WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.330 --> 00:00:06.420 align:center line:-1Interviewer: Thank you for taking part in the CR/10 project. 2 00:00:06.430 --> 00:00:24.660 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: We'd like to give you the next 10 minutes to share your most salient memories of the 10-year Cultural Revolution with us -- anything that left you with a deep impression. 3 00:00:24.670 --> 00:00:41.390 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: You may even talk about your own feelings toward the Cultural Revolution. Before we start, I'd like you to first talk about where you were living during those 10 years. 4 00:00:41.400 --> 00:00:45.140 align:center line:-1 10 years? 5 00:00:45.150 --> 00:00:49.190 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Where you lived during the 10 years of the Cultural Revolution. 6 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:52.490 align:center line:-1 Oh, between 1966 and 1976. 7 00:00:52.500 --> 00:00:54.290 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Right. 8 00:00:54.300 --> 00:01:08.450 align:center line:-1 Oh, it's like this. It was quite a long time ago, about 40 or 50 years. In 1966, I was still in middle school in Zhoupu Town, Nanhui County, a suburban district of Shanghai. 9 00:01:08.460 --> 00:01:20.220 align:center line:-1 [I stayed there] from 1966 to 1972. [1966] was the very beginning of the Cultural Revolution. Then, in 1972, I got a chance to work in the Shanghai Museum, 10 00:01:20.230 --> 00:01:31.370 align:center line:-1 ...so I lived in Shanghai, and worked on the restoration of cultural relics until 1987. Then I came to U.S. at the end of 1987. 11 00:01:31.380 --> 00:01:38.790 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Could you tell us in which decade were you born? You don't need to say the exact year; just the decade will do. 12 00:01:38.800 --> 00:01:43.990 align:center line:-1 OK. The decade—it was the 1950s. 13 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:51.590 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: OK, then. Please share your thoughts, impressions, or memories of the Cultural Revolution. 14 00:01:51.600 --> 00:01:57.180 align:center line:-1 My thoughts—how can I put this? I’ll just talk about my memories. I'll look back a bit. 15 00:01:57.190 --> 00:02:03.220 align:center line:-1 Young people probably don’t know [about the Cultural Revolution], but everyone in my generation had some degree of experience. 16 00:02:03.230 --> 00:02:11.810 align:center line:-1 The earliest [experience] was when the Cultural Revolution had just started in 1966. I was merely a middle school student. I did not understand so much [about the Cultural Revolution]. 17 00:02:11.820 --> 00:02:21.430 align:center line:-1 Actually, I only had a hazy idea. I just knew that [we] followed Chairman Mao's call to carry out the Cultural Revolution. This was the first stage. 18 00:02:21.440 --> 00:02:30.990 align:center line:-1 And then it was 1967. That's when the Destroy the Four Olds, Cultivate the Four News campaign began. 19 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:42.990 align:center line:-1 In the beginning, we really didn't have any idea how to write "big-character posters" or criticize Revisionism and bourgeois thinking. 20 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:52.890 align:center line:-1 However, these things were slowly being carried out—we only knew what they were [but did not know how to do them]. In the beginning, it was just "do field study on farms and in factories". 21 00:02:52.900 --> 00:02:59.510 align:center line:-1 Then, people were making Chairman Mao badges in the factories. At that time, classes were suspended. 22 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:11.040 align:center line:-1 "Do field study on farms and in factories" was when we were assigned to small factories. Each day, we'd go there to make Chairman Mao badges for a few hours. 23 00:03:11.050 --> 00:03:20.450 align:center line:-1 We didn't go to school, and we didn't know how to write “big-character posters." Later, we did the Cultural Revolution "great networking." 24 00:03:20.460 --> 00:03:30.440 align:center line:-1 People our age had never left Shanghai. At that time, we'd never had the chance. People were curious [about what other places were like] during the "great networking." 25 00:03:30.450 --> 00:03:32.920 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Where did you go? 26 00:03:32.930 --> 00:03:45.720 align:center line:-1 I was in the last group that joined in the reception of Red Guards by Chairman Mao. I went to Beijing by train. 27 00:03:45.730 --> 00:03:54.140 align:center line:-1 This was the last train to Beijing [for the "great networking"], because the "great networking" had almost come to an end. [We were the last] because we were relatively young. 28 00:03:54.150 --> 00:04:00.990 align:center line:-1 The high school students and college students older than us had already gone, and those who were younger did not dare go because their parents would worry. 29 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:11.550 align:center line:-1 So, one time, I sneaked out, without letting my parents know. I took the train to Beijing with two other girls, my classmates. 30 00:04:11.560 --> 00:04:21.790 align:center line:-1 This had a deep effect on me. I think people at that time were quite simple, quite guileless. We did not purchase the tickets [for the train]. It was free. 31 00:04:21.800 --> 00:04:37.080 align:center line:-1 After arriving in Beijing, we saw Red Guards everywhere—students. A lot of Beijing's Red Guards [came to welcome us] with little red flags. 32 00:04:37.090 --> 00:04:51.380 align:center line:-1 The students coming out of the train stood in a line—we did not know each other—we stood in a line and [the Red Guards] assigned us to stay with different families. 33 00:04:51.390 --> 00:04:57.660 align:center line:-1 At that time, we three girls were assigned [to stay with] a worker’s family. They had two bedrooms. 34 00:04:57.670 --> 00:05:02.870 align:center line:-1 The houses in Beijing were really big, and Shanghai’s could not compare with them. The houses in Shanghai were really small. 35 00:05:02.880 --> 00:05:10.070 align:center line:-1 [The worker's family] was very nice. They had their two daughters stay in the parents' room with them, and they gave us three girls an empty room to stay in. 36 00:05:10.080 --> 00:05:20.710 align:center line:-1 Also, they didn't charge us. We lived there for about three weeks. Every day, we woke up at 5 or 6 a.m. to do military-style exercises, to prepare for meeting Chairman Mao. 37 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:30.780 align:center line:-1 So, we'd line up and do these drills. This [training] continued for over two weeks. Next, there was the food. 38 00:05:30.790 --> 00:05:42.830 align:center line:-1 We went a cafeteria to eat after the military training. This was free, too. There was Chinese cabbage, cellophane noodles, and other noodles. Everything was free. 39 00:05:42.840 --> 00:05:51.350 align:center line:-1 After eating, our major mission was to go to places like Tsinghua University and Peking University to copy "big-character posters." 40 00:05:51.360 --> 00:05:56.880 align:center line:-1 [On those campuses], the movement was happening on a grand scale. The campuses were covered in "big-character posters." We actually did not really understand it. 41 00:05:56.890 --> 00:06:02.420 align:center line:-1 We just thought that this seemed to be part of the revolution, copying "big-character posters" counted as making revolution. 42 00:06:02.430 --> 00:06:07.490 align:center line:-1 So after two or three weeks of going back and forth [between military training and the universities], we went back home. 43 00:06:07.500 --> 00:06:08.990 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Did you see Chairman Mao? 44 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:15.790 align:center line:-1 Yes, I did. It was the eighth time [Chairman Mao received the Red Guards]. Every day, we did drills, and then the eighth time [Chairman Mao received the Red Guards], 45 00:06:15.800 --> 00:06:21.490 align:center line:-1 the members of our small team walked two or three hours to [Tiananmen Square]. It was far, since we had been assigned to all different places [to stay]. 46 00:06:21.500 --> 00:06:32.040 align:center line:-1 We sat down in the square and waited. [Chairman Mao] was actually quite far away from us. He sat in a car and waved while the car drove along. 47 00:06:32.050 --> 00:06:39.030 align:center line:-1 Actually, we could not see him because we were so far away, but we were all excited, and everyone wept! 48 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:46.490 align:center line:-1 It was because we never imagined—because it was the first time for us to come to Beijing and see Chairman Mao. 49 00:06:46.500 --> 00:06:52.940 align:center line:-1 Our feeling toward Chairman Mao was that he was the “red sun.” I remember it deeply—we would energetically respond to whatever he said. 50 00:06:52.950 --> 00:06:58.470 align:center line:-1 Another thing is that we used to see Tiananmen Square only in movies. 51 00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:01.990 align:center line:-1 We had never been there ourselves to see it. We were already excited just to be standing in Tiananmen Square. So we were quite [emotional]. 52 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:13.460 align:center line:-1 So our mood at that time was...But the thing I care about most is that at the time, people who were total strangers would welcome [us] students to live in their houses for weeks. 53 00:07:13.470 --> 00:07:23.870 align:center line:-1 What's more, if you fell ill, they would come and take care of you. I think this spirit was quite noble. These days, people would lock the iron door. 54 00:07:23.880 --> 00:07:34.840 align:center line:-1 People do not trust each other -- they don't trust anyone. I think this aspect of social relationships is quite different from now. 55 00:07:34.850 --> 00:07:47.700 align:center line:-1 Let’s get back to what happened after the Cultural Revolution "great networking." We were relatively young at that time. 56 00:07:47.710 --> 00:07:58.060 align:center line:-1 We did not join in any serious struggle, and we did not yet have the concept of [struggling against] teachers. But we had seen some struggle meetings out in society. 57 00:07:58.070 --> 00:08:07.990 align:center line:-1 Some "capitalist-roaders," like factory leaders or political party branch secretaries, would be made to wear signboards [while being struggled against]. 58 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:17.520 align:center line:-1 We did not really know what people were struggling against [in these meetings]. But there is one thing: when I saw that the "capitalist-roaders" had to kneel for two or three hours, 59 00:08:17.530 --> 00:08:25.980 align:center line:-1 I felt this was physical torture. This is what I saw. However, you could not say anything about it at that time, because that was revolution. 60 00:08:25.990 --> 00:08:49.850 align:center line:-1 People did not think there was anything negative in the revolution. That's how things were. Later, since we personally experienced the Cultural Revolution… until around 1968, or 1967. 61 00:08:49.860 --> 00:08:59.580 align:center line:-1 A lot of students joined the rebel faction, though fairly speaking, it wasn’t that many. There were probably more [who joined] in the factories. 62 00:08:59.590 --> 00:09:07.770 align:center line:-1 We students set up a propaganda team ourselves. It was spontaneous. 63 00:09:07.780 --> 00:09:14.760 align:center line:-1 We did not go back to school, since at the time, classes were suspended and we did not have the chance to go back to school. 64 00:09:14.770 --> 00:09:23.010 align:center line:-1 So, we organized a Mao Zedong Thought propaganda team. We often went to the countryside to promote Mao Zedong Thought. 65 00:09:23.020 --> 00:09:31.460 align:center line:-1 This was also a form of revolution. We were together with the poor and lower-middle peasants. Actually, I think people's thoughts at that time were pure and simple. 66 00:09:31.470 --> 00:09:36.650 align:center line:-1 This left me with a deep impression. Also, we all paid our own way [in the propaganda team]. Our parents gave us a little pocket money. 67 00:09:36.660 --> 00:09:43.770 align:center line:-1 The peasants in the countryside were very happy. That’s [because] there was little entertainment at that time – almost none. 68 00:09:43.780 --> 00:09:53.770 align:center line:-1 [The peasants] were already happy enough seeing that [we’d] gone there to sing and dance. After we arrived in the countryside, [we] set up the stage, a countryside-style stage. 69 00:09:53.780 --> 00:10:02.500 align:center line:-1 Then at night, we slept in the production team's classroom in the school. We all carried our own blankets, and walked for miles to move between production teams. 70 00:10:02.510 --> 00:10:22.490 align:center line:-1 We went to several [places], touring [and performing] like this for about six months. At that time, I was quite happy, singing and dancing together with several kids my own age. 71 00:10:22.500 --> 00:10:33.190 align:center line:-1 After this, time passed quickly. Classes still had not resumed; school was still not back to normal. [The government] had no choice [but to find the youth something to do]. 72 00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:39.120 align:center line:-1 Since the classes had been suspended for several years, and some young people didn’t take part in social activities. They had nothing to do. 73 00:10:39.130 --> 00:10:42.990 align:center line:-1 They went out to find trouble, fighting in the streets, sometimes getting into gang fights. 74 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:50.440 align:center line:-1 The young people were at the stage of physical maturation, as well as the stage in which their thinking was changing a lot, so [they were] not so stable. 75 00:10:50.450 --> 00:10:57.020 align:center line:-1 Under such circumstances, Chairman Mao encouraged all the Educated Youth to go “up to the mountains and down to the countryside.” 76 00:10:57.030 --> 00:11:07.740 align:center line:-1 [Workers] didn’t go to the factory to do regular work. As for the hospital, there were only doctors, but they rarely saw patients. The doctors only treated you when there was an emergency. 77 00:11:07.750 --> 00:11:16.220 align:center line:-1 There were no classes at school. What could we students do? We all went “up to the mountains and down to the countryside.” 78 00:11:16.230 --> 00:11:22.080 align:center line:-1 This was result of having nowhere to go, so [we] could only go "up to the mountains and down to the countryside." 79 00:11:22.090 --> 00:11:27.390 align:center line:-1 We were sent to do training in the “school of the countryside.” This is-- 80 00:11:27.400 --> 00:11:29.990 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Was the countryside [you went to] far away from your home? 81 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:38.990 align:center line:-1 We lived in a suburban district of Shanghai, so [our area] was quite close to the countryside. 82 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:42.490 align:center line:-1 I think the people who went down to the countryside early on were not sent so far away [from home]. 83 00:11:42.500 --> 00:11:49.150 align:center line:-1 People like us went to the countryside near the suburbs because we were from the suburbs. It was in the same county. 84 00:11:49.160 --> 00:12:02.460 align:center line:-1 Whether they were junior high or high school students, the three classes of 1966, 1967 and 1968 joined production teams in their own local suburban counties. 85 00:12:02.470 --> 00:12:17.850 align:center line:-1 The younger students in 1969, 1970 and 1971 went to places further away, because the suburban area was already full of people and there was no place for them. 86 00:12:17.860 --> 00:12:26.970 align:center line:-1 Another thing is, the [Educated Youth] who went to the countryside earliest started to go at the end of 1968. The later ones went at the end of 1969. 87 00:12:26.980 --> 00:12:34.240 align:center line:-1 It was this year, more or less. Some were unwilling to go to the countryside at first, but you had nowhere else to go, so you had to go. 88 00:12:34.250 --> 00:12:42.990 align:center line:-1 Later, [if] the elder siblings in your family had already been sent to the countryside, the youngest [would get to stay at home]-- 89 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:46.290 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Later on, how were you chosen to return to the city? 90 00:12:46.300 --> 00:12:53.820 align:center line:-1 Yes, I’m thinking of that. When we went down, if we were in a suburban area, we joined the production team in our own hometown – 91 00:12:53.830 --> 00:13:03.430 align:center line:-1 but we were joining a production team, not going to a farm. Some [Educated Youth] who lived in downtown Shanghai went to farms; that was a different situation. 92 00:13:03.440 --> 00:13:10.440 align:center line:-1 We went to many different places, joining different countryside production brigades. 93 00:13:10.450 --> 00:13:20.490 align:center line:-1 The production team I joined was in my own hometown, so it was not so far away from home. You could get there by bicycle in about one hour. 94 00:13:20.500 --> 00:13:30.870 align:center line:-1 However, since you joined the production team in the countryside, you had to accept reeducation with a good attitude. 95 00:13:30.880 --> 00:13:35.490 align:center line:-1 That meant you had to form a partnership with the peasants. 96 00:13:35.500 --> 00:13:42.490 align:center line:-1 You could not be afraid of the difficulty, or of being tired. You had to learn the farm work from the very basics. 97 00:13:42.500 --> 00:13:59.990 align:center line:-1 Because of this, I think the countryside is really one big school, a melting pot to train people. But [the good part is] the peasants were guileless and nice. 98 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:12.320 align:center line:-1 I was on the production team in the countryside for about four years. I really had a lot of experiences. Compared to the standards of your own home, the place you lived [might vary]. 99 00:14:12.330 --> 00:14:19.670 align:center line:-1 I saw how it was for different production teams—some production teams who had landlords or rich peasants [among them] had better houses. 100 00:14:19.680 --> 00:14:25.990 align:center line:-1 When you went there as an Educated Youth, they would assign you a small house. It wasn’t bad. However, the production team I went to was relatively poor. 101 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:35.190 align:center line:-1 There were no landlords or people like that. So there was only a small grass cottage. It was extremely dirty and in poor condition. 102 00:14:35.200 --> 00:14:48.060 align:center line:-1 There was a pigsty in the front, and a warehouse for pesticides. Half of it was separated for you to live in. The roof was made of grass. 103 00:14:48.070 --> 00:14:53.270 align:center line:-1 You, a young person—merely a teenager—lived in the house alone. 104 00:14:53.280 --> 00:15:03.470 align:center line:-1 It was scary sometimes, because it was dark all around and there was nothing else near you—in the countryside, as soon as evening comes, it’s dark everywhere. 105 00:15:03.480 --> 00:15:18.420 align:center line:-1 But I slowly got used to it. I learned to do all kinds of farm work after going there. I lived in a rural area. 106 00:15:18.430 --> 00:15:32.430 align:center line:-1 We planted rice, and there were two rice crops a year. The busiest season was summer. We needed to harvest the mature rice and plant the next round. 107 00:15:32.440 --> 00:15:40.310 align:center line:-1 We also grew cotton and rapeseed—the kind that’s used for making rapeseed [canola] oil. 108 00:15:40.320 --> 00:15:51.970 align:center line:-1 So, even during the hardest and busiest time you couldn’t say, “I quit. I’m going home,” and run off. 109 00:15:51.980 --> 00:16:01.420 align:center line:-1 That would prove your thinking had not been thoroughly re-educated. Peasants worked arduously, in fact. So, you had to be the same as them. 110 00:16:01.430 --> 00:16:09.990 align:center line:-1 At the busiest times, you had to keep on working diligently. That would prove that you could endure the same difficulties as them. 111 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:14.990 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: So, later on, you were recruited to work in Shanghai because your performance [in the countryside] was good, right? 112 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:23.800 align:center line:-1 Yeah. I received a recommendation. If you had worked alongside the peasants the whole time, it proved your re-education had already been successful. 113 00:16:23.810 --> 00:16:30.920 align:center line:-1 If you often sneaked out to go home and did not go to work, or if you did not join the work in the busiest farming season, 114 00:16:30.930 --> 00:16:39.050 align:center line:-1 they would think that your [re-education] was still insufficient. This didn’t necessarily mean you could not [go back to the city]. It was just that the quota was limited. 115 00:16:39.060 --> 00:16:46.600 align:center line:-1 Tens of thousands of Educated Youth had gone down to the countryside in all different places. Only a few could go back. 116 00:16:46.610 --> 00:16:49.860 align:center line:-1 It was like a needle in a haystack. I think it was really hard [to be picked]. 117 00:16:49.870 --> 00:16:50.773 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Thank you!
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