Blog Post 6

Greetings Readers,

Much has happened in China since my last post. After our unfortunate series of disasters, I thought things were looking up for our great nation. Then, the Gang of Four launched the Cultural Revolution. My family was lucky enough to survive the Cultural Revolution relatively unscathed, but it was not easy. I am finding it hard to return to normal life in my community after this time of great turmoil. 

I am grateful to have recently received a copy of Son of the Revolution by Liang Heng and Judith Shapiro, a memoir that describes Liang’s experience during the cultural revolution which happened to occur during the most formative years of his life. His story was touching and compelling, and I am sure it will resonate with many Chinese people. There was one quote that really stood out to me.

“The desire to live came strong then, stronger than the desire to die. I remember Father excitedly recording the peasant boy’s folk song by torchlight, still a man of letters even in the midst of greatest trouble. I thought of Mother and Waipo, waiting for me in Changsha, and Liang Wei-ping sharing her rice baba among the peasants. The hoodlums had cared for me so well on the streets, and Teacher Luo had forgiven me so graciously for the caricatures I had drawn of him. There was so much good in this crazy world, but so much more that was impossible to understand” (Liang 207). 

This quote comes immediately after he had thoughts of suicide after he received word that he was being investigated for counterrevolutionary behavior and assumed he would be jailed. Those that he considered to be friends had turned on him in the name of revolution, and likely out of fear. I am struck by this positive sentiment as he is being struggled against. The reminder of the good in the world, and hope for the future. 

The quote is followed by anger at the Revolution for giving the people so little when they “had sacrificed everything for it” (Liang 207). This notion is in line with most tales we hear of the Cultural Revolution. The injustice of it all, the harm it did to our country. However, I remind you, my readers, that we managed to bring ourselves out of this chaos. Liang Heng’s reasons to live in a dire situation can be echoed in the memories of our families and communities.  His positivity resonates with me. There was so much darkness during the Cultural Revolution, and much of it is expressed in this memoir. However, during his darkest hour, Liang Heng uses both the positivity he found and the anger over injustices during the Cultural Revolution to power through. After the night that he considered suicide, he thought: “if I was to live, it would no longer be numbly and aimlessly. I would live bravely” (Liang 207).

The Chinese people have been brave to make it through and survive. To do what was asked of us and listen to our leaders. Where did that get many of us? I interviewed two men living in a small village during the Cultural Revolution. The first was the son of a former landlord. He told me about how the Red Guards and his fellow peasants treated him. Li Maoxiu was “tied up, hung up, and beaten. One afternoon, [he] passed out four times. [He] stopped breathing” (China: A Century of Revolution- The Mao Years, 1:17:00). He was forced to cut ties with his father to distance himself from the landlord class. He was extremely saddened by this, but it was necessary for the survival of himself and his family. 

The second interview was with a former Red Guard. He described to me the acts of violence he participated in against counterrevolutionaries. “I put them on a truck and told them to kneel down. I whipped them with a leather belt. There were men and women. Most were women. We beat them hard. I had a kind of animal instinct. I used to enjoy beating people” (China: A Century of Revolution- The Mao Years, 1:20:00). People throughout China were beaten, paraded around, and killed. Estimates are showing that at least 400,000 people were killed (China: A Century of Revolution- The Mao Years, 1:18:30) in this violence instigated by the Gang of Four. 

This violence and fear forced us to struggle against our neighbors and created a sense of competition in which every man fought for himself. How is society supposed to return to how it used to be after relationships have been ruined? No matter what class each of us journalists comes from, we all were impacted by the Cultural Revolution. We all experienced immense periods of fear and hardship. We lost connections with those around us and lost pieces of ourselves. The quote from Liang Heng in Son of the Revolution can serve as a reminder of our humanity during a time when the Gang of Four sought to tear us apart. 

Thank you for reading,

Miao Kuo shuo