Interviewer: Hello, and thank you for accepting my interview.
Interviewer: First, could you tell us the decade you were born in, such as "1940s," “1950s,” “1960s”…?
I was born in the 1960s.
Interviewer: The 1960s. During the 10 years from 1966 to 1976, where did you live in China?
Suzhou.
Interviewer: Suzhou -- in the city, a town, or a rural village?
At that time, it was the outskirts of Suzhou.
Interviewer: The outskirts of Suzhou. Since you were born in the 1960s, you may have some impression of [the decade] from 1966 to 1976.
Interviewer: If I give you 10 minutes, what memories or experiences come to mind that you’d like to share with us?
I remember “cultural struggle” or something had just started when I was a child.
Interviewer: Do you mean “violent struggle”?
Oh yes, violent struggle.
At that time, I had just turned six years old; though I was small, I do have some memories of it.
Once, I remember my parents telling us to hurry and get out of bed. It seems like when we were small it was called “fleeing trouble.”
Interviewer: Oh, fleeing trouble.
[My parents] said they’d heard gunfire from the other side of the river, and told us to get up, to go with my female cousin to our paternal aunt’s house, which was a bit farther away.
Interviewer: To get away from the violent struggle?
Right, to wait it out. My parents would still have to stay there during the day, to work their land and make a living.
I was still small then. Our next-door neighbors had two kids, but they went away with their maternal grandmother.
The neighbor's husband had joined [a group] that was like a paramilitary squad.
At that time in Suzhou, there was "su yu"…now, what was it that happened at "su yu"?
Well, whatever was going on, he joined in.
Interviewer: What was this “su yu”?
It was the medical college.
Interviewer: Oh--[that's the abbreviation for] Suzhou Medical College.
Right, Suzhou Medical College. So [the neighbor's husband] went there, and the neighbor feared he would run into trouble.
[She] sent her children away [to their grandmother's house], saying, if my husband gets into trouble, I have no choice; I have to wait for him to return.
So, she didn't flee. She stayed at home to wait for her husband.
I remember in our neighborhood, there was a commanding officer and a rebel faction.
At the time, Suzhou had two factions—the "Zhi" faction and the "Ti" faction.
Interviewer: The "Ti" faction, and the "Zhi" faction.
My father had also joined a small rebel group, but he didn’t go very often.
That day we had to flee, I woke up and felt so groggy and confused.
Later, in elementary school, we wanted to study, but the bad students wouldn’t let [us] do our homework.
We girls were really well-behaved.
During class, [the boys] would shake the desks, and wouldn't let [us] do our work.
The teacher couldn't keep order; if [the teacher] tried, [the students] would curse at the teacher.
Interviewer: Right. At the time, teachers didn’t dare try to keep order.
At that time I was in school, but the [educational] foundation wasn’t very good.
Most girls in our village didn’t go to junior high school. My parents were very open-minded, and let me get some education.
At that time, junior high just had two years, and I went for a year and a half.
When I was little, I saw some people -- the rebel faction or something similar -- [struggling against people].
There was an older cadre wearing a dunce cap, with a signboard hanging around his neck.
They made him say he was a bad guy, and say what mistakes he had made. We kids would run along behind him.
Later, landlords and rich farmers, and those with a little property in their family [were also attacked].
Actually, those landlords relied on their own physical labor, saved money, and built houses, but after Liberation they were called “landlords.”
They were struggled against, and made to wear dunce caps and kneel on branches. We saw this.
Interviewer: You saw that.
We saw it. It was just like that.
Later, I went to middle school, but my educational foundation was poor, so I [couldn’t keep going to school].
Later, in 1976, when I was 16, I started doing manual labor.
Interviewer: So you didn’t go back to school later on.
Later on, I worked. I was a daycare worker in the village.
Also, just before I married, I served as a “barefoot doctor” [a farmer with paramedical training].
Interviewer: Oh, you acted as a “barefoot doctor.” "Barefoot doctors" --
"Barefoot doctors" carried around medicine chests, and went around to wherever people were farming, to see if they had any injuries.
Interviewer: Right! During the Cultural Revolution, “barefoot doctors” were quite common.
I remember when I was acting as a hygiene officer, there was a parade on Renmin Road.
The "barefoot doctors" carried [medicine chests]. Farmers were wielding sickles, and the workers were carrying…I can’t remember what they were carrying.
It was on Renmin Road. I joined in, too.
Interviewer: Renmin Road in Suzhou? It was a parade?
Right. A parade, or some kind of activity, similar to what you’d have today. The “barefoot doctors” were carrying medicine chests.
Interviewer: That was called a “square formation,” a parade phalanx.
Right. Anyway, I don’t want to [praise] myself too much, but at that time I really improved myself.
I went to the city to join the Party, etc.
Interviewer: Did “barefoot doctors” receive training back then?
Yes, [we] went to the village hospital for training.
There was a whole course: delivering babies, doing stitches—everything.
Interviewer: How to handle these things.
I could do it all--inserting IVs, everything.
At the time there was a test you had to take, which all the Jiangsu Province rural health doctors had to take as well.
Interviewer: Do you think the local peasants trusted the “barefoot doctors”?
Yes, I think they did at that time.
Interviewer: They must have welcomed these “barefoot doctors.”
Yes, they welcomed them at that time. The hospital was far away, and transportation was inconvenient.
If someone was sick, I went to that person’s house to give an injection or an IV, if necessary.
Interviewer: Also, it was all free.
At first there was a fee; later, it was totally free. It didn’t cost a cent.
Later, [after Reforming and Opening], there was a fee once again.
Interviewer: How long did you serve as a “barefoot doctor”?
I did it until 1990, and then I started working in an office.
Interviewer: So this means that, up until the 1990s, where you were living, “barefoot doctors” were quite in demand.
Most small illnesses or injuries, like coughs and colds or small cuts, [could be taken care of] right in town.
Sometimes we were able to give shots to nearby residents, so that was good.
Interviewer: That’s good. Which of the cases you worked on makes you the proudest?
There were some rental houses there. One time, there was a woman from Zhejiang living in one of these houses, and she was going to have a baby...
...but she didn’t know to go to the hospital, so she was going to deliver at home.
An older “barefoot doctor” in our town said to me, “That woman is going to have a baby.”
But my home didn't have [medical instruments].
Everyone told me, go help, go help.
It was really far from there to the hospital, so all my neighbors told me to go and deliver the baby.
We didn’t have anything to stanch the bleeding, so I didn’t cut the umbilical cord until after the baby emerged.
I used rice wine to disinfect my hands.
To avoid tetanus, I also disinfected a stainless steel knife with rice wine, and cut the cord.
Interviewer: This must not have been easy.
Later on, someone from the local engineering group of Hu County's political party school busted his head open.
At the time, the town didn’t give tetanus shots, so I told [him] I could give [him] stitches.
[I said he] needed a tetanus shot, [otherwise] he might go septic.
I didn’t want to be responsible for that. He just kept saying, “OK, OK.”
So, I gave him stitches—a lot of stitches. He thanked me and said I’d made him stop hurting.
Later, I asked if he’d been able to have a tetanus shot, and he said he had; he said, “You fixed everything so well.”
At that time, I really enjoyed surgery. Later on my daughter went to school, but said she didn’t want to study medicine.
Interviewer: Not bad. That is, the Cultural Revolution gave you a chance to be a “barefoot doctor,” to get some training, and also to be of service to others.
Yes, yes. Right.
Interviewer: Besides these memories, do you have other things you’d like to share?
There’s nothing else. At that time, I went to work. At first, no one studied at school, and few people in our town were educated.
I just acted as a daycare worker, a hygiene officer, and a “barefoot doctor.”
Interviewer: In that area, were there many like you, who studied for a year and a half of junior high school?
There weren’t that many. My older sister only went to elementary school for a few years.
There weren't many kids in our family. My older sister was adopted.
My mother had two boys, but they both died when they were young.
Later, [my parents] adopted my older sister, and had me and my younger brother.
At that time, my sister took care of us.
I studied for a few years, which was pretty good, since [kids] a bit older than me didn’t go to school.
Interviewer: So you were able to become a "barefoot doctor" and a daycare worker.
But the Educated Youth in our town also became "barefoot doctors."
Interviewer: Oh, there were Educated Youth there, too. Where did your Educated Youth come from? From Suzhou?
They were originally from Suzhou, from the city.
Interviewer: How did you locals see these Educated Youth? Did you welcome them, or not?
Some of our neighbors really looked after them.
Interviewer: Looked after them.
[Yes.] Some [of the Educated Youth] caused trouble, but others really did well.
It wasn't easy for them to come down to the countryside. At that time, it was hard for their parents to arrange work [for them].
Every family had [Educated Youth who went down to the countryside]. The ones who came to our town were quite good; they were the last group.
Interviewer: Educated Youth also acted as "barefoot doctors," right?
Yes, they did.
Interviewer: Did they teach children to read, or other things? Or did they go work in the fields with you locals?
Some worked on the land.
Later, when some villages' lands were commandeered [and couldn't be farmed], Educated Youth were sent to factories to work instead.
Gradually, they all went to work in factories.
Interviewer: They returned to the city.
Yes, some returned to the city, but some worked in our [local] factories. There were some factories nearby.
We'd see [Educated Youth] we knew working there.
Interviewer: You spoke so well. Thank you for accepting my interview.
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