"They wouldn't let us buy a coffin."

Interviewer: Hello! Could you please tell me the decade you were born in?

When I was born, it was during a difficult time.

Could you tell me, was it the 1950s, the 1960s, or the 1970s?

I was born right at the beginning of the 1960s; that is, the end of the 1950s, beginning of the 1960s.

When I was born, the difficult era of the early 1960s had just begun.

Interviewer: Just a second, please. During the 10 years of the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976, where did you live?

You could speak a little about each place you lived, if you like.

I was in Yunnan [Province], in the town of Banqiao in Shilin County.

It wasn't a mountainous area, but rather a town on the plains.

Interviewer: Could you tell me about the incidents that left the deepest impression on you during those 10 years?

Interviewer: What would you most like to tell others concerning your impressions or your memories of those years?

The thing I remember most from those 10 years happened when I was about eight or nine years old, so it must've started around 1968.

A kid like me of this age was quite happy.

When the Red Guards emerged, [kids] wore hats [in imitation of the ones the Red Guards wore].

In just a few months, everything was in an uproar.

We were little, so we didn't understand the Cultural Revolution; we just knew this was people making revolution.

The first to be attacked were people of my mother and father's generation.

My father was a demobilized serviceman; after being demobilized, he had become an accountant for the production brigade.

Interviewer: You're from an ethnic minority, aren't you?

Right.

Interviewer: Would you mind telling us which group?

I'm Yi.

Interviewer: OK, please go on.

I'm Yi. When my father was working as an accountant, my family's standard of living was above average.

Not a few months later, when the Cultural Revolution had just started, struggle against people also started.

I heard that at that time, two factions were formed.

I don't know [which faction] my father belonged to, but anyway, he was taken away to be struggled against.

After a few days of being struggled against, which included being beaten, he couldn't take it anymore.

He kept explaining how it was to my mother, but she didn't take much notice.

After a few days, he was struggled against again, in the daytime and at night.

There were parades, and he had to join in, walking along the streets in a dunce cap.

It was late at night before he came home. He really couldn't stand it.

My paternal grandmother had passed away early; none of us knew her. She died before my father was demobilized.

With that situation, and being struggled against...my father couldn't stand it, so he hanged himself.

The morning after he hanged himself the authorities came, and they wouldn't let us buy a coffin.

They just took an old woven mat and [wrapped him up]. Then, they put up a scarecrow in front of our house.

In addition, they made my mother join in a parade. They said [my father] had committed suicide to escape punishment.

They made my mom go out to parade. They beat her as they paraded along.

One evening, afraid that my mother [would suffer], my older sister and I went along with her.

But those people wouldn't let us go with her. They kicked us and made us leave.

They made our mom go alone to be struggled against.

Since we were small, they kicked us out and wouldn't let us see what was going on.

Later on, we went home. Those few days were incredibly [difficult].

My mother had the desire to kill herself.

But later, looking at all her kids -- my older sister and myself, and my little sister and little brother -- she forced herself to carry on.

After a few days, actually it was probably over a week, [Red Guards] came to search our house to confiscate possessions.

My father wasn't buried the day after he died.

Three or four days passed, and my mother got in touch with a few relatives and friends.

They finally couldn't put up with it, and they carried him away and buried him on the mountain, very simply.

We were not allowed to buy a coffin, or anything.

So a little over a week later, [Red Guards] came to search our house.

They turned the place upside down, taking things away until we had almost nothing left besides a Thermos.

My older sister couldn't go to school. At that time, I was in the second grade, but I couldn't go, either.

My mom was taken away every day, sometimes twice a day, to be paraded around and struggled against.

After a while, they stopped struggling against her.

But they wouldn't let us go out and do anything. We couldn't leave town, or visit neighbors.

We weren't allowed to have contact with friends and relatives.

Regardless of whether they were people who lived nearby or far away, we had to break off contact with them.

It was definitely difficult for my mother to take care of four children.

All of our food had been confiscated. Some people gave us some beans and rice, and we were able to keep going a while.

At that time, my sister was 13, and I was nine.

She and I would go up the mountain to gather firewood, to help our family.

Later on, someone said to my mother, "You ought to move on and get remarried."

My mother said, "Their father has been gone such a short time; I can't remarry."

What's more, the authorities wouldn't have allowed her to remarry.

The authorities would say, "If you want to remarry, you have to go it alone, and leave the kids behind."

[A man] also couldn't "marry into the wife's family."

With my mother and four kids, there were five of us altogether.

That year or two was the most difficult time.

My mother, my older sister, and I would farm, gather firewood on the mountain, and cut grass to make rope we could sell.

It was so difficult. We'd only eat two meals a day, and never got full.

We struggled for two years this way. It was truly terrible.

When my father passed away, my brother was just a little over one year old.

My younger sister was only four. I was eight.

[My mother] looked for [a new husband].

However, he wasn't allowed to "marry into the wife's family"; my mother could only go along with him.

At first, only she could go with him.

So, she went alone, since he wasn't allowed to "marry into the wife's family."

Later, she was only allowed to take two kids along, leaving two others at home.

So then, she took my younger brother and sister with her.

The house had been divided and assigned when my father was demobilized, and our family only had one boy -- that place was patriarchal; we put boys above girls.

So, we left the house as my little brother's registered residence. My mother took my little brother and sister along when she remarried.

After she remarried, my sister and I stayed [in the original house].

Just think, my sister was only 14 or 15 at the time, and I was about 11.

In the evening, we didn't dare go to sleep. Every few days, thieves would come.

The Thermos that had so luckily been left behind, as well as the electric lamp, were both stolen.

Later, some people said my sister should look for [a boyfriend], but she was too young, only 16 or 17.

In 1972 or '73, rehabilitation of cases began.

My mother came back, and my sister and I went with her to find [the leadership], and said that my father's death was unjust.

[The leader] said we should wait for a resolution, but later no resolution came about.

[The case] was passed along to different people, and finally they said we'd receive 2,000 RMB.

They said my mother had remarried, so the nation had nothing to do [with the case].

At that time you could do a lot with 2,000 RMB. We lived off it for two years.

[The leadership] said if [my mother] hadn't remarried, the nation might have looked after us a bit better, but those who remarried weren't given this consideration.

At that time we didn't really understand, and we also didn't search out [higher authorities].

It showed they [admitted] a mistake.

Otherwise, how was [the case] rehabilitated?

My mother came to see my sister and me every week or so.

After two years, my sister got married, and [her husband] was not allowed to "marry into the wife's family," so she left, leaving me by myself.

The residence was still registered to my little brother.

[My stepfather] often talked about how, "That person [my father] committed suicide to escape punishment. The Cultural Revolution really messed with you all..."

So, he really didn't treat my mother and us well. Two out of three days, they were fighting.

I lived one place two years, another place two years, and I had relatives in Kunming city, so I stayed with them for two years as well.

After my father died, when my mother remarried, she was only a bit over 30.

She had another son [with her second husband].

After that, [my stepfather] acted even worse toward us; if he wasn't beating my little brother and sister, he was screaming at them.

Under those circumstances, none of us four kids graduated from junior high school.

My sister didn't even go to junior high -- there was just no way.

She was the oldest, and when she came home she had to look after her younger sisters and brothers, or go out and farm.

I went to junior high, but I didn't finish. My little sister did finish junior high school, though.

My little brother wasn't able to finish, since our stepfather wouldn't let him go to school.

[My stepfather] was always saying [our family] was no good; [we] were struggled against in the Cultural Revolution, and the kids were all bad, he said.

This really placed a burden on our thinking.

I came back from Kunming after two years.

Seeing that [my mother and stepfather] were always fighting, and since I had been able to reestablish communications with relatives and friends, I then left to come to Beijing.

Interviewer: Thank you for talking about the painful things your family experienced during the 10 years of the Cultural Revolution.

Interviewer: Sincere thanks -- I think this information will help us a lot in our study of China's 10-year Cultural Revolution. Thank you.