"It was said that I was an executioner who had brought harm to the Poor and Lower-Middle Peasants."

Interviewer: How old were you when the Cultural Revolution started in 1966?

I was 32.

Interviewer: Where were you at that time?

I was in Xining city, Qinghai [Province].

I worked at Qinghai Medical College Affiliated Hospital, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Interviewer: Do you have any impressions of the Cultural Revolution?

Yes. During the Cultural Revolution, in 1968, I attended to a mother who had just delivered her fourth child.

The child had already been born, but after delivery, the woman was losing a lot of blood.

So, I went to call on her.

When I was going there, I realized the transportation [conditions] were awful.

The road was uneven and riddled with potholes; cars would bounce around like crazy.

I was afraid it would be unsafe to take the woman back to the hospital over these kinds of roads.

This was my greatest mistake, and all the impact I received from the Cultural Revolution later on stemmed from this decision.

It was said that I was an executioner who had brought harm to the poor and lower-middle peasants.

I was given an armband [to wear as a punishment].

This incident happened during the Cultural Revolution, so I found myself caught up in the heart of things.

I was a doctor, so I should be responsible for the life of the people, but at that moment I'd made a mistake.

Later, that woman was taken to the hospital by her family.

By the time she got there, there was already no chance of saving her.

That's when I made my mistake.

Later, the leadership handled things by reducing my wages by two levels.

At that time, the wages were already quite low, and we never got a raise; [having my wages reduced] was a deep blow to me.

I just had to tolerate it. What could I do? What happened, happened.

That woman was brought into the hospital, but it was already too late. In the end, she died.

I constantly felt heartsick over what had happened.

This was one of my most bitter experiences.

More than six months after I was demoted, the higher-ups did some research, and found a local doctor to look into things.

[They realized] the road really was full of potholes; it was in the process of being fixed, and any car would've found it difficult to travel across.

They rehabilitated [my case], and reinstated my wages.

Originally, after I was demoted, I was made to clean toilets and bathrooms.

My medical worked was put on hold for a time.

In the end, my wages were reinstated and I didn't have to do janitorial work anymore.

I've been working as a doctor ever since, up until today.

Later my reputation was completely reinstated.

I've always been heartbroken over what happened.

I went to the pasturelands two more times, to work for a traveling medical clinic.

When I was on the pasturelands, I discovered, Qinghai’s altitude is really high; [the area] is high and cold.

It’s the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau; for every 100 meters above sea level, the temperature falls three degrees [Celsius].

So under these circumstances, I spent six months in Maduo County.

I was also in Yushu [Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture] in Qumalai County for more than three months.

Later, I was injured when I fell off a yak I was riding.

My head had a huge knot on it; my eyes turned black like a panda's.

I was sent back to the hospital for treatment and rest.

So I returned to the hospital. After that, the hospital sent me to Shanghai for a period of rest.

I went back to my family's home to rest; everything had been reinstated [by that time].

Still, I feel this incident had a huge impact on me.

It was a way the Cultural Revolution impacted me, and the impact was quite large.

On the pasturelands, I saw that the Tibetan compatriots were extremely hospitable, honest, and sincere.

They had a lot of respect for us Han Chinese doctors.

One time, I went to deliver a baby. The infant was choking on the amniotic fluid.

I put my mouth to its mouth, and sucked out the liquid.

I never knew my heart could be as happy as it was when I heard that baby cry.

Another time, there was a woman of about 60 years old who had uterine fibroids.

It was a rather unusual case, since the fibroids had already grown to the outside of the vaginal opening.

They were like child's shoes, 10 or more centimeters long, and four or five centimeters wide.

It was that kind of tumor.

The tent smelled horrible.

The neighboring tents were all set up far away from her, since [the neighbors] thought there was sickness in this tent, and the smell itself was enough to kill you anyway.

I went there, opened the window of the clinic [tent], and did surgery on her.

To be honest, my surgery was rather conservative.

I didn't remove the entire uterus, since I didn't have the supplies I needed.

There wasn't enough blood, and there was no way to transfuse it.

I tried to think of a simple method, a way to cut the tumor out, and stitch her back up, then her case would be finished.

Everyone was thinking, this doctor must be good, since so many other doctors [had seen the patient and] couldn't do anything, because they weren't specialists in obstetrics and gynecology.

But I was, so I took on this case.

The entire surgery was successful, and the people really thanked me.

Later, they asked me what I would like. I said I didn't want anything.

Later, when they were shearing sheep, [they said], "Which sheep’s wool do you like best? We'll sell it to you for just a little money."

I said okay; I could take the wool home to make a blanket.

I bought about five kilograms of it, all for a very low price of about 1 yuan for half a kilo.

At that time, it was already during the Cultural Revolution, so…

Anyway, I paid the money, didn't steal from anyone or embezzle anything.

Later, I found a way to take that wool back to Shanghai, and had it made into a blanket.

We still use it at home.

It's better than any wool blanket you'd get in a store today, better than a down [blanket]. It's real wool.

After that, my prestige was pretty great in Qumalai County and Maduo County.

People would say, this Dr. Gu is great; she's saved the lives of our Tibetan infants and sick Tibetans.

They felt [the woman's] illness was really grave, but honestly speaking, it was not that serious.

In a large hospital, this type of illness would count as minor.

But if you wanted to do surgery on uterine tumors, you had to prepare well ahead of time.

I didn't have an assistant, either, so I just did a conservative surgery on her.

Later, I left the Tibetan region. Half a century has already passed.

I left Qinghai almost 30 years ago, but these few incidents have left a really deep impression on my mind.

I believe the Tibetan compatriots are a national minority of the motherland.

They are so sincere and friendly.

No matter when you go there, they will hurry to offer you milk tea to drink, kill a sheep, and make some mutton and rice stew for you to eat.

[The meat] wasn’t tender and we weren’t used to it, but it was impossible for them to make it more tender [due to the high altitude].

So, we were in this kind of environment…On the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, this high-altitude location.

Qumalai County's elevation is 4,500 meters, but at that time I was only about 30 years old, still quite young, so I didn't get hypoxia.

Everyone worked hard to help us do our medical work properly.

They helped us leave a good impression when we paid house calls.

Everyone was hard-working; doctors and nurses; external and internal surgeons; pediatricians; obstetricians and gynecologists; anesthesiologists – we were well-equipped.

We overcame the influence of the climate of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

We also ate highland barley noodles, stir-fried, and drank their milk tea. We made yogurt ourselves.

Everyone put forth an effort in our lifestyle and our work.

So in this way, we left a good impression on our Tibetan compatriots.