Dearest tonghzimen,
I write today in reflection of my role as a reporter during these glorious past years. When I entered this position, though I knew that our nation was changing, nothing could have prepared me for the movements ahead. Looking back now, I am so grateful to have been able to experience the vital energy of Yenan, the success of Mao and the Chinese Communist Party against the Japanese devils and the indulgent Nationalists, and see so many amazing feats of the party take place such as land reform and the Great Leap Forward.
I also come to you today, penitent, as in reviewing my past publications, I realized in horror that I had sometimes doubted the actions of the party. As reporters, we take the great responsibility of correctly documenting events and accounts while giving our readers hope in the revolution. However, I fear that I may have sown doubt in such great movements such as land reform.
Although my family has historically been peasants, my father found some success in industry and was able to buy more land when I was young. Though I welcomed the liberation of land reform, I was concerned that men like him would be impacted. I now realize the error of my ways, As our Chairman has said, “In class society everyone lives as a member of a particular class, and every kind of thinking, without exception, is stamped with the brand of a class” (LRB, Ch.2). Since my terrible revelation, I have been working to radically reform my thought. I think of every fear, every predisposition of mine, denounce those that stem from my class background, and seek Mao’s guidance from the “Little Red Book” to know how I should think.
I confess that although I criticized the actions of corrupt cadres, I never criticized Mao. The reality is that ten percent of every group consists of rightists, and I have long been wary of those who undermine party action or seek to enrich themselves through it rather than supporting the people. I too have been harboring concerns about some within our midst, who have been all too quick to doubt Mao for any little thing that may go wrong. How could we doubt our great Chairman? Yet some have not listened to my warnings. As Mao as said, we must “learn from past mistakes to avoid future ones” and “cure the sickness to save the patient” (LRB, Ch. 27).