Interviewer: Hello. Thank you for accepting my interview.
Interviewer: Could you tell me when you were born?
Interviewer: You can just say the decade, if you like – "‘50s," "‘60s," etc.
I was born in 1955.
Interviewer: Could you tell me where you lived during the decade between 1966 and 1976?
I lived in Huachuan County of Jiamusi City -- actually, it was a farm of the Corps, belonging to the Heilongjiang Production and Construction Corps, 3rd Division, 30th Regiment.
Interviewer: Wow, you remember it so clearly.
Interviewer: You said that you were born in the ‘50s, so we are the same generation.
Interviewer: We both experienced that decade, but each of our memories are surely different.
Interviewer: So, if I give you only ten minutes to speak freely about anything you want concerning the Cultural Revolution --
Interviewer: – your thoughts, comments, memories, how it affected your life later on, etc.– what would you say? You may say anything you like.
When the Cultural Revolution began in 1966, I was only about 11 or 12 years old – about to go to middle school.
I followed others to join the Cultural Revolution, becoming a member of the Red Guards when it was founded.
We went house to house every day spreading Mao Zedong Thought, standing in a row of five to eight people,
and reciting lines from
Quotations from Chairman Mao.
Each person recited one paragraph, before we finished and moved on to the next house.
Because the performance was meant to publicize Mao Zedong Thought, every family was very respectful,
listening to our recitations in reverence and silence.
After we finished the recitation performance at one house, we bowed to Chairman Mao’s portrait and moved on to the next house.
I remember this clearly.
Another thing [that I remember] is that during the Cultural Revolution, our Corps was divided into two factions,
and started engaging in violent struggle.
During that period, my brother, who was two years older than I, formally joined a Cultural Revolution combat team.
My father also joined a combat team. I don’t remember the exact names of these two teams –
maybe one was the Royalists, while the other was the anti-Royalists.
Anyway, they were opposites.
Interviewer: Oh, your father and brother belonged to opposite teams!
Yes, they were opposites. Then, they started to quarrel every time they had a meal together at home.
One said that his team was “revolutionary,” while the other said the same thing about his team.
Every time they parted on bad terms. But actually, we did not have any real violent struggle there.
One thing I remember really clearly is that… [You know,] we belonged to different companies of troops,
and every company had its own combat team.
The entire regiment was divided into two parties, and one was usually tougher than the other.
There was one time when we were all ready for the violent struggle.
All of the tractors were covered with iron sheets except for two holes in the front, and you could reach out on the side to grab a “zhaqiang.”
At that time, every home had those.
Interviewer: “Zhaqiang” ? What is that?
It’s one of those red-tasseled spears.
So every family prepared a “zhaqiang,” as well some long iron rods.
Some places had hunting rifles, too.
One event I remember very clearly is when someone said the rebel party intended to attack the other party in our company.
It scared us so much that every house closed its windows, and many other places, such as our dining hall,
were sealed up by bolting all the entrances -- only leaving a small opening behind.
At that time, people like my father were all holding weapons in the dining hall and getting ready to fight,
while we stayed at home, not daring to come out and just watching the other companies’ trucks hurtling past us.
But it ended okay; we did not have a fight that time.
Interviewer: What kind of [trucks]? Those adapted from tractors?
Yes, the ones adapted from tractors, plus “yetes,” which are four-wheeled tractors, and caterpillar tractors.
People from the other faction on the truck held red-tasseled spears, crowbars, and hunting rifles.
Interviewer: Sounds scary.
It was really scary. The two parties in my company were not usually violent.
They just debated. Because everyone knew each other in the company, the situation was not that serious.
Another thing is that sometimes we had struggle meetings that every one of us attended.
Every party gathered in a certain company, and every company had its rebel party hold the struggle meeting in one place.
They criticized current officials, like the factories’ leaders and the companies’ leaders.
At that time, those people were all denounced.
They also held oath-taking rallies, and I attended a few -- they were quite interesting.
In addition, during the Cultural Revolution, people from bad family backgrounds were hugely impacted,
especially landlords and the Rightists sent down to our Corps during the Anti-Rightist campaign.
Some of them were senior intellectuals, and they felt dejected, being sent to our Corps.
The worst was that some people took the opportunity to retaliate against those people from bad family backgrounds.
Some children we knew -- who were only five or six years older than us -- took leather belts,
and beat [the people with bad family backgrounds] to struggle against them.
Nobody dared to ask for compassion for [those people].
They looked pitiful.
So I remember, the Cultural Revolution was very clear and strict concerning its principle on family background.
If you were born with a bad family background, you had zero opportunities, not even the chance to be a soldier or go to school.
And later on, after 1967, ‘68, and ‘69, the Educated Youth went “up to the mountains and down to the countryside.”
Although it was still during the Cultural Revolution,
the Educated Youth started to form the “grand alliance” after they were sent down, and in general there was no more violent struggle.
The political alliances were more popular (and severe) during that period of time, and all the violent struggle combat teams were eliminated.
The Educated Youth came from all over China, such as Harbin, Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou.
They got along with the local people very well.
Interviewer: Yes. You reminded me of the “grand alliances” that we had back at that time.
Right. At that time, after forming the “grand alliance,” especially for places like ours where violent struggle was not very common,
people united quite quickly, and later, some senior cadres were released as well.
And then, there came the military controls, because, you know, we belonged to the Corps at that time.
Then, the active service members of the Corps, such as the regimental commanders and chiefs of staff
– people wearing collar and cap insignia – all came down to our place.
They were “active service members.”
Some companies also dispatched workers propaganda teams as well as...what were they called? Army propaganda teams -- they came, too.
Interviewer: What do you mean by “coming down”? Did they retire?
No, they didn’t retire, but it was no longer like being in the army.
Back at that time, we called ourselves “the local Eighth Route Army”
under control and command of active service members,
not demobilized service members. Demobilized service members did not wear badges on their collars or caps.
Interviewer: During the violent struggle, did the active service members take part?
No, at the time of the violent struggle, there were not any active service members.
It was still a farm at that time.
When we first moved in at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, it was a farm; later on it was adapted into a Corps.
We were the Production and Construction Corps, and we belonged to the 3rd Division, 30th Regiment.
Interviewer: Then after [it became a Corps], you started to have active service members joining in?
Yes. It was later on that we had active service members commanding us.
Interviewer: You remember a lot of details. Did the Cultural Revolution impact your family or personal life?
It seems like it didn’t have a particular influence.
During the Cultural Revolution, ordinary people still focused on what they needed to do,
because we had farms, and I remember we still had private plots at that time.
Although Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqi were severely criticized, we kept farming around our house,
and were even assigned some private plots for a few years.
Every year there was a sign put up saying which piece of land was ours, and that we could plough it.
Interviewer: That’s good. I found it an interesting detail that your father and brother belonged to different factions. [Laughs.]
Yes. They both attempted to persuade the other to quit his combat team, but neither of them succeeded.
However, in the end, it was always my father who got angry and scared my brother.
It was his patriarchal style, acting like he was going to hit [my brother] when debate and persuasion didn’t work.
Interviewer: Do you have anything else you want to say?
If you want to talk about a ten-year period, that’s a long time, ’66 to ’76.
In the later stage of the Cultural Revolution, Educated Youth
going “up to the mountains and down to the countryside” gave local cultural enterprises a lot of help,
since when they came down, we had already started to “resume classes and make revolution.”
It was around 1967 and 1968 when we started to “resume classes and make revolution.”
During the early phase [of the Cultural Revolution], we had "suspended classes to make revolution."
After we started “resuming classes and making revolution,” generally it was the Educated Youth who came to act as our teachers.
Their level of cultural cultivation was much higher than that of us local people…We benefited a lot from them.
They had a great positive influence on our culture and thinking, every aspect.
They brought their urban ideas to our local place. This was really good.
Later, in 1971, I started to work.
Interviewer: Where did those Educated Youth come from? Beijing? Shanghai?
[They came from places such as] Beijing, Shanghai, Harbin, Hangzhou – all over.
In addition, I remember clearly that these Educated Youths were divided into factions, based on the places they had come from.
They also got into fights from time to time.
Interviewer: What was their relationship with local people?
It was excellent -- quite harmonious.
At that time, in response to appeals from Chairman Mao,
the Educated Youths went “up to the mountains and down to the countryside” to receive re-education from Poor and Lower-Middle Peasants.
Most of the Educated Youths were humble about receiving education from the peasants,
and the peasants were also open-minded about learning from them, because they had never received much education.
They maintained a relatively good rapport with each other.
Interviewer: I think this is an interesting interview -- you thought about the Educated Youths from the perspective of the local people.
Right! If we hadn’t had [the influence of] these Educated Youths, [we] could not have done better in college and work.
Interviewer: So, you can affirm their influence on the local culture.
Yes. Without them, our local culture and education could not have reached a higher level.
There were quite a lot of Educated Youths coming down to our place,
and msot had been highly educated in the cities -- especially those from the “old three classes.”
What’s more, they worked hard and integrated with the locals.
Teaching greatly depended on them. Wasn’t it in 1972 that we started to have Worker-Peasant-Soldier students?
Interviewer: Did those [Educated Youth] from the city actually stay in the countryside?
Some of them actually stayed and integrated with the local people; for example, some married local people.
After marrying a local, they waited to go back to the city, but had no way to go back, so they stayed in the countryside.
Even now, there are a few from the Corps still there, but those are rare cases.
Most of the Educated Youths left. Some divorced in order to go back to the city. Only a few stayed.
I want to say that these Educated Youths were very helpful to us.
At that time, if you went to college, you were a Worker-Peasant-Soldier student.
We local people thought going to college was something only for the Educated Youths – we didn’t even dream about [attending college].
Although it was true that it was mostly Educated Youths selected as Worker-Peasant-Soldier students,
some local people also “borrowed the glory” and were recommended [for college admission].
I was a Worker-Peasant-Soldier student; I followed [the Educated Youths] and went to college in 1975.
That was when the Cultural Revolution was almost over.
Interviewer: Thank you for accepting my interview.
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