motive, that they were doing it for themselves.

[It was that] they had completely different understandings of some issue within the Cultural Revolution.

People within families, or in different levels of society, naturally had different perceptions.

They separated into two or three factions, and their conflicting points of view developed into violent struggle.

There was fighting, and in some places, firearms were used.

Interviewer: Really? Did you encounter this?

Of course! At that time, I was a teenager, about 16 or 17 years old, and I joined in on these things.

Interviewer: Did you actually fire a gun?

I never fired a gun--never--but out in society, in the crowd, they were definitely being used.

Interviewer: Prior to this, I thought guns were only used in Sichuan [Province].

[It was] later on, when the violent struggle got really intense...Because we were all pretty good students, we went to Beijing.

We stayed there for a while, but of course we couldn't keep living in Beijing, so we had to go back home.

One our way back, I went to Hebei [Province], since that's where my family's original home is. At that time, I was somewhat carefree.

I can't say I was totally fed up with the Cultural Revolution, but I didn't join in energetically, and instead went back to our old place [in Hebei].

Some of my classmates went from Beijing back to Changchun, but [the train] couldn't go into the Changchun station.

At Siping, there was a fork in the railway; since train couldn't go on into Changchun station, it went from Shenyang straight to Jilin [Station].

People were fighting with machine guns and rifles.

So, Changchun Station was closed off and couldn't be used. [The train] went straight from Shenyang to Jilin Station. I heard about all this later.

After about a month, I returned to Changchun. I could not believe my eyes.

There were bullet holes in the walls, and I heard that around 20 people, more than 20 people had been killed.

Interviewer: Who was engaged in the violent struggle? Were they students, or workers?

The majority were students, with just a few workers and a few leadership cadres.

In that era, such leadership cadres were called "liangxiang" [meaning they favored one faction].

Previously, leadership cadres were among those being criticized, but if their viewpoint supported one faction or the other,

they counted as that faction's "liangxiang," and that faction protected that person.

Interviewer: They protected this person?

They protected this person. When the faction had an activity, this leadership cadre would also take part.

in Changchun, during the violent struggle in front of the [train] station on 9-18, some leadership cadres were killed by gunfire.

Interviewer: Had they purposely selected this date? Or was it a coincidence [that it was the same date as the 1931 Manchurian Incident]?

I'm not sure of the concrete reason, either, since I wasn't in Changchun at the time.

When I left Changchun, [people were fighting with] clubs, steel rods made into spears, or bricks.

Later, when it became more serious like this, I didn't get involved.

After experiencing this period of the Cultural Revolution, I felt really down. It seemed different from when it had started,

when we wanted to "combat and prevent revisionism," persevere on the socialist road, and stick with Chairman Mao's vision for the Cultural Revolution.

Moreover, all the killing and wounding was sickening.

I participated in the whole Cultural Revolution after I graduated junior high in 1966.

I took part, and I understood the situation, but of course the entire course of events... The feeling I had was [like I just described].

My position was just that of a student, so of course the movement didn't touch upon me; I was not criticized.

My father was a cadre, not one of "those in power," and he didn't talk about going down the capitalist road, so he wasn't affected.

[Our] feelings toward this part of the movement were quite different from others'.

Some people had their houses searched, their possessions confiscated;

some had their heads shaved in "yin-yang" style, black ink smeared on their faces.

Our family didn't experience these things, so our feelings are certainly different.

From 1966 to 1968, the Cultural Revolution carried on like a violent thunderstorm.

After that, in 1968, Chairman Mao [called on] Educated Youth to go to rural villages and receive re-education from the peasants.

We answered the call and went to the rural villages to join production teams and organize collective households.

At the time, the idea was still to respond to Chairman Mao's call; it really was "When Chairman Mao raises a hand, I step forward."

Chairman Mao called for going "down to the countryside," and we tried to outdo one another.

If you went late, or weren't willing to go, or made up an excuse not to go, it was seen as really shameful -- why were you being like that?

Of course, life was not easy for us in the countryside, but on the other hand, it toughened us, and we got to see what China's rural villages were like.

Although at that time the entire country was pretty poor, [those of us] in the cities still had absolutely no understanding of rural villages, peasants, and farming.

[We] "never moved our arms and legs, and couldn't distinguish the five crops," [as the saying goes]. We really couldn't tell one from the other.

After [I'd spent] two years in a rural village, the cities were recruiting workers. I was called to work in a factory.

My period in the countryside was the shortest: one year and ten months, and then I was chosen to go back [to the city]. Of course, it was because of my performance.

The Poor and Lower-Middle Peasants of the farming community recommended me, and the leader approved, so then I went back [to the city] to become a factory worker.

[I worked] until 1973, when Worker-Peasant-Soldier students were recruited.

Interviewer: To go to university.

At first, there was a test, and I took part.

There were five subjects tested in all at the time, and we tested four of them. The fifth one was chemistry, but that exam was cancelled.

Why? Because of Zhang Tiesheng, Mr. "Blank Exam Paper," [who was acclaimed for refusing to take a national exam on physics and chemistry in 1973].

Of course, when we tested those four subjects, the district I was in--

Interviewer: Your grades must've been good.

My grades were quite good.

Interviewer: Certainly.

I got a 97 in math, the third best score in [our] district.

Interviewer: You'd [graduated from] junior high school, and still had an academic foundation.

Right, the foundation was still there. There were several questions I absolutely [couldn't answer].

There was no time to review. What's more, I didn't have any books to read; I absolutely couldn't find any books.

Interviewer: So you were really just depending on what you had learned earlier.

Yes, exactly. So, everything was cancelled—the test scores were also canceled, as was the [chemistry] test.

So, I was accepted into what is called Northeast Normal University today; at the time it was Jilin Normal University.

I went to Worker-Peasant-Soldier student university and became a Worker-Peasant-Soldier student.

After attending for three years, I graduated and became a teacher, and worked as a government cadre. That's how my experience went.

One thing I have deep feelings about is a contradiction.

Among people of my own age, I was neither the worst nor the best, but altogether you could say I was one of the lucky ones.

That's because in 1973, during the Cultural Revolution, I went to university, which most people were not able to do. I had the opportunity to get an education.

However, [I went to university] during the Cultural Revolution; Worker-Peasant-Soldier students were looked down upon afterward; our knowledge of culture was definitely lacking.

Compared to today's students, or those who went to university before the Cultural Revolution, it's certainly inferior.

When we first started going to university, we were energetic and hardworking. Even before our calculus class started, I had done all the problems in the book.

Later on, "apolitical academics" started being criticized once again. All these political movements put me in no mood for studying, so I didn't.

One lucky thing, as far as students were concerned, was that the burden of studying became a bit lighter as we went on.

In our three years [at university], we didn't have a single test. Today's tests, credits, and reports--we didn't have any of that!

It was a lucky, carefree way of completing university. However, after graduating, I didn't feel so fortunate.

Among people of that generation, [I] was lucky, but I also have a great feeling of regret. Those three years hadn't really been used for acquiring knowledge. This is a--

Interviewer: A life-long regret.

Yes, a regret. Later, we Worker-Peasant-Soldier students began working in education and scientific research, and felt we lacked knowledge of basic facts and theories, making things quite difficult.

Interviewer: I can understand that. Thank you for accepting my interview.