WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:11.750 align:center line:-1Interviewer: Hi, thank you for accepting my interview. Please tell me the time period you were born in--for example, 1940s, 1950s, or 1960s. 2 00:00:11.760 --> 00:00:14.360 align:center line:-1 I was born in the 1950s. 3 00:00:14.370 --> 00:00:21.000 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: 1950s. Then, what area of China did you stay in from 1966 to 1976? 4 00:00:21.010 --> 00:00:22.600 align:center line:-1 In Beijing. 5 00:00:22.610 --> 00:00:32.690 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: In Beijing. Since you were born in [the 1950s], you must have some memories of the 10 years of the Cultural Revolution. 6 00:00:32.700 --> 00:00:36.440 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Even if you talked for several days and nights, you might not be able to say everything. 7 00:00:36.450 --> 00:00:45.890 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: But if I only give you about 10 minutes, that is to say, in the first 10 minutes, without preparing, what memories would you like to share with us? 8 00:00:45.900 --> 00:01:00.480 align:center line:-1 Every time I think about the Cultural Revolution, the 10-year Cultural Revolution, I feel fear and pain. 9 00:01:00.490 --> 00:01:11.730 align:center line:-1 One [reason] is that when supporting the Third Front [Movement], mom and dad took my older brother[/s] and sister[/s] [and I] to Gansu [Province]. 10 00:01:11.740 --> 00:01:24.840 align:center line:-1 After we arrived in Gansu, my mom had heart trouble, so she took us kids right back to Beijing. So that means mom [had to] take care of her four children on her own in Beijing. 11 00:01:24.850 --> 00:01:40.500 align:center line:-1 First of all, during the Cultural Revolution, someone [who lived] in the same courtyard in our neighborhood, who was called the director [of the revolutionary committee], kept bullying our family, baselessly saying my mom was Japanese. 12 00:01:40.510 --> 00:01:50.440 align:center line:-1 His reasoning was that, for one thing, my mom was not very tall, and for another, her skin was very white. 13 00:01:50.450 --> 00:02:00.780 align:center line:-1 Because of that, we were always accused [of things], and had to participate in manual labor, such as digging an air-raid shelter, etc. 14 00:02:00.790 --> 00:02:08.360 align:center line:-1 Mom was very afraid at that time. Actually, I was only in the first grade. 15 00:02:08.370 --> 00:02:21.060 align:center line:-1 [But] mom couldn’t find anyone [else] to consult, so she asked me, "Should I go to the revolutionary committee to proactively admit what mistakes I made in my work in the past?" 16 00:02:21.070 --> 00:02:33.240 align:center line:-1 At the time, I thought about it, and I immediately thought of an old man in our neighborhood. His family background was not good, so he had to sweep the street. 17 00:02:33.250 --> 00:02:41.810 align:center line:-1 [I thought of how] his granddaughter would be out on our street, clinging to her grandfather's leg, crying. 18 00:02:41.820 --> 00:02:55.540 align:center line:-1 Another memory is [about] my father working in Gansu. He had been a cadre. During the Cultural Revolution, he was sent down to do manual labor in a workshop. 19 00:02:55.550 --> 00:03:09.860 align:center line:-1 When he was setting nails, a nail bounced into his eye. As a result, he lost his sight in that eye. My father was a very handsome man. 20 00:03:09.870 --> 00:03:19.700 align:center line:-1 He was tortured at heart, and really in pain, and soon he got serious hyperthyroidism. 21 00:03:19.710 --> 00:03:33.430 align:center line:-1 Even now [I] still remember how he looked the moment he opened the door after returned to Beijing from Gansu -- he was already unrecognizable, a thin man who was already a bag of bones. 22 00:03:33.440 --> 00:03:47.460 align:center line:-1 Another memory is that my elementary school principal was beaten. She was surrounded and struggled against by a group of Red Guards, [who] spit in her face. 23 00:03:47.470 --> 00:03:59.700 align:center line:-1 This left a deep impression on me. I felt really terrified. At that time I just thought, could it be that when facing an enemy, the only thing to do was to raise your hands and fight? 24 00:03:59.710 --> 00:04:12.600 align:center line:-1 Coincidently, and unfortunately -- though it also counts as fortunately -- later on this principal of the elementary school became my mother-in-law. 25 00:04:12.610 --> 00:04:25.370 align:center line:-1 Therefore, this memory has become more painful, and I don't dare speak about this incident with my own husband and his family. 26 00:04:25.380 --> 00:04:41.920 align:center line:-1 Another thing is that there was a big sports field near our home. At that time, hundreds of people held a struggle meeting [there] to struggle against people like Lu Dingyi. 27 00:04:41.930 --> 00:05:04.050 align:center line:-1 At that time I saw...it was the first time I'd seen something called "jet plane style," pushing someone’s head down hard toward the ground, and lifting [that person's] arms up toward the sky. It was just terrifying to me. 28 00:05:04.060 --> 00:05:17.190 align:center line:-1 Another thing is that I saw a neighbor, an old woman, beaten late at night. [I] could hear [her] miserable howling in the middle of the night. 29 00:05:17.200 --> 00:05:29.410 align:center line:-1 The Red Guards beat her with their belts, which had iron buckles on them. They hit that old woman, who was actually very thin. 30 00:05:29.420 --> 00:05:42.500 align:center line:-1 I glanced at [the scene], and immediately ran back home. I asked mom how that old woman could be so fat. It looked like her entire body was swollen. 31 00:05:42.510 --> 00:05:51.520 align:center line:-1 Then there was my brother, who belonged to the class of '69. 32 00:05:51.530 --> 00:06:06.440 align:center line:-1 When he was on the army farm, he hadn't gone along with a group of local people to steal some parts from the troop, some car parts, to sell. 33 00:06:06.450 --> 00:06:15.220 align:center line:-1 Later on someone exposed this [theft]. [Those local people] suspected it was my brother [who had exposed it]. 34 00:06:15.230 --> 00:06:26.300 align:center line:-1 So, one day when they were all working, more than 10 people surrounded my brother and beat him, resulting in him getting a serious concussion, along with schizophrenia. 35 00:06:26.310 --> 00:06:37.320 align:center line:-1 My brother was good at studying. During the Cultural Revolution…Before the Cultural Revolution, he was a sixth-grade student in elementary school. 36 00:06:37.330 --> 00:06:46.670 align:center line:-1 I remember very clearly, the teacher said he might be able to get in to No. 4 Boys' High School, or at least No. 3 Boys' High School. 37 00:06:46.680 --> 00:07:01.190 align:center line:-1 A composition he wrote in elementary school was exhibited and read in many other schools. He was a smart kid, and grew up to be so handsome. 38 00:07:01.200 --> 00:07:16.390 align:center line:-1 But after [he was beaten], he suffered from schizophrenia up until he was in his 50s, when he passed away. [My] pitiful older brother. 39 00:07:16.400 --> 00:07:25.690 align:center line:-1 What's more, his schizophrenia tortured him for practically his whole life. At the same time, it also tortured our entire family. 40 00:07:25.700 --> 00:07:35.790 align:center line:-1 If a family has a patient with schizophrenia, life is tough for all family members. 41 00:07:35.800 --> 00:07:38.610 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: [I] can imagine. 42 00:07:38.620 --> 00:07:51.430 align:center line:-1 So every time the Cultural Revolution is mentioned, I feel pain and fear. 43 00:07:51.440 --> 00:07:59.090 align:center line:-1 Not to mention, when the Cultural Revolution started, I was in the first grade, so basically I lost the opportunity to be educated. 44 00:07:59.100 --> 00:08:04.710 align:center line:-1 At that time, the only thing you could do in school was read Quotations from Chairman Mao, in my memory. 45 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:16.480 align:center line:-1 Lots of my classmates cannot even really use Hanyu Pinyin very well now. Also, I couldn’t go to university because of [the Cultural Revolution]. 46 00:08:16.490 --> 00:08:30.120 align:center line:-1 Therefore, in my opinion, each time I think about these [memories]…Those are losses that we cannot…we can never get back. 47 00:08:30.130 --> 00:08:45.090 align:center line:-1 They are pain and losses of our generation, the next generation after us, and even of the generation before us -- three generations of people. That’s all I want to say. 48 00:08:45.100 --> 00:08:48.021 align:center line:-1 Interviewer: Thank you. Thank you for accepting my interview. Thank you so much!
Reddit
Twitter
Facebook