Blog 6

Dear Tongzhimen,

It is now past my time and I am saddened to say that my time as a journalist is coming to a close and it is time for the younger generations to take over. In my old age, I’ve lived through many campaigns promoting Mao into Chinese society. China is in a completely different position today than it was during my childhood because of the work of Mao and the Communist Party. My last duty as a reporter is to bring to you the information of how the latest campaign, the Cultural Revolution, has affected China. Comrade Liang Heng has been kind enough to give me an advanced copy of his memoir. This manuscript gives a closer look into how his family was affected throughout the Mao years and serves as a general example of typical experience. 

The Cultural Revolution aimed to reduce the gap between life in the countryside and in urban areas as well as creating revolutionary successors from the urban youth. However, it was ambiguous whether the goal of this Cultural Revolution was achieved. There are a few points to keep in mind from Liang Hengs experience to completely understand the process of the Cultural Revolution. A situation that he faced was getting accused of being a May Sixteenth conspirator. To preface, the school had stopped classes for a special announcement about this counterrevolutionary movement. The school even put lock boxes around so that students could report people who they thought were conspirators. Liang Heng was reported as a counterrevolutionary and so they locked him in a room until he would confess. This lasted for days as he would be hit and discriminated against by the whole school for his ‘bad thought.’ The following quote is what Liangs’ thoughts were after he was told that he had one more time to confess before he would be sent to jail; “I realized that I could die. I could unscrew that lightbulb and put my hand there where the current flowed and I would be dead. I should never again be tormented by memories of Mother’s humiliated and accepting face as Father cursed her for betraying the Party’s faith in her.” (Liang, 206)  The thing that hurt him the most was that even his friends betrayed him because of the way the society thought about the Cultural Revolution. This situation created a distant relationship between people who were once close together. 

Liang had already lost his sisters to the countryside and both of his parents due to the political tension. The party terminated the family structure and the old Chinese traditions were slowly but surely becoming a thing of the past. The family and individual was virtually broken down completely and people turned to work as their identity. With this being said, it brought young workers together but in other circumstances it forced out the older population. Liang Hengs father was an example of this as he says “if I can’t work, I’m a useless man.” (Liang, 229) His father, who was rejected by the party earlier in his life, was forced to live in his past as he saw that he couldn’t make any contributions. As a result of his sickness, he had to retire from his work and the party forced him to move into a tiny room distant from the revolution. He would have to live the rest of his life full of emptiness and could not contribute to the revolution even though he wanted to.

The Cultural Revolution could be embodied in two slogans that Liang had stated in his memoir.  “The Farther from Home, the Nearer to Chairman Mao” and “The Poor and Lower-Middle Peasants Are Closer Relatives than Mother and Father” (Liang, 146). The mobilization of the educated urban people to the countryside was a huge part in contributing to the revolution as well as picking out the ‘counterrevolutionary’ ideas that people were demonstrating in everyday life. Pointing out other people’s mistakes was a big part in getting rid of the four olds and attempting to bring in the new traditions and culture to China.