WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:03.990 align:center line:-1Interviewer: Hello, and thank you for accepting my interview. 2 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:08.990 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: First, could you tell us the decade you were born in, such as "1940s," “1950s,” “1960s”…? 3 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:11.340 align:center line:-1 I was born in the 1960s. 4 00:00:11.350 --> 00:00:17.690 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: The 1960s. During the 10 years from 1966 to 1976, where did you live in China? 5 00:00:17.700 --> 00:00:18.490 align:center line:-1 Suzhou. 6 00:00:18.500 --> 00:00:24.670 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Suzhou -- in the city, a town, or a rural village? 7 00:00:24.680 --> 00:00:28.570 align:center line:-1 At that time, it was the outskirts of Suzhou. 8 00:00:28.580 --> 00:00:37.260 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: The outskirts of Suzhou. Since you were born in the 1960s, you may have some impression of [the decade] from 1966 to 1976. 9 00:00:37.270 --> 00:00:46.930 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: If I give you 10 minutes, what memories or experiences come to mind that you’d like to share with us? 10 00:00:46.940 --> 00:00:52.030 align:center line:-1 I remember “cultural struggle” or something had just started when I was a child. 11 00:00:52.040 --> 00:00:53.370 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Do you mean “violent struggle”? 12 00:00:53.380 --> 00:00:55.670 align:center line:-1 Oh yes, violent struggle. 13 00:00:55.680 --> 00:01:00.460 align:center line:-1 At that time, I had just turned six years old; though I was small, I do have some memories of it. 14 00:01:00.470 --> 00:01:06.780 align:center line:-1 Once, I remember my parents telling us to hurry and get out of bed. It seems like when we were small it was called “fleeing trouble.” 15 00:01:06.790 --> 00:01:07.690 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Oh, fleeing trouble. 16 00:01:07.700 --> 00:01:19.170 align:center line:-1 [My parents] said they’d heard gunfire from the other side of the river, and told us to get up, to go with my female cousin to our paternal aunt’s house, which was a bit farther away. 17 00:01:19.180 --> 00:01:21.390 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: To get away from the violent struggle? 18 00:01:21.400 --> 00:01:27.120 align:center line:-1 Right, to wait it out. My parents would still have to stay there during the day, to work their land and make a living. 19 00:01:27.130 --> 00:01:39.030 align:center line:-1 I was still small then. Our next-door neighbors had two kids, but they went away with their maternal grandmother. 20 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:48.240 align:center line:-1 The neighbor's husband had joined [a group] that was like a paramilitary squad. 21 00:01:48.250 --> 00:01:54.710 align:center line:-1 At that time in Suzhou, there was "su yu"…now, what was it that happened at "su yu"? 22 00:01:54.720 --> 00:01:57.020 align:center line:-1 Well, whatever was going on, he joined in. 23 00:01:57.030 --> 00:01:58.560 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: What was this “su yu”? 24 00:01:58.570 --> 00:02:00.460 align:center line:-1 It was the medical college. 25 00:02:00.470 --> 00:02:02.190 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Oh--[that's the abbreviation for] Suzhou Medical College. 26 00:02:02.200 --> 00:02:13.690 align:center line:-1 Right, Suzhou Medical College. So [the neighbor's husband] went there, and the neighbor feared he would run into trouble. 27 00:02:13.700 --> 00:02:20.350 align:center line:-1 [She] sent her children away [to their grandmother's house], saying, if my husband gets into trouble, I have no choice; I have to wait for him to return. 28 00:02:20.360 --> 00:02:24.860 align:center line:-1 So, she didn't flee. She stayed at home to wait for her husband. 29 00:02:24.870 --> 00:02:37.230 align:center line:-1 I remember in our neighborhood, there was a commanding officer and a rebel faction. 30 00:02:37.240 --> 00:02:43.470 align:center line:-1 At the time, Suzhou had two factions—the "Zhi" faction and the "Ti" faction. 31 00:02:43.480 --> 00:02:46.340 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: The "Ti" faction, and the "Zhi" faction. 32 00:02:46.350 --> 00:02:51.990 align:center line:-1 My father had also joined a small rebel group, but he didn’t go very often. 33 00:02:52.000 --> 00:03:00.900 align:center line:-1 That day we had to flee, I woke up and felt so groggy and confused. 34 00:03:00.910 --> 00:03:12.790 align:center line:-1 Later, in elementary school, we wanted to study, but the bad students wouldn’t let [us] do our homework. 35 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:15.460 align:center line:-1 We girls were really well-behaved. 36 00:03:15.470 --> 00:03:18.200 align:center line:-1 During class, [the boys] would shake the desks, and wouldn't let [us] do our work. 37 00:03:18.210 --> 00:03:21.450 align:center line:-1 The teacher couldn't keep order; if [the teacher] tried, [the students] would curse at the teacher. 38 00:03:21.460 --> 00:03:25.020 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Right. At the time, teachers didn’t dare try to keep order. 39 00:03:25.030 --> 00:03:33.300 align:center line:-1 At that time I was in school, but the [educational] foundation wasn’t very good. 40 00:03:33.310 --> 00:03:44.520 align:center line:-1 Most girls in our village didn’t go to junior high school. My parents were very open-minded, and let me get some education. 41 00:03:44.530 --> 00:03:49.990 align:center line:-1 At that time, junior high just had two years, and I went for a year and a half. 42 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:56.990 align:center line:-1 When I was little, I saw some people -- the rebel faction or something similar -- [struggling against people]. 43 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:03.950 align:center line:-1 There was an older cadre wearing a dunce cap, with a signboard hanging around his neck. 44 00:04:03.960 --> 00:04:10.930 align:center line:-1 They made him say he was a bad guy, and say what mistakes he had made. We kids would run along behind him. 45 00:04:10.940 --> 00:04:22.750 align:center line:-1 Later, landlords and rich farmers, and those with a little property in their family [were also attacked]. 46 00:04:22.760 --> 00:04:29.990 align:center line:-1 Actually, those landlords relied on their own physical labor, saved money, and built houses, but after Liberation they were called “landlords.” 47 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:36.200 align:center line:-1 They were struggled against, and made to wear dunce caps and kneel on branches. We saw this. 48 00:04:36.210 --> 00:04:37.350 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: You saw that. 49 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:44.650 align:center line:-1 We saw it. It was just like that. 50 00:04:44.660 --> 00:04:49.060 align:center line:-1 Later, I went to middle school, but my educational foundation was poor, so I [couldn’t keep going to school]. 51 00:04:49.070 --> 00:04:59.520 align:center line:-1 Later, in 1976, when I was 16, I started doing manual labor. 52 00:04:59.530 --> 00:05:02.990 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: So you didn’t go back to school later on. 53 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:08.190 align:center line:-1 Later on, I worked. I was a daycare worker in the village. 54 00:05:08.200 --> 00:05:13.130 align:center line:-1 Also, just before I married, I served as a “barefoot doctor” [a farmer with paramedical training]. 55 00:05:13.140 --> 00:05:16.990 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Oh, you acted as a “barefoot doctor.” "Barefoot doctors" -- 56 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:26.110 align:center line:-1 "Barefoot doctors" carried around medicine chests, and went around to wherever people were farming, to see if they had any injuries. 57 00:05:26.120 --> 00:05:31.520 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Right! During the Cultural Revolution, “barefoot doctors” were quite common. 58 00:05:31.530 --> 00:05:42.170 align:center line:-1 I remember when I was acting as a hygiene officer, there was a parade on Renmin Road. 59 00:05:42.180 --> 00:05:47.390 align:center line:-1 The "barefoot doctors" carried [medicine chests]. Farmers were wielding sickles, and the workers were carrying…I can’t remember what they were carrying. 60 00:05:47.400 --> 00:05:51.550 align:center line:-1 It was on Renmin Road. I joined in, too. 61 00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:56.250 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Renmin Road in Suzhou? It was a parade? 62 00:05:56.260 --> 00:06:07.690 align:center line:-1 Right. A parade, or some kind of activity, similar to what you’d have today. The “barefoot doctors” were carrying medicine chests. 63 00:06:07.700 --> 00:06:12.570 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: That was called a “square formation,” a parade phalanx. 64 00:06:12.580 --> 00:06:17.680 align:center line:-1 Right. Anyway, I don’t want to [praise] myself too much, but at that time I really improved myself. 65 00:06:17.690 --> 00:06:22.640 align:center line:-1 I went to the city to join the Party, etc. 66 00:06:22.650 --> 00:06:24.990 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Did “barefoot doctors” receive training back then? 67 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:27.770 align:center line:-1 Yes, [we] went to the village hospital for training. 68 00:06:27.780 --> 00:06:35.090 align:center line:-1 There was a whole course: delivering babies, doing stitches—everything. 69 00:06:35.100 --> 00:06:36.990 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: How to handle these things. 70 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:40.630 align:center line:-1 I could do it all--inserting IVs, everything. 71 00:06:40.640 --> 00:06:50.370 align:center line:-1 At the time there was a test you had to take, which all the Jiangsu Province rural health doctors had to take as well. 72 00:06:50.380 --> 00:06:54.030 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Do you think the local peasants trusted the “barefoot doctors”? 73 00:06:54.040 --> 00:06:56.070 align:center line:-1 Yes, I think they did at that time. 74 00:06:56.080 --> 00:06:58.870 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: They must have welcomed these “barefoot doctors.” 75 00:06:58.880 --> 00:07:06.710 align:center line:-1 Yes, they welcomed them at that time. The hospital was far away, and transportation was inconvenient. 76 00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:12.750 align:center line:-1 If someone was sick, I went to that person’s house to give an injection or an IV, if necessary. 77 00:07:12.760 --> 00:07:14.990 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Also, it was all free. 78 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:25.010 align:center line:-1 At first there was a fee; later, it was totally free. It didn’t cost a cent. 79 00:07:25.020 --> 00:07:28.850 align:center line:-1 Later, [after Reforming and Opening], there was a fee once again. 80 00:07:28.860 --> 00:07:33.990 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: How long did you serve as a “barefoot doctor”? 81 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:43.030 align:center line:-1 I did it until 1990, and then I started working in an office. 82 00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:52.190 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: So this means that, up until the 1990s, where you were living, “barefoot doctors” were quite in demand. 83 00:07:52.200 --> 00:07:58.290 align:center line:-1 Most small illnesses or injuries, like coughs and colds or small cuts, [could be taken care of] right in town. 84 00:07:58.300 --> 00:08:04.020 align:center line:-1 Sometimes we were able to give shots to nearby residents, so that was good. 85 00:08:04.030 --> 00:08:15.930 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: That’s good. Which of the cases you worked on makes you the proudest? 86 00:08:15.940 --> 00:08:23.890 align:center line:-1 There were some rental houses there. One time, there was a woman from Zhejiang living in one of these houses, and she was going to have a baby... 87 00:08:23.900 --> 00:08:29.320 align:center line:-1 ...but she didn’t know to go to the hospital, so she was going to deliver at home. 88 00:08:29.330 --> 00:08:35.990 align:center line:-1 An older “barefoot doctor” in our town said to me, “That woman is going to have a baby.” 89 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:39.970 align:center line:-1 But my home didn't have [medical instruments]. 90 00:08:39.980 --> 00:08:42.450 align:center line:-1 Everyone told me, go help, go help. 91 00:08:42.460 --> 00:08:50.990 align:center line:-1 It was really far from there to the hospital, so all my neighbors told me to go and deliver the baby. 92 00:08:51.000 --> 00:09:01.780 align:center line:-1 We didn’t have anything to stanch the bleeding, so I didn’t cut the umbilical cord until after the baby emerged. 93 00:09:01.790 --> 00:09:05.120 align:center line:-1 I used rice wine to disinfect my hands. 94 00:09:05.130 --> 00:09:13.730 align:center line:-1 To avoid tetanus, I also disinfected a stainless steel knife with rice wine, and cut the cord. 95 00:09:13.740 --> 00:09:15.590 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: This must not have been easy. 96 00:09:15.600 --> 00:09:23.550 align:center line:-1 Later on, someone from the local engineering group of Hu County's political party school busted his head open. 97 00:09:23.560 --> 00:09:31.440 align:center line:-1 At the time, the town didn’t give tetanus shots, so I told [him] I could give [him] stitches. 98 00:09:31.450 --> 00:09:34.180 align:center line:-1 [I said he] needed a tetanus shot, [otherwise] he might go septic. 99 00:09:34.190 --> 00:09:38.750 align:center line:-1 I didn’t want to be responsible for that. He just kept saying, “OK, OK.” 100 00:09:38.760 --> 00:09:47.840 align:center line:-1 So, I gave him stitches—a lot of stitches. He thanked me and said I’d made him stop hurting. 101 00:09:47.850 --> 00:09:57.260 align:center line:-1 Later, I asked if he’d been able to have a tetanus shot, and he said he had; he said, “You fixed everything so well.” 102 00:09:57.270 --> 00:10:07.990 align:center line:-1 At that time, I really enjoyed surgery. Later on my daughter went to school, but said she didn’t want to study medicine. 103 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:17.090 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Not bad. That is, the Cultural Revolution gave you a chance to be a “barefoot doctor,” to get some training, and also to be of service to others. 104 00:10:17.100 --> 00:10:18.580 align:center line:-1 Yes, yes. Right. 105 00:10:18.590 --> 00:10:25.620 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Besides these memories, do you have other things you’d like to share? 106 00:10:25.630 --> 00:10:40.070 align:center line:-1 There’s nothing else. At that time, I went to work. At first, no one studied at school, and few people in our town were educated. 107 00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:47.620 align:center line:-1 I just acted as a daycare worker, a hygiene officer, and a “barefoot doctor.” 108 00:10:47.630 --> 00:10:54.420 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: In that area, were there many like you, who studied for a year and a half of junior high school? 109 00:10:54.430 --> 00:10:59.420 align:center line:-1 There weren’t that many. My older sister only went to elementary school for a few years. 110 00:10:59.430 --> 00:11:09.440 align:center line:-1 There weren't many kids in our family. My older sister was adopted. 111 00:11:09.450 --> 00:11:13.430 align:center line:-1 My mother had two boys, but they both died when they were young. 112 00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:18.990 align:center line:-1 Later, [my parents] adopted my older sister, and had me and my younger brother. 113 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:22.160 align:center line:-1 At that time, my sister took care of us. 114 00:11:22.170 --> 00:11:31.960 align:center line:-1 I studied for a few years, which was pretty good, since [kids] a bit older than me didn’t go to school. 115 00:11:31.970 --> 00:11:37.260 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: So you were able to become a "barefoot doctor" and a daycare worker. 116 00:11:37.270 --> 00:11:41.720 align:center line:-1 But the Educated Youth in our town also became "barefoot doctors." 117 00:11:41.730 --> 00:11:46.290 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Oh, there were Educated Youth there, too. Where did your Educated Youth come from? From Suzhou? 118 00:11:46.300 --> 00:11:49.170 align:center line:-1 They were originally from Suzhou, from the city. 119 00:11:49.180 --> 00:11:53.990 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: How did you locals see these Educated Youth? Did you welcome them, or not? 120 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:57.320 align:center line:-1 Some of our neighbors really looked after them. 121 00:11:57.330 --> 00:11:58.860 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Looked after them. 122 00:11:58.870 --> 00:12:03.800 align:center line:-1 [Yes.] Some [of the Educated Youth] caused trouble, but others really did well. 123 00:12:03.810 --> 00:12:09.990 align:center line:-1 It wasn't easy for them to come down to the countryside. At that time, it was hard for their parents to arrange work [for them]. 124 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:19.050 align:center line:-1 Every family had [Educated Youth who went down to the countryside]. The ones who came to our town were quite good; they were the last group. 125 00:12:19.060 --> 00:12:23.450 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Educated Youth also acted as "barefoot doctors," right? 126 00:12:23.460 --> 00:12:25.990 align:center line:-1 Yes, they did. 127 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:33.360 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Did they teach children to read, or other things? Or did they go work in the fields with you locals? 128 00:12:33.370 --> 00:12:35.640 align:center line:-1 Some worked on the land. 129 00:12:35.650 --> 00:12:49.990 align:center line:-1 Later, when some villages' lands were commandeered [and couldn't be farmed], Educated Youth were sent to factories to work instead. 130 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:56.990 align:center line:-1 Gradually, they all went to work in factories. 131 00:12:57.000 --> 00:12:59.120 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: They returned to the city. 132 00:12:59.130 --> 00:13:10.860 align:center line:-1 Yes, some returned to the city, but some worked in our [local] factories. There were some factories nearby. 133 00:13:10.870 --> 00:13:15.980 align:center line:-1 We'd see [Educated Youth] we knew working there. 134 00:13:15.990 --> 00:13:18.490 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: You spoke so well. Thank you for accepting my interview. 135 00:13:18.500 --> 00:13:21.100 align:center line:-1 Oh, you're welcome. No need for thanks.
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