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Interviewer: Hello. Thank you for accepting my
interview.
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Interviewer: First, please tell me in which decade you
were born. You don't need to say the exact year.
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I was born in the 1950s.
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Interviewer: 1950s. Next, could you tell me where you
lived in China from 1966 to 1976?
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Changchun.
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Interviewer: Thank you. Someone your age
probably has quite a few memories of the 10 years from '66 to '76.
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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,
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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?
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Everyone's situation during the Cultural Revolution was
different.
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Everyone's impression of the Cultural Revolution is also
different.
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Interviewer: I agree.
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For example, back then, class struggle was emphasized.
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For landlords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries, and
bad elements, plus rightists,
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and later "capitalist-roaders" as well,
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the persecution they felt during the Cultural Revolution
would certainly have left them with a certain perception.
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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,"
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and not one of "those in power," your impression would be
different as well.
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So, I get the feeling that besides a person's
environment,
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a person's position or status at the time [also
influenced] his or her understanding [of the Cultural Revolution].
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Interviewer: I agree.
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At that time, I had just graduated from junior high
school.
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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.
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At the time, I was at Jilin Province's best junior high
school.
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It had a great influence in the northeast, and in the
whole country; it was the junior high affiliated with Northeast Normal
University.
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I can't say I was a top-notch student, but every student
in our school was quite good.
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Interviewer: So modest.
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Each year, our students were separated into four classes,
about 180 or 190 people, no more than 200.
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They all tested in, so everyone was pretty studious.
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In 1966, the Cultural Revolution started. At that time, we
students didn't understand social class, or politics; we didn't get all
that.
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We were just responding to the government's call by
joining studies and the great criticism.
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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.
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That was how we responded to the call.
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But when the Cultural Revolution started, it started in
full-force; it was a mass movement.
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Great criticism, the Destroy the Four Olds campaign,
searching houses to confiscate possessions, violent struggle--
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at that time, many cities, including the one we lived in,
were engaged in violent struggle.
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[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.
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Something I remember well is that some people seemed
half-crazed, while others seemed intoxicated as they joined in the
movement.
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In many families, the father and children, or the husband
and wife had different points of views, and they'd debate at home.
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Of course, it wasn't that they had an individual motive,
that they were doing it for themselves.
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[It was that] they had completely different understandings
of some issue within the Cultural Revolution.
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People within families, or in different levels of society,
naturally had different perceptions.
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They separated into two or three factions, and their
conflicting points of view developed into violent struggle.
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There was fighting, and in some places, firearms were
used.
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Interviewer: Really? Did you encounter this?
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Of course! At that time, I was a teenager, about 16 or 17
years old, and I joined in on these things.
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Interviewer: Did you actually fire a gun?
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I never fired a gun--never--but out in society, in the
crowd, they were definitely being used.
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Interviewer: Prior to this, I thought guns were only used
in Sichuan [Province].
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[It was] later on, when the violent struggle got really
intense...Because we were all pretty good students, we went to Beijing.
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We stayed there for a while, but of course we couldn't
keep living in Beijing, so we had to go back home.
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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.
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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].
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Some of my classmates went from Beijing back to Changchun,
but [the train] couldn't go into the Changchun station.
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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].
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Why? Because the "9-18 violent struggle" was
happening at Changchun Station; that was September
18th.
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People were fighting with machine guns and rifles.
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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.
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After about a month, I returned to Changchun. I could not
believe my eyes.
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There were bullet holes in the walls, and I heard that
around 20 people, more than 20 people had been killed.
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Interviewer: Who was engaged in the violent struggle? Were
they students, or workers?
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The majority were students, with just a few workers and a
few leadership cadres.
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In that era, such leadership cadres were called
"liangxiang" [meaning they favored one faction].
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Previously, leadership cadres were among those being
criticized, but if their viewpoint supported one faction or the other,
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they counted as that faction's "liangxiang," and that
faction protected that person.
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Interviewer: They protected this person?
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They protected this person. When the faction had an
activity, this leadership cadre would also take part.
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in Changchun, during the violent struggle in front of the
[train] station on 9-18, some leadership cadres were killed by gunfire.
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Interviewer: Had they purposely selected this date? Or was
it a coincidence [that it was the same date as the 1931 Manchurian
Incident]?
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I'm not sure of the concrete reason, either, since I
wasn't in Changchun at the time.
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When I left Changchun, [people were fighting with] clubs,
steel rods made into spears, or bricks.
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Later, when it became more serious like this, I didn't get
involved.
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After experiencing this period of the Cultural Revolution,
I felt really down. It seemed different from when it had started,
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when we wanted to "combat and prevent revisionism,"
persevere on the socialist road, and stick with Chairman Mao's vision for
the Cultural Revolution.
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Moreover, all the killing and wounding was sickening.
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I participated in the whole Cultural Revolution after I
graduated junior high in 1966.
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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].
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My position was just that of a student, so of course the
movement didn't touch upon me; I was not criticized.
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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.
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[Our] feelings toward this part of the movement were quite
different from others'.
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Some people had their houses searched, their possessions
confiscated;
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some were beaten to death; some were criticized and struggled
against; some had their heads shaved in "yin-yang"
style, black ink smeared on their faces.
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Our family didn't experience these things, so our feelings
are certainly different.
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From 1966 to 1968, the Cultural Revolution carried on like
a violent thunderstorm.
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After that, in 1968, Chairman Mao [called on] Educated
Youth to go to rural villages and receive re-education from the
peasants.
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We answered the call and went to the rural villages to
join production teams and organize collective households.
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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."
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Chairman Mao called for going "down to the countryside,"
and we tried to outdo one another.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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[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.
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After [I'd spent] two years in a rural village, the cities
were recruiting workers. I was called to work in a factory.
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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.
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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.
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[I worked] until 1973, when Worker-Peasant-Soldier
students were recruited.
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Interviewer: To go to university.
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At first, there was a test, and I took part.
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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.
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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].
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Of course, when we tested those four subjects, the
district I was in--
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Interviewer: Your grades must've been good.
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My grades were quite good.
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Interviewer: Certainly.
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I got a 97 in math, the third best score in [our]
district.
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Interviewer: You'd [graduated from] junior high school,
and still had an academic foundation.
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Right, the foundation was still there. There were several
questions I absolutely [couldn't answer].
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There was no time to review. What's more, I didn't have
any books to read; I absolutely couldn't find any books.
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Interviewer: So you were really just depending on what you
had learned earlier.
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Yes, exactly. So, everything was cancelled—the test
scores were also canceled, as was the [chemistry] test.
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So, I was accepted into what is called Northeast Normal
University today; at the time it was Jilin Normal University.
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I went to Worker-Peasant-Soldier student university and
became a Worker-Peasant-Soldier student.
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After attending for three years, I graduated and became a
teacher, and worked as a government cadre. That's how my experience
went.
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One thing I have deep feelings about is a contradiction.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Compared to today's students, or those who went to
university before the Cultural Revolution, it's certainly inferior.
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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.
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Later on, "apolitical academics" started being criticized
once again. All these political movements put me in no mood for studying,
so I didn't.
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One lucky thing, as far as students were concerned, was
that the burden of studying became a bit lighter as we went on.
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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!
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It was a lucky, carefree way of completing university.
However, after graduating, I didn't feel so fortunate.
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Since we had studied during the Cultural Revolution, we lacked
basic cultural knowledge. Worker-Peasant-Soldier students did not have the
knowledge they should have had.
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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--
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Interviewer: A life-long regret.
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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.
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Interviewer: I can understand that. Thank you for
accepting my interview.
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