"Long live Chairman Mao; good health to Vice Chairman Lin!": Vivid Memories from the Countryside

Interviewer: Thank you for accepting my interview.

You’re welcome.

Interviewer: Were you born in the 1940s, ‘50s, or ‘60s?

I was born in the ‘50s.

Interviewer: Where were you living in China between 1966 and 1976?

I lived in Jing County of Hebei Province.

Interviewer: Is it a town or a rural area?

It’s a rural area.

Interviewer: I see. You were about ten years old at that time – anyway, old enough to remember things that happened.

Yes, I remember things.

Interviewer: If we give you about ten minutes, could you tell us about the things you remember?

I will try my best.

Interviewer: Sure, give it a try. Go ahead.

The first time I heard of Culture Revolution,

grown-ups were talking about the "rough outline" and "fine outline". I did not understand.

Later, when the Cultural Revolution started, China split into two-party struggle, right?

Interviewer: I've heard of that – two-party [struggle].

In my neighborhood, I think there was one party called the “Red Union,”

Interviewer: Oh, "Red Union."

-and its counterpart was called “520” – probably because it was founded on May 12th [20th].

Interviewer: Ah, 520.

Right. Because I was young, the saddest thing in my mind was my failure to become a Little Red Guard.

Interviewer: Why did you fail to be a Little Red Guard?

Because our family were "middle peasants".

Interviewer: Oh, a social status problem.

Right. Children of “poor and lower-middle peasants” and “farmworkers” got priority in becoming Little Red Guards.

I thought I genuinely loved Chairman Mao, and often yelled out the slogan “Long live Chairman Mao.”

At the time I really regretted not being a Little Red Guard.

I cried every time I saw others wearing the red armband.

Why did I cry? Because I didn't get to be a Little Red Guard.

Later I thought, forget it, one day I will have the chance to be a Red Guard.

However, only middle school students could be Red Guards.

I failed to go to middle school.

I only had schooling for four years and three months, before I dropped out.

Interviewer: Why did you drop out? Was it for this same reason [being a child of “middle peasants”]?

No. I could go to school in our village from first through fourth grade.

But after that, I had to go to another village for school.

If I went, my family’s pigs and sheep would have no one to feed them.

I was always in charge of cutting grass to feed to the pigs and sheep.

As a result, I only managed to do three months [of grade 5]

before my parents kept me from continuing.

Interviewer: Your family didn’t support you going to school?

Right. I needed to stay at home, cutting grass, feeding pigs and sheep,

and cooking. I did all the housework.

Interviewer: How many brothers and sisters do you have?

I have four older brothers. I am the only girl.

Interviewer: There's just one girl?

Right. Among the four older brothers, only my third brother continued going to school.

Interviewer: They all worked?

Yes. My third brother was very good at school; his grades were the best in the whole county.

In order for him to continue going to school, the other brothers all stayed at home to work, just like me.

Interviewer: Did your family own the pigs and sheep?

[Yes.] We also had chickens. One pig, one sheep, and a few chickens—they were our “family bank.”

Interviewer: So they were your family’s alone—they didn’t belong to the production team?

No, they didn’t. Selling them each year before Lunar New Year meant money.

At that time, working at the production team only earned “work points” and some food, not money,

because people were poor back then. Work points were as good as money to them.

Another thing I remember well was working in the farmland every day after I turned 11.

I thought it was fun. Every day I held the red flag and went to the farmland to work.

Interviewer: Oh, carried a red flag?

Yes! The militia company leader held a red flag.

We did not have the right to hold red flags, because we were “middle peasants.”

The militia company leader or the political instructor held the red flag when heading to work in the fields.

After arriving in the fields, we stuck the red flags in the ground,

and everyone stood together and sang “The East is Red" --

Interviewer: You all sang "The East is Red".

We all sang "The East is Red,"

and then said, “Long live Chairman Mao; good health to Vice Chairman Lin!”

Interviewer: Your memories are so clear!

Yes. After we finished farm work [for the day],

we would sing “Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman” together.

Interviewer: That was the song for finishing work.

Right. We finally went home, and [we] had to gather firewood, make a fire, cook dinner –

but we still couldn't eat just yet.

Before we ate, we stood and bowed three times in front of Chairman Mao’s portrait,

[and said], “Great Leader Chairman Mao, it is you who gives us happy lives and food to eat.

Many thanks to our Great Leader Chairman Mao.”

Interviewer: Who led you to do this?

My mom.

Interviewer: Did your mom lead a group of people in doing this?

[Yes.] If we didn’t do this, and we were seen by the neighbors,

the next day we’d be the ones being struggled against.

Rural villagers like carrying their supper dishes,

eating dinner while they go from house to house visiting each other.

If [other villagers] saw [we] did not acknowledge Chairman Mao [before meals],

it would be a huge problem.

The next day we would have been struggled against in the “cow shed.”

At that time, the production team was too poor to have its own office.

Collective activities were all held in “cow sheds.”

Every night after dinner, when the bell tolled,

every one needed to go to the "cow shed" for a meeting.

Someone – I'm not sure if it was the team leader or the secretary --

read newspapers out loud.

Then, the struggle started against the landlords and the rich peasants,

the so-called "five black categories," in the village, one after another.

Some landlords were even beaten.

I saw adults beat them and wondered, “Why are you beating them?

They look really nice.” But I didn’t dare speak up.

There was one time that I was almost involved.

There was an old woman in my neighborhood, a wealthy peasant.

She had a good relationship with our family, even during the Cultural Revolution period.

The old woman was illiterate.

Although I had only a four-year-and-three-month education,

I was one of the most highly-educated people in our village.

During struggle meetings, the person struggled against had to wear a pointed paper hat,

which was made of dry straw and paste and had insulting things written on it,

such as “I was a landlady; I was...; etc.”

The old woman did not know how to write, so she let me help her.

Interviewer: Oh, she had you write it.

[Yes.] After I had written, I stuck the hat together. I remember this so well.

I helped her be struggled against by making this hat.

The paper hat that I made for her was the most technically-demanding thing I did [in those years of the Cultural Revolution].

After I turned 16, I thought I could be a militia woman.

Back then there were a lot of movies about militia women. Chairman Mao said [in a poem],

“Valiant and heroic in bearing, with rifles five-foot long / They stand on the parade ground bathed in the morning glow /

In China how unique and lofty are the ideals of the young / Who love battle array instead of gay attire in show” [Gu, 2010].

I thought I could finally be a militia member.

I hadn't been able to be a Red Guard, but I could join the militia.

However, I was not distributed a gun, due to my social status as a “middle peasant” child.

Interviewer: Again, it was a social status problem.

Right. I was still a “middle peasant.”

Only children from “poor and lower-middle peasant” families could be given guns to protect Chairman Mao.

Interviewer: Were they real guns?

Yes, real guns.

Everybody else got bullets, and got to lie on the ground and shoot targets.

I didn’t get to touch the guns.

Feeling disappointed, I went back home and asked my parents,

“Why are you ‘middle peasants’?!”

My mom said, “Being a “middle peasant” has already been good for you.

We could have been a landlord family.”

So I asked her, “Why would we have been a landlord family?”

She told me, “Back when your grandmother was trying to marry off your aunt,

a bandit had a crush on your aunt and stole her away.

He robbed our family of everything we had.

If he hadn’t stolen everything,

and if we hadn’t had to sell off our houses and land [because of it],

we would have been a wealthy peasant family!”

After that, I was not so upset. How fortunate that we were not wealthy peasants!

Otherwise, we would have to wear those pointy hats to be struggled against sometimes,

and maybe we would’ve been beaten as well.

[With this thought in mind,] I no longer felt miserable

about not being able to join the Red Guards or the militia.

Interviewer: You were no longer so sad about it.

Right. I got over it.

Interviewer: When did you leave the village?

When I was 18, because the art troupe in Jing County was recruiting.

I sang very well.

Interviewer: You have a very good voice.

Not right now. I have pharyngitis.

I was admitted because of my good voice and singing skills.

At that time there was still no TV.

There was an art troupe in Jing County,

the performers dragged the carts of props to the countryside.

We mostly performed short plays related to Chairman Mao.

The art troupe had three carts,

all the performers dragged the carts that were loaded with props to the countryside.

Interviewer: Did you perform in model dramas?

Yes.

Interviewer: Which roles did you perform?

Interviewer: Did you play [the role of] Tie Mei?

No, I was a singer.

The opera singers performed in model dramas such as Shajia Creek, Red Lantern, and Azalea Mountain.

[I] usually performed in short operas, [in different styles]

such as Shandong liuqin, Laiwu clapper, Hebei clapper, and ping ju.

Writers put them together on the spot, to relate to the Cultural Revolution.

Interviewer: You remember them so clearly. So many details.

I remember that my family was poor at that time.

Every time I wanted to buy a pen or notebook, I had to trade an egg for it.

At that time, whenever we bought something, we each had to first say one of these lines from Quotations from Chairman Mao.

The moment I arrived at the store, I said, “Serve the people.”

And the salesman/saleswoman responded, “Through and through.”

After that, I gave him/her the egg, and he/she gave me the notebook.

Interviewer: Did you feel it was funny?

No, it was very serious, and appropriate –

if you laughed, that would show disrespect to Chairman Mao, and then what would you do?

That would bring a lot of trouble.

[I’d say,] “The core force to lead our enterprise,”

and [the salesperson] had to chime in, “is the Chinese Communist Party.”

And then he/she would sell the thing to you.

That's it! If you failed to say it, that was not okay.

There was something more disgusting.

At night, we'd meet and sing in the "cow shed":

“The sky is large, the land is large, [but] not as large as the Party’s kindness. /

The father is close, the mother is close, [but] not as close as Chairman Mao. /

All the good things are not as good as socialism.”

There was a song like that, right?

Interviewer: Yes, right.

There was one idiot who sang,

“The father is close, the mother is close, [but] not as close as my wife.”

It was so bad.

If Chairman Mao is the closest, then how can your wife compete?

People just wouldn’t let it go.

Really, there were so many things like this.

-I also remember the incident concerning the Chairman Mao portrait badge.

The child [involved] was just a few years older than me.

This girl was about 17 or 18 years old.

At that time, people wore the Chairman Mao badge on the left side of the chest,

close to the heart.

Someone snatched her badge from her, and it tore her clothes.

Her father scolded her because of this. And then, this naive girl reported him to the militia company leader,

who discussed it with the political instructor.

As a result, her father was struggled against and convicted as an active counter-revolutionary.

The struggle lasted for about two months, before her father was sentenced to death.

Later he was shot. The girl lost her mind.

This is the most tragic event in my memories.

Interviewer: Did this happen in your village?

No, it happened in the neighboring village.

The guy who sang, “The father is close, the mother is close,

[but] not as close as my wife” was from our village.

Interviewer: Thank you very much.