WEBVTT
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Interviewer: Hello. Thank you for accepting my
interview.
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Interviewer: Could you first please tell me, were you
[born in] the 1980s or 1990s?
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I was born in 1992.
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Interviewer: Born in ’92. Could you tell me, in your
memory, when was the first time you got an impression of the Cultural
Revolution?
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Interviewer: [Through] what channel was it?
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This was really long ago.
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I remember, when I was really young, maybe when I was six
or seven, my mom told me about some things that happened during the
Cultural Revolution.
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Actually, none of my childhood understanding of the
Cultural Revolution was very clear.
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Nobody would talk about this incident, [but] my mom would
tell me about it once in a while.
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Some things that happened later gave hints, but at the
time I didn’t pay much attention.
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For example, my mom would practice calligraphy—to give a
really simple example—she was really good at calligraphy,...
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...and when she practiced she’d always write, “Love
Live the Communist Party of China”; “Love Live the People’s Republic
of China”; “Long Live Chairman Mao”; things like that.
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[I] felt it was unusual.
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Later I understood: during the time of the Cultural
Revolution, when my mom was young, she had just graduated elementary school
when Chairman Mao passed away.
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At that time, when she was writing on the blackboard, she
used these [slogans], so she [still] just automatically wrote them.
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So, there are some random memories.
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Sometimes [my mom] would mention to me the [slogan], "The
political line is the principle; follow the principle to expand our
vision."
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She said when she was young, she didn’t understand what
it meant; it was only later that she understood.
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[She] felt it was quite amusing to talk about interesting
things from that time.
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Basically, it was like this.
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Interviewer: Could you tell me, what kind of place is your
hometown?
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Interviewer: Is it a big city, a small city, or a rural
village? What’s [your] background?
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I am from Xi’an, Shaanxi [province]. My ancestral home
is Henan [province], but I was born and grew up in Xi’an.
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Interviewer: Were your parents considered intellectuals,
or…?
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You mean during the Cultural Revolution? [If you mean]
family social class status, it’s a little hard to explain.
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In my mom's childhood, her family's social class status
was landlord.
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At the time, it was changed to peasant, but her ancestors
[had] the landlord class status.
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It wasn’t just [during] the Cultural Revolution; after
the establishment of new China, their entire lives became pretty
difficult.
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My dad’s family’s social status was a bit better. My
dad’s from Henan [province].
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My mom’s from Lantian; Lantian is a county in Xi’an.
They both grew up in rural villages, and came to the city later.
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But during the Cultural Revolution, it seems like they
were both in the villages.
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My dad hasn’t talked about it with me too much, but my
mom has said a lot.
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There were a lot of parades during her childhood; when
Chairman Mao passed away they really grieved.
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She’s often talked about these kinds of things.
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Interviewer: So, are you in school now?
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Right. I’m studying for my Ph.D. at CMU [Carnegie-Mellon
University 卡内基梅隆大学].
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Interviewer: So, do you feel that you young people today
have an interest in this topic [the Cultural Revolution]?
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Personally, I really like reading.
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Generally speaking, my understanding of the Cultural
Revolution has come from my parents, or from discussion of issues among my
older generation.
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[Another] large part of it has come from reading
books.
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To give an example, there’s Professor John K.
Fairbanks’s The Cambridge History of
China, [which] is at an official level, because he
takes a relatively theoretical point of view.
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There’s also the media, TV dramas, etc., that discuss
these occurrences, too.
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For example, Golden
Marriage, starring Zhang Guoli—in the middle
there are some years, 10 years, [portraying] the 10 years of the Cultural
Revolution, with some reactions.
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Another example is [the movie about]
Lu Yanshi
[Coming Home], [showing]
what the oppression people experienced during the Cultural Revolution was
like.
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There’s a lot of media like this, including novels.
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Although they don’t directly write about incidents
during the Cultural Revolution, take it as a theme, these stories connect
to it.
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[Through] these things [I have] understood a bit more;
I’ve read quite a few books.
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I think that regular people’s, including my friends’,
impression of the Cultural Revolution is like this: they’re usually
indifferent.
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That is, no one ever talks about it.
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But if once in a while you mention to them that there was
this incident, they’ll get really interested, will have a desire to
know.
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But they wouldn't take the initiative to seek out the
knowledge.
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[However], in a circumstance of passively receiving
[information], they’d still be quite interested.
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Interviewer: OK. I’d like to know, is your academic
background science and engineering, social science, or humanities?
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I study mechanical engineering, so that’s science and
engineering.
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Interviewer: Science and engineering. Do you think your
classmates’ interest in the Cultural Revolution has a relationship to
their major?
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Interviewer: For example, those who study history would
naturally be interested in this topic.
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Right. People who study history would study it, so
they’d certainly know a little more about it.
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There are [probably] more than a few people like me, who
study science and engineering [and also] have an interest [in the Cultural
Revolution].
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But there can’t be too many. I was chatting with my
friends, and they don’t know that much.
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I’m the only one who truly likes reading, among the
people I know.
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Interviewer: Is there anything else you’d like to
say?
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My major feeling is that, there’s a theory that because
those before us, such as my parents’ generation, personally experienced
the Cultural Revolution,...
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...[even if] they tell us their perceptions, our
perceptions are already different.
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Because the people who personally experienced it and the
people who are listening already have different [understandings].
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Among those [born] just before me, there’s already
nobody who personally experienced it.
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[They] can only understand the Cultural Revolution through
documentary materials and media.
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The value of this situation for us, I personally feel
it’s changed from a practical value to a socio-theoretical response.
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It’s the same as our feelings now about things that
happened in the Song Dynasty, but its value is even greater.
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For example, why—all in all, from the founding of [the
People’s Republic of China] in 1949 up until now,...
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...in this long period of time, the Communist Party of
China has gone through good periods and bad periods.
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[The Party] has done a lot of proper things, and made
mistakes, to be honest.
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Didn’t Deng Xiaoping say, “Wade the river by groping
for stones”—there must’ve been missteps at times.
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As to China’s social environment, governmental
environment, these things are the most important reference point.
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Because, as for missteps, [the Cultural Revolution] might
have been the biggest misstep, but [also] our most important reference
point.
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Moreover, it’s a time that isn’t that far away from
us; a lot of people [who lived during that time] are still here; a lot of
information is still complete.
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If we take [the Cultural Revolution] as reference, you
could say it’s really, really meaningful.
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We can talk about the details of [how to use it as a
reference] slowly.
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I suppose [in] this interview
[采访] I won’t be able to speak
[thoroughly].
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Discussing slowly, the question of how to take it as a
reference point is a bigger topic.
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I wouldn't talk in detail [now]—this is a bigger
topic.
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Interviewer: Very interesting. You expressed your own
interest in and perspective on the Cultural Revolution as a young
person.
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Interviewer: Thank you for accepting my interview.
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That’s okay. I’m honored to have been interviewed.
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Interviewer: Thanks.
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