It’s Time to Get Realistic

Tongzhimen,

I feel incredibly lucky to still have a platform like this to speak to you all about what is happening in China. To be involved in the cataloging of the many accomplishments of our late Chairman Mao was such an honor and has made it so important that I stay up-to-date on what is happening in our country and its Communist Party. My status as a long-time reporter has given me early access to an upcoming memoir by a man named Liang Heng about his and his family’s experiences during the Cultural Revolution. 

I feel that it would be a disservice to the country to not explicitly call out the Cultural Revolution as the period of terror that it was and for this reason I implore all of you to get your hands on Son of the Revolution when it comes out to understand, if one does not already, the violence and struggle our people had to endure because of this campaign. The Liang family began as faithful to and productive within the Communist Cause but slowly fell apart physically and emotionally because of this campaign. Liang Heng’s father was particularly loyal to his country and its government and remained so until his death, despite having been struggled against and demoted himself. The example of Liang Heng’s father encapsulates how the Cultural Revolution has decimated an entire generation of those loyal to the Cause; people who tried to do everything right and live according to the teachings of Chairman Mao were left behind, if not directly attacked, by the very country they were devoting their lives to serving. 

A particular moment that struck me while I was reading the memoir was from the time that Liang Heng and his father spent in the countryside after his father was sent there to work as a cadre for re-education purposes. He threw himself into the responsibilities associated with this job and tried his very best to serve the people whose lives he was overseeing. Determined to guide the masses into a communist lifestyle, “Father” probably thought himself ready for anything… leading to his devastation when orders were coming through that he knew would directly harm the peasants he was living with. Can raising and selling livestock for a few eggs really be an example of treacherous capitalist tendencies? Should these peasants, with their limited furniture and back-breaking labor, really be punished for trying to survive? Surely they could not be equated to the landlords we suffered under so many years ago, nor could they be included in Mao’s “Four Olds.” To his credit, Liang Heng’s father tried pleading with his higher-ups and stayed sure that Chairman Mao never meant “‘for his policies to harm the peasants,’” but his opinion was ignored and these peasants suffered as a result.

This moment struck me because it demonstrates how the Cultural Revolution punished even the most loyal of communists, people who just wanted to realize Mao’s vision of helping the peasant masses. Essentially, nobody was safe from being struggled, regardless of how deserving one actually was. All Liang Heng’s father wanted to do was help his people and he was ignored in the name of pursuing misguided plans pertaining to eliminating capitalism; surely there were more threatening and pressing issues than poor peasants trying to survive and pay off their debts. The flawed extremism and promotion of violence that marks the Cultural Revolution turned us against one another and distracted us from what really needed to be done. I hope that we as a country can learn from this chaotic period in our history to make sure we channel our energy toward helping those in need and only targeting those who actually seek to undermine our communist vision.