WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.920 --> 00:00:07.760 align:center line:-1Interviewer: Hello. Thank you for accepting my interview. First, could you please tell me when you were born—was it the 1940s, the 1950s, or the 1960s? 2 00:00:07.770 --> 00:00:09.650 align:center line:-1 1950s. 3 00:00:09.660 --> 00:00:15.130 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: What was your geographical location in China from 1966 to 1976? 4 00:00:15.140 --> 00:00:16.250 align:center line:-1 Beijing. 5 00:00:16.260 --> 00:00:24.990 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Having been born in the 1950s, you must have a lot of memories of those 10 years. You would’ve already been around 10 years old [when the Cultural Revolution started]. 6 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:33.910 align:center line:-1 So, there must be many memories. However, if I limit you to about 10 minutes, or in other words, with no preparation, 7 00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:39.930 align:center line:-1 could you tell us about your most distinct memories, or the things you’d most like to share with us? Thank you. 8 00:00:39.940 --> 00:00:48.850 align:center line:-1 The most distinct memory is that at that time we didn’t go to class; we just played. 9 00:00:48.860 --> 00:01:03.710 align:center line:-1 Then, everyone was making revolution; we kids didn’t really understand it, just went along to struggle against other people. 10 00:01:03.720 --> 00:01:14.380 align:center line:-1 I remember the “uncle” [who lived] upstairs from us. After he was struggled against at the political party school and came back home, 11 00:01:14.390 --> 00:01:23.740 align:center line:-1 little kids would run along after this “uncle” shouting “rank traitor, rank traitor!” Kids didn't understand things, didn't get it. 12 00:01:23.750 --> 00:01:41.990 align:center line:-1 Then, this “uncle” quietly told me, “They got it all wrong; they got it all wrong.” My memory of this sentence is really deep. 13 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:48.300 align:center line:-1 Although at that time I didn’t understand anything, I remembered this sentence. 14 00:01:48.310 --> 00:02:02.990 align:center line:-1 Another thing [I remember] is that when the Cultural Revolution started, I was in the third grade of elementary school, and “suspend classes to make revolution” began. 15 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:06.600 align:center line:-1 At the time I was a boarding student at Yucai School. 16 00:02:06.610 --> 00:02:09.320 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Yucai School was an elite school of the time. 17 00:02:09.330 --> 00:02:28.540 align:center line:-1 Right, the children of cadres went to that school. One night when it was time for bed, we third grade students and the fourth grade students got into a fight. 18 00:02:28.550 --> 00:02:44.320 align:center line:-1 The fourth graders hit us third graders, really beat us, smacked our mouths with shoes, and things like that. The teacher was there, but didn’t dare intervene. 19 00:02:44.330 --> 00:02:53.790 align:center line:-1 At that time, the Cultural Revolution had already started, so institutions were already being broken down. 20 00:02:53.800 --> 00:03:11.990 align:center line:-1 The teacher stood off to one side, not daring to put a stop to it. My memory of that time is so deep. Why? It’s because a single sentence of mine set off this conflict. 21 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:20.290 align:center line:-1 Thinking of it today, I still feel guilty. And then…we’re not yet up to [10 minutes], right? 22 00:03:20.300 --> 00:03:24.260 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Please continue; disregard the time. 23 00:03:24.270 --> 00:03:33.760 align:center line:-1 What else…Oh, during "suspending classes to make revolution," I played the whole time. 24 00:03:33.770 --> 00:03:45.550 align:center line:-1 At that time, [we] played really happily. Every month, we went to school once to get the grain coupon. [Otherwise, we] spent the whole day playing. 25 00:03:45.560 --> 00:03:55.970 align:center line:-1 Later, I transferred to [Zhan Lan Guan Road First Elementary School]. I really could not get used to going to school, spent the whole day [arguing] with the teacher. 26 00:03:55.980 --> 00:04:09.660 align:center line:-1 At the time, I was a bad student. I remember when I started junior high, my teacher’s evaluation was “This student is difficult to teach.” 27 00:04:09.670 --> 00:04:22.000 align:center line:-1 I don’t have other memories, just that I was always tagging along behind my older brother and sister. Oh, there is another deep impression. 28 00:04:22.010 --> 00:04:31.990 align:center line:-1 At that time, there were no rules. I’d go swimming with my older brother and sister. The roads passed through farmers’ vegetable plots. 29 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:48.830 align:center line:-1 Along the road, we’d pick cucumbers, tomatoes, and eggplants. Every day, we’d go to a canal to swim. On the way back, we’d swipe these things in passing, just for fun, and eat them. 30 00:04:48.840 --> 00:04:52.270 align:center line:-1 Other [memories]…there’s none I need to talk about. 31 00:04:52.280 --> 00:04:54.680 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: How about your family [situation]? 32 00:04:54.690 --> 00:05:13.330 align:center line:-1 My family? Actually, if I’m to talk about deep impressions…My father was [a member of the] “black gang.” At the time [he was] a target of dictatorship. 33 00:05:13.340 --> 00:05:15.420 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: He was also an intellectual, right? 34 00:05:15.430 --> 00:05:25.380 align:center line:-1 Yes. A deep impression is that one time, when he returned from being struggled against, some people beat him. 35 00:05:25.390 --> 00:05:41.880 align:center line:-1 His buttocks were black and blue; his waist was…My mom took him to see a doctor, who gave him a lot of medicine. 36 00:05:41.890 --> 00:05:51.850 align:center line:-1 But my mom wasn’t [living at] home at that time, [so] every evening I helped my dad apply the Chinese medicine. 37 00:05:51.860 --> 00:06:05.690 align:center line:-1 At the time, kids didn’t really understand [the situation], and also didn’t know right and wrong. Looking at it now, of course it was wrong. 38 00:06:05.700 --> 00:06:14.480 align:center line:-1 But at the time [everyone] had to be activist, revolutionary, so at the time no one dared to say [it was wrong]. 39 00:06:14.490 --> 00:06:21.590 align:center line:-1 [I] felt a little like, oh, maybe my father should be struggled against. 40 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:23.800 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Did you sympathize with your dad at all? 41 00:06:23.810 --> 00:06:35.490 align:center line:-1 Of course. He was really miserable and in pain. He had been kicked. 42 00:06:35.500 --> 00:06:43.790 align:center line:-1 Since kids at that time didn’t understand things, sometimes [we] caused our father trouble, too. 43 00:06:43.800 --> 00:06:55.220 align:center line:-1 I deeply remember one time, we were cleaning house and burning some old papers in the hallway. 44 00:06:55.230 --> 00:07:07.990 align:center line:-1 Just then, the rebel faction of the work unit showed up at our building. [They] asked us whose children we were. We said we were so-and-so’s [kids]. 45 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:17.900 align:center line:-1 “What are you burning?" they asked. "Are you burning evidence of [your father’s] plans to overthrow the government?” In an instant, another charge was added to the accusations against my father. 46 00:07:17.910 --> 00:07:33.270 align:center line:-1 The next day, when we went to the cafeteria to eat, I saw my father leaning over the water tank next to the cafeteria. Everyone was struggling against him. 47 00:07:33.280 --> 00:07:35.350 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: It was because you [children] had been burning things? 48 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:42.800 align:center line:-1 Right. It was said [he’d] directed his [children] to burn evidence of his plans to overthrow the government, those related materials. 49 00:07:42.810 --> 00:07:47.460 align:center line:-1 Anyway, I remembered the implication was that we were burning the plans for him to overthrow the government. 50 00:07:47.470 --> 00:07:52.800 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: You feel that you [and your siblings’] behavior caused your dad to be struggled against again, to suffer physical pain? 51 00:07:52.810 --> 00:07:55.050 align:center line:-1 Right. 52 00:07:55.060 --> 00:08:06.650 align:center line:-1 I thought of something else. When the Cultural Revolution started, [there was] Destroy the Four Olds. 53 00:08:06.660 --> 00:08:16.860 align:center line:-1 All things [related to] so-called “feudalism, capitalism, revisionism” were destroyed. No one’s family could hire household help or nannies. 54 00:08:16.870 --> 00:08:23.410 align:center line:-1 At the time, there were five kids in our family. My parents both worked. 55 00:08:23.420 --> 00:08:29.730 align:center line:-1 [An elderly woman I called my grandmother] helped with the housekeeping and taking care of the kids. 56 00:08:29.740 --> 00:08:38.970 align:center line:-1 Suddenly one day, my mom said, “Grandma has to leave.” I asked why. My mom said having a nanny was no longer allowed. 57 00:08:38.980 --> 00:08:51.330 align:center line:-1 It wasn’t until then that I realized my “grandmother” wasn’t my real grandmother. I didn’t [know] she was our family’s nanny, since our relationship was really close. 58 00:08:51.340 --> 00:09:07.860 align:center line:-1 At that time, “grandma” was forced to leave. But after leaving our house, she had no resources, and no one could hire her; she had no way to make a living. 59 00:09:07.870 --> 00:09:32.060 align:center line:-1 I remember she'd make hemp thread and rope for people. I remember that generally every month, my mom would have us take grain tickets or a little money to “grandma.” 60 00:09:32.070 --> 00:09:42.990 align:center line:-1 She spun thread to make a living for herself. 61 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:49.140 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Saying that you absolutely did not know she wasn’t your natural grandmother shows that she had been with your family for a long time, right? 62 00:09:49.150 --> 00:09:58.050 align:center line:-1 Right, she had stayed with our family a long time. From the time we were small, we all slept in the same bed with her. 63 00:09:58.060 --> 00:10:10.250 align:center line:-1 Important parts of life centered around this “grandma.” I remember her cooking; her savory pancakes were incredibly tasty. 64 00:10:10.260 --> 00:10:18.400 align:center line:-1 Up until today, as soon as you mention her savory pancakes to our family, everyone says how good they were, especially my older brother. 65 00:10:18.410 --> 00:10:26.170 align:center line:-1 He really liked eating the pancakes she made. She was the same as family to us. 66 00:10:26.180 --> 00:10:39.660 align:center line:-1 What’s more, my parents treated her just as they would treat family, so we absolutely didn’t know she was a nanny. All along, we believed she was a member of the family. 67 00:10:39.670 --> 00:10:44.090 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: If not for the Cultural Revolution, she might have always [lived] with your family. 68 00:10:44.100 --> 00:10:46.590 align:center line:-1 Right. 69 00:10:46.600 --> 00:10:52.640 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: So, these are the things [you] immediately thought of when I asked about the Cultural Revolution. 70 00:10:52.650 --> 00:10:54.210 align:center line:-1 Yes. 71 00:10:54.220 --> 00:11:00.139 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Thank you for accepting my interview.
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