WEBVTT 1 00:00:04.170 --> 00:00:07.530 align:center line:-1Interviewer: Thank you for accepting our interview. 2 00:00:07.540 --> 00:00:17.980 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Could you first tell us where you lived in mainland China during the ten years of the Cultural Revolution? 3 00:00:17.990 --> 00:00:23.600 align:center line:-1 I am from Beijing. During the Cultural Revolution, I was in Beijing. 4 00:00:23.610 --> 00:00:28.000 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Could you tell us whether you were born in the 1950s or 1960s? 5 00:00:28.010 --> 00:00:30.000 align:center line:-1 I was born in the 1950s. 6 00:00:30.010 --> 00:00:36.940 align:center line:-1 During the ten years of the Cultural Revolution, I went through elementary school, middle school, and high school. 7 00:00:36.950 --> 00:00:40.970 align:center line:-1 The start of my working life was also during the Cultural Revolution period. 8 00:00:40.980 --> 00:00:54.550 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: If we give you ten minutes to talk about your most unforgettable memories or the scenes your remember most clearly, 9 00:00:54.560 --> 00:01:04.130 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: ...or to speak about your own thoughts or feelings regarding the Cultural Revolution, what do you most want to share with us? 10 00:01:04.140 --> 00:01:11.990 align:center line:-1 From the point of view of almost all Chinese people, the Cultural Revolution was a major event. 11 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:18.630 align:center line:-1 I mean during that era. During the 1960s, we had just started elementary school. 12 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:31.640 align:center line:-1 It was a few years after the “difficult period” ["three years of natural disaster"], and society felt stable and harmonious. 13 00:01:31.650 --> 00:01:39.980 align:center line:-1 Students would just study or play, and everything was pretty good. 14 00:01:39.990 --> 00:01:47.320 align:center line:-1 But all of a sudden, the Cultural Revolution came, and it seemed like everything changed overnight. 15 00:01:47.330 --> 00:01:52.990 align:center line:-1 The biggest change at school was that kids didn't need to go to school anymore! 16 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:56.990 align:center line:-1 We got a vacation, because the teachers had to engage in the Cultural Revolution. 17 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:03.640 align:center line:-1 Another change happened among our neighbors. 18 00:02:03.650 --> 00:02:06.340 align:center line:-1 I have deep impressions of this. 19 00:02:06.350 --> 00:02:09.010 align:center line:-1 There were big changes at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. 20 00:02:09.020 --> 00:02:12.020 align:center line:-1 One was the struggles -- struggling against people. 21 00:02:12.030 --> 00:02:14.990 align:center line:-1 We had neighbors who were denounced. 22 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:22.990 align:center line:-1 Red Guards from other places came to struggle against them, searching their houses to confiscate their possessions and beating them. 23 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:32.810 align:center line:-1 I had never encountered such things, and I never imagined that such things would happen. 24 00:02:32.820 --> 00:02:38.670 align:center line:-1 My family lived in Peking University, which was one of the areas hardest hit by the Cultural Revolution. 25 00:02:38.680 --> 00:02:41.940 align:center line:-1 Some things happened there during the earliest phase of the Cultural Revolution. 26 00:02:41.950 --> 00:02:48.820 align:center line:-1 One was the struggles and the struggle meetings. 27 00:02:48.830 --> 00:02:57.470 align:center line:-1 For example, the Red Guards came to our neighbor’s home, claiming my neighbor’s grandmother was a landlady. 28 00:02:57.480 --> 00:03:03.630 align:center line:-1 They put a chair out in the street in front of our home, dragged her out, and made her stand on the chair to be struggled against. 29 00:03:03.640 --> 00:03:06.030 align:center line:-1 Then, they shaved her head. 30 00:03:06.040 --> 00:03:08.980 align:center line:-1 Another issue was searching people’s houses to confiscate their possessions. 31 00:03:08.990 --> 00:03:11.370 align:center line:-1 Quite a few homes in our neighborhood were searched. 32 00:03:11.380 --> 00:03:20.030 align:center line:-1 Our home was almost searched as well, but because my father was about to leave Peking University at that time, [it didn’t happen.] 33 00:03:20.040 --> 00:03:23.470 align:center line:-1 It was said that some people suggested searching our home, 34 00:03:23.480 --> 00:03:26.590 align:center line:-1 but others said that [my father] was no longer under the control of Peking University, so they didn't do it. 35 00:03:26.600 --> 00:03:29.990 align:center line:-1 It seemed that we escaped a disaster. 36 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:37.620 align:center line:-1 Another unforgettable event was the Destroy the Four Olds campaign. 37 00:03:37.630 --> 00:03:45.680 align:center line:-1 Our neighbors' kids were older; [they were] middle and high school students. 38 00:03:45.690 --> 00:03:50.490 align:center line:-1 They were burning books and we little kids just stood there watching them. 39 00:03:50.500 --> 00:03:53.590 align:center line:-1 They asked us, “Do you have any Four Olds books at home?” 40 00:03:53.600 --> 00:03:57.770 align:center line:-1 I didn’t know, but it seemed that we had some old books. 41 00:03:57.780 --> 00:03:59.990 align:center line:-1 They told me to bring those old books and burn them. 42 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:08.220 align:center line:-1 So, I ran back home and took a series of my father’s books from the shelf. 43 00:04:08.230 --> 00:04:12.970 align:center line:-1 I took them out because I saw old pictures -- classical Chinese paintings, to be more accurate -- on their covers, 44 00:04:12.980 --> 00:04:15.660 align:center line:-1 but I actually didn't know what books they were. 45 00:04:15.670 --> 00:04:19.870 align:center line:-1 And then, I went back to those people and burned the books with them. 46 00:04:19.880 --> 00:04:23.250 align:center line:-1 Even after I burned the books, my family didn’t dare to criticize me. 47 00:04:23.260 --> 00:04:25.100 align:center line:-1 They just asked me, “What were you doing?” 48 00:04:25.110 --> 00:04:27.710 align:center line:-1 I said, “People were burning books outside, so I had to follow.” 49 00:04:27.720 --> 00:04:32.300 align:center line:-1 No one yelled at me about it, even though my parents were usually pretty strict with me. 50 00:04:32.310 --> 00:04:42.850 align:center line:-1 Only later did I find out that I had burned a set of the superior edition of The Plum in the Golden Vase that my father had borrowed from someone else. 51 00:04:42.860 --> 00:04:45.750 align:center line:-1 I burned it, just like that. 52 00:04:45.760 --> 00:04:50.690 align:center line:-1 But that was the reality of that time. 53 00:04:50.700 --> 00:04:56.700 align:center line:-1 So, my deepest impressions of that time were comprised of things such as kids not going to school, people searching homes, and people struggling against other people. 54 00:04:56.710 --> 00:05:02.470 align:center line:-1 It was totally different from the orderly life I had before. 55 00:05:02.480 --> 00:05:04.940 align:center line:-1 It felt like there was no order anymore. 56 00:05:04.950 --> 00:05:09.980 align:center line:-1 Of course, I have different impressions from different phases of the Cultural Revolution. 57 00:05:09.990 --> 00:05:12.700 align:center line:-1 When we got a little older, the violent struggle started. 58 00:05:12.710 --> 00:05:17.270 align:center line:-1 It happened at Peking University and Tsinghua University, and children all went to see what the violent struggles were like. 59 00:05:17.280 --> 00:05:21.960 align:center line:-1 Even today, I still have strong impressions of watching college students fight each other. 60 00:05:21.970 --> 00:05:28.200 align:center line:-1 I saw them use water pipes to make spears and stab each other. 61 00:05:28.210 --> 00:05:37.350 align:center line:-1 Then, what followed were things like frequent political education and criticism meetings. 62 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:41.450 align:center line:-1 Later, students went "down to the countryside." 63 00:05:41.460 --> 00:05:45.400 align:center line:-1 This was a very important event that’s perhaps beyond the realm of imagination for today's students. 64 00:05:45.410 --> 00:05:49.990 align:center line:-1 At that time, [students] had to spend at least one month in the countryside every semester. 65 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:58.180 align:center line:-1 The longest time I spent in the countryside was a whole year during high school. 66 00:05:58.190 --> 00:06:06.040 align:center line:-1 During the busy season, we went to the field to work; during the slack season, we spent half the day studying and the other half working [on the farm]. 67 00:06:06.050 --> 00:06:09.690 align:center line:-1 This became our daily routine and was no longer something fresh and new. 68 00:06:09.700 --> 00:06:21.340 align:center line:-1 Anyway, political studies, criticism [struggle] meetings, and going down to the countryside to work framed my impressions of the Cultural Revolution. 69 00:06:21.350 --> 00:06:26.450 align:center line:-1 During the later phase of the Cultural Revolution, after people my age had graduated from high school, 70 00:06:26.460 --> 00:06:35.100 align:center line:-1 a lot of people in China were already starting to feel disgusted with the Cultural Revolution. 71 00:06:35.110 --> 00:06:44.460 align:center line:-1 Perhaps because of my family's influence, I started to care about the fate of the nation, 72 00:06:44.470 --> 00:07:00.760 align:center line:-1 so on these points I had some [opinions], perhaps more than most young people today. 73 00:07:00.770 --> 00:07:06.280 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Do you think what you experienced during the Cultural Revolution had an impact on you, 74 00:07:06.290 --> 00:07:15.070 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: ...for example, on your maturity, your understanding of society, your knowledge of Chinese history, etc.? 75 00:07:15.080 --> 00:07:22.600 align:center line:-1 Definitely, because that period of time happened to correspond with the age at which a person's worldview is shaped. 76 00:07:22.610 --> 00:07:32.500 align:center line:-1 Although society was in chaos, I think our family's education was still quite strict. 77 00:07:32.510 --> 00:07:46.730 align:center line:-1 One thing was that my paternal grandparents still abided by ideas from traditional culture, so I was affected by those things. 78 00:07:46.740 --> 00:07:53.290 align:center line:-1 Although not promoted openly, [traditional culture] still exerted an imperceptible influence on me, 79 00:07:53.300 --> 00:07:59.060 align:center line:-1 for example, understanding manners and etiquette. 80 00:07:59.070 --> 00:08:03.190 align:center line:-1 Even in the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, it was still necessary to know customs and manners and to acquire basic moral values. 81 00:08:03.200 --> 00:08:09.190 align:center line:-1 In addition, [my thinking was] also influenced by my family, especially by my father, who was a rather rational person. 82 00:08:09.200 --> 00:08:13.820 align:center line:-1 During the later phase of the Cultural Revolution -- actually, it started during the middle of the Cultural Revolution -- 83 00:08:13.830 --> 00:08:21.800 align:center line:-1 [my father] taught me many subtle lessons. 84 00:08:21.810 --> 00:08:34.200 align:center line:-1 For example, how to analyze issues, how to view society, and that we need to see things from a historical perspective -- 85 00:08:34.210 --> 00:08:42.000 align:center line:-1 for example, what was the economic base, what was the superstructure, and so on. 86 00:08:42.010 --> 00:08:48.550 align:center line:-1 Also, how to pursue the truth. 87 00:08:48.560 --> 00:09:02.540 align:center line:-1 During the Cultural Revolution, it was very popular to study Marxism-Leninism and to recite from the selected works of Chairman Mao. 88 00:09:02.550 --> 00:09:06.430 align:center line:-1 However, because my father was quite familiar with this field, 89 00:09:06.440 --> 00:09:19.340 align:center line:-1 he often reminded me to pay attention to the previous sentence and the following sentence when analyzing Chairman Mao’s words, 90 00:09:19.350 --> 00:09:23.800 align:center line:-1 and to understand Mao’s statements within specific contexts, instead of reading them in an isolated manner. 91 00:09:23.810 --> 00:09:30.800 align:center line:-1 Also, for example, [he taught me about] what Marx identified as socialism. 92 00:09:30.810 --> 00:09:34.290 align:center line:-1 At that time, my father couldn’t directly critique society in front a child as young as I was, 93 00:09:34.300 --> 00:09:42.340 align:center line:-1 for fear of me going outside and telling others, but he guided my thinking. 94 00:09:42.350 --> 00:09:47.320 align:center line:-1 For instance, he told me what Marx said in a specific book and what he meant by it. 95 00:09:47.330 --> 00:09:51.990 align:center line:-1 [My father] meant to suggest to me that some things being said [about Marx and socialism] were not right. 96 00:09:52.000 --> 00:10:03.460 align:center line:-1 Starting from that point, my worldview was subtly influenced by those ideas, despite lacking formal education about them. 97 00:10:03.470 --> 00:10:18.500 align:center line:-1 It was because we were involved in too many such things, and such involvement was not just verbal, but rather, very deep. 98 00:10:18.510 --> 00:10:28.870 align:center line:-1 I think many of my viewpoints and the basic ways I see the world were shaped during that period of time. 99 00:10:28.880 --> 00:10:39.150 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: The Cultural Revolution ended many years ago. But you are still interested in, and paying attention to, the research on the Cultural Revolution, right? 100 00:10:39.160 --> 00:10:49.800 align:center line:-1 Yes. I always pay attention to -- and read -- any available articles about the Cultural Revolution. 101 00:10:49.810 --> 00:10:54.540 align:center line:-1 Also, I often think about things that happened during the Cultural Revolution, not the details of course, 102 00:10:54.550 --> 00:11:04.820 align:center line:-1 but rather, things like the mentality of people of that time, and why the Cultural Revolution occurred. 103 00:11:04.830 --> 00:11:08.600 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. 104 00:11:08.610 --> 00:11:10.333 align:center line:-1 Thank you.
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