"We just thought that this seemed to be part of the revolution, copying 'big-character posters'…"

Interviewer: Thank you for taking part in the CR/10 project.

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.

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.

10 years?

Interviewer: Where you lived during the 10 years of the Cultural Revolution.

Oh, between 1966 and 1976.

Interviewer: Right.

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.

[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,

...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.

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.

OK. The decade—it was the 1950s.

Interviewer: OK, then. Please share your thoughts, impressions, or memories of the Cultural Revolution.

My thoughts—how can I put this? I’ll just talk about my memories. I'll look back a bit.

Young people probably don’t know [about the Cultural Revolution], but everyone in my generation had some degree of experience.

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].

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.

In the beginning, we really didn't have any idea how to write "big-character posters" or criticize Revisionism and bourgeois thinking.

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".

Then, people were making Chairman Mao badges in the factories. At that time, classes were suspended.

"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.

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."

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."

Interviewer: Where did you go?

I was in the last group that joined in the reception of Red Guards by Chairman Mao. I went to Beijing by train.

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.

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.

So, one time, I sneaked out, without letting my parents know. I took the train to Beijing with two other girls, my classmates.

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.

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.

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.

At that time, we three girls were assigned [to stay with] a worker’s family. They had two bedrooms.

The houses in Beijing were really big, and Shanghai’s could not compare with them. The houses in Shanghai were really small.

[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.

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.

So, we'd line up and do these drills. This [training] continued for over two weeks. Next, there was the food.

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.

After eating, our major mission was to go to places like Tsinghua University and Peking University to copy "big-character posters."

[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.

We just thought that this seemed to be part of the revolution, copying "big-character posters" counted as making revolution.

So after two or three weeks of going back and forth [between military training and the universities], we went back home.

Interviewer: Did you see Chairman Mao?

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],

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].

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.

Actually, we could not see him because we were so far away, but we were all excited, and everyone wept!

It was because we never imagined—because it was the first time for us to come to Beijing and see Chairman Mao.

Our feeling toward Chairman Mao was that he was the “red sun.” I remember it deeply—we would energetically respond to whatever he said.

Another thing is that we used to see Tiananmen Square only in movies.

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].

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.

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.

People do not trust each other -- they don't trust anyone. I think this aspect of social relationships is quite different from now.

Let’s get back to what happened after the Cultural Revolution "great networking." We were relatively young at that time.

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.

Some "capitalist-roaders," like factory leaders or political party branch secretaries, would be made to wear signboards [while being struggled against].

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,

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.

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.

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.

We students set up a propaganda team ourselves. It was spontaneous.

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.

So, we organized a Mao Zedong Thought propaganda team. We often went to the countryside to promote Mao Zedong Thought.

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.

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.

The peasants in the countryside were very happy. That’s [because] there was little entertainment at that time – almost none.

[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.

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.

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.

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].

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.

They went out to find trouble, fighting in the streets, sometimes getting into gang fights.

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.

Under such circumstances, Chairman Mao encouraged all the Educated Youth to go “up to the mountains and down to the countryside.”

[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.

There were no classes at school. What could we students do? We all went “up to the mountains and down to the countryside.”

This was result of having nowhere to go, so [we] could only go "up to the mountains and down to the countryside."

We were sent to do training in the “school of the countryside.” This is--

Interviewer: Was the countryside [you went to] far away from your home?

We lived in a suburban district of Shanghai, so [our area] was quite close to the countryside.

I think the people who went down to the countryside early on were not sent so far away [from home].

People like us went to the countryside near the suburbs because we were from the suburbs. It was in the same county.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Later, [if] the elder siblings in your family had already been sent to the countryside, the youngest [would get to stay at home]--

Interviewer: Later on, how were you chosen to return to the city?

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 –

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.

We went to many different places, joining different countryside production brigades.

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.

However, since you joined the production team in the countryside, you had to accept reeducation with a good attitude.

That meant you had to form a partnership with the peasants.

You could not be afraid of the difficulty, or of being tired. You had to learn the farm work from the very basics.

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.

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].

I saw how it was for different production teams—some production teams who had landlords or rich peasants [among them] had better houses.

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.

There were no landlords or people like that. So there was only a small grass cottage. It was extremely dirty and in poor condition.

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.

You, a young person—merely a teenager—lived in the house alone.

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.

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.

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.

We also grew cotton and rapeseed—the kind that’s used for making rapeseed [canola] oil.

So, even during the hardest and busiest time you couldn’t say, “I quit. I’m going home,” and run off.

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.

At the busiest times, you had to keep on working diligently. That would prove that you could endure the same difficulties as them.

Interviewer: So, later on, you were recruited to work in Shanghai because your performance [in the countryside] was good, right?

Yeah. I received a recommendation. If you had worked alongside the peasants the whole time, it proved your re-education had already been successful.

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,

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.

Tens of thousands of Educated Youth had gone down to the countryside in all different places. Only a few could go back.

It was like a needle in a haystack. I think it was really hard [to be picked].

Interviewer: Thank you!