Author: Kasey McGerald (Miao Kuo shuo)

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

Dear Tongzhimen,

I began my reporting career expressing to my readers the reasons the Communist Party could be the answer for bringing China great prosperity and returning the country to its former might. I prided myself on being a productive member of my work team, and now a teacher to the youth of Communist China. 

As I have participated in the Party’s mass campaigns, I have done my part to spread the ideals of the Communist Party throughout China. During land reform however, I am sorry to say that I allowed myself to question the policies of the Party. Through extensive self-reflection and reading my copy of the Quotations from Chairman Mao, I have realized the egregious error of my ways, and how my reporting during that time did not reflect my personal revolutionary values. I reported based on my experience in one village, rather than thinking about the socialist movement in China as a whole.  

I have always admired Chairman Mao and his commitment to equality for women, shown in many of his speeches and writings. The Chairman has fought valiantly for marriage equality, the right for women to work outside of the home, equal pay, and battled to change countless other inequities left from the old ways. As early as 1927 the Chairman, when organizing rural women’s associations, stated that “the opportunity has come for [women] to lift up their heads, and the authority of the husband is getting shakier every day” (LRB 130). He gave Chinese women the opportunity to “lift their heads” and rise up like never before. Chairman Mao has gone above and beyond in keeping his promise towards women, stating in 1955 that “men and women must receive equal pay for equal work in productive activity” (LRB 131). I truly regret expressing my concerns to the Party during the land reform campaign, and I have continued my work to right these wrongs. 

I am grateful to Chairman Mao and the Party for offering us the opportunity for self-criticism, because “conscientious practice of self-criticism is still another hallmark distinguishing our Party from all other political parties” and “as we say, dust will accumulate if a room is not cleaned regularly” (LRB 114). Please Comrades, accept my sincerest apologies and understand that I am dedicated to change, and dedicated to the Party. Long live Chairman Mao!

Greetings Tongzhimen,

I apologize that it has been so long since my last post. Living just outside the city, my family survived the recent famines and we have all been able to remain together. Though these are tumultuous times, I have faith that China will quickly return to its former might! I have read more of Chairman Mao’s works since returning from my work team, and this line stands out to me as China prepares to move past these difficulties:

“New things always have to experience difficulties and setbacks as they grow. It is sheer fantasy to imagine that the cause of socialism is all plain sailing and easy success, without difficulties and setbacks or exertion of tremendous efforts” (On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People [1957]).

While our country will certainly be led back to prosperity by Chairman Mao and the Party, there have been some significant problems over the past few years. “The Three Hard Years”, 1959-1961, have had grave consequences for China. 

 

Physically the people have suffered, mainly the peasants in the countryside. Our famines have led to malnutrition and the many issues that present with it. As early as 1958, famine began and peasants were forced to make tough decisions to stay alive. At a Party meeting I read a report by the “Jinan Municipal Investigation Team on the outbreak of famine and deaths in Gaoguanzhai township” from January 1959. For about five months the township faced severe food shortages and the people were forced to take drastic measures when the emergency food aid was not enough. “From early spring to summer, when food first became scarce, people supplemented their diet with chaff, tree bark, and weeds. Some locals told us they had eaten at least fifty types of food substitutes during this time.” Villagers consumed seeds and unripe vegetables, as well as peanut skins and other food substitutes. 

 

The health effects of the food shortages were dire. Edema in particular was a massive issue. The Hunan province stated in 1961 that “within forty days after January 1…35,816 people throughout the province died from edema.” a number which only increased as the year went on. The healthcare system has been unable to treat many, which has added to the death toll. In addition, “most women of childbearing age stopped having periods. Mothers had no milk left to breastfeed, and many babies starved to death as a result.” Last year, I read another report concerning a request from the Sichuan Province Welfare Committee “for additional medical relief funds for the year 1961 to treat edema and gynecological problems.” “Between January and April [1961], more than 1.4 million women in the Sichuan province have been found to be suffering from gynecological problems each month including amenorrhea and uterine prolapse.” According to their investigation, they believed that “in the next eight months more than 3 million women will be in need of treatment.” These health conditions were disastrous for women working in the fields or in the collectives, and also caused miscarriages, infertility, premature births, and a range of birth defects. 

 

In addition to the physical consequences of the past three years, we have witnessed various environmental concerns throughout the country. I read a report earlier this year regarding “the damage to forests in Fujian and four other provinces.” In these provinces, a lot of land was deforested to create new farmland to increase grain production. In Hunan, “unrestrained deforestation to create more agricultural land has not only destroyed trees but also caused soil erosion. This means that after two or three years many newly converted areas of farmland will turn into wasteland again. No one will be able to grow anything.” “On the other hand, [deforestation] has also triggered droughts and floods in the lower reaches of the Yangtze, causing a decrease in grain production in the region.” These forested areas are struggling to keep up with increasing export quotas as their production goes down. I have also heard whisperings of floods in other provinces, but have not seen any documentation regarding these issues. There very well could have been intense rainy seasons in some provinces causing floods and thus a reduction in grain production. 

 

While the country has been in a state of turmoil over these past few years, we must listen to Chairman Mao and his directives forward. I remember Chairman Mao’s speech a few years ago in 1955, in which he stated:

“The wealth of society is created by the workers, peasants and working intellectuals. If they take their destiny into their own hands, follow a Marxist-Leninist line and take an active attitude on solving problems instead of evading them, there will be no difficulty in the world they cannot overcome” (Introductory note to “The Party Secretary Takes the Lead and All the Party Members Help Run the Co-operatives” [1955]).

We, the Chinese people, have the power to bring our country back to prosperity if we listen to the Chairman and the Party. 

 

Stay safe,

Miao Kuo shuo

 

Dear Readers,

I apologize that it has been quite some time since my last post, I have been busy with Party activities and doing my part in building a new China. Last year I was called upon to work with the masses. I have taken leave from teaching just outside the city to join a work team, and I am now in my second village. The mass campaign to implement land reform is something that I have been working on intensely during my time in these two villages. Some may think that it might have been easier to confiscate land from the wealthy landlords and redistribute it to the peasants, but the Party believes in a different approach. 

When I was in university, we read Mao’s 1927 “Report on the Peasant Movement in Hunan”. I believe that much of the Party’s policies on land reform and mass campaigns extend from this movement. After discovering that “almost half the peasants in Hunan [were] now organized” and the same was occurring in other counties, Mao believed that “it was on the strength of their extensive organization that the peasants went into action and within four months brought about a great revolution in the countryside, a revolution without parallel in history”. After the peasants organized, we watched “the privileges the feudal landlords have enjoyed for thousands of years” be “shattered to pieces. Their dignity and prestige… completely swept away”. Peasant associations gained power over their oppressors through organization and the willingness to fight for their cause. Mao and the Party watched these peasant revolutionaries take the countryside with force. Peasants were mobilized to right the wrongs that have occurred for generations, and showed that violence may be necessary for revolution. 

After noticing the success in a peasant uprising, it was clear that land reform needed to be a mass campaign, rather than the confiscation and redistribution of land, because power is in the hands of the people, the masses, and the way to harness that power is to remind the people of the cause they are fighting for. 

I remember nearly a decade ago, we took part in a mass study campaign to understand the struggles of the proletariat and the stance of the party. But theory can only take one so far, so I agreed to aid the peasants and put policy into practice. Prior to traveling to my first village, I attended training and educated myself on working with peasants and how best to communicate party ideals to them. One professor I spoke to, Yang Rengeng, told me of his experiences working in land reform and made it clear “that peasants are waiting for [my] help”. Thus, I set off to educate local leaders. 

I found this task more difficult than the professors and party members had led us to believe. In my first village it was extremely hard to relate to the villagers, and they did not seem to understand why we were there and what our mission was. One approach that we were told worked best was finding “bitterness” in their life stories. I was inspired to do this when I read The Sun Shines over the Sanggan River. When speaking to a poor peasant named Liu Man, Yang Liang “learned the man had once been a village cadre until he was pushed out of the local party branch by hooligans seeking to protect the scheming landlord Qian Wengui”. He and his fellow work team members then assembled the peasants and enough collective rage was incited to go after the landlord. Helping peasants find their “bitterness” worked in the first village I traveled to. After my conversations with individual families I helped lead struggle meetings to share their grievances with the rest of the village. 

My second village was where I began to see the darker side of land reform. Namely, the lack of a fight for women’s rights. During struggle sessions with groups of women, or in the workplace when they were creating textiles, I heard of their plights. Their plights were not just with the landlords, but with their husbands and the patriarchy. When coming into villages to assist peasants in coming together to create our new China, we promised women “a ‘double fanshen’: one as a peasant and one as a woman”. I read in the newspaper about Guo Shuuzen, who in a 1947 land reform campaign “received land, two horses, a mule, and a cart”. Once her life had changed as a peasant, she could now become a feminist. “Politically awakened during land reform, she joined her local party branch, headed her local women’s association, organized literacy classes, and took a leading role in organizing production”. Her story was extremely inspiring to me, and I hoped to be able to help other peasant women in the same way. 

As land deeds were handed out, I noticed that only divorced or widowed women received their own land, as married women were property of their husbands. The women who did receive their own land often did not know how to farm it. Myself and other female party members plead with the party “to provide peasant women with adequate agricultural training”, yet no one listened. Some nuns were even forced to take husbands! A few women opened up to me and other female party members about the oppression they face in the household. They are forced into submission, beaten, and constantly disrespected. How are these women supposed to help with land reform and class struggle when their main struggle is within their homes? I confess that it is hard for me to leave this village feeling that women had achieved fanshen. For a number of years now I have followed party doctrine, but after my experience in the villages I’m not sure if party policy is working. 

 

Until next time,

Miao Kuo shuo

Hello everyone! My name is Miao Kuo shuo, and I am currently in my final year of university in Beijing. I was born in 1908 in a small town just outside of Beijing, and lived there for my entire life. I am the oldest of four children, I have two younger brothers and a younger sister. My little brothers are intelligent, but quite rambunctious and my little sister is my best friend and will hopefully follow in my footsteps and attend university as well. My family is not extremely wealthy by any means, but my parents are well-off enough to support our educational and professional endeavors rather than solely pushing us towards early marriages, like many of my childhood friends. My father is a merchant, and makes a steady living in the trade. My mother does an excellent job running our household and helping my father with his business. She is also an extremely talented artist, creating and selling pottery. My mother did not attend school, but she was educated by her mother, a tradition in her family. They desired that I have a traditional education, the same as my brothers could have and encouraged me to attend university. Though my paternal grandparents are a little more traditional, they have realized it is no use to tell me to settle down and find a husband right now. They’ve instead directed that focus towards my younger sister (not if I can help it!). 

 

At university I am studying political science, with an emphasis on foreign languages. I have become proficient in French and German, and am trying to learn a little English on the side. I have loved learning about the education systems in other nations, and am interested in seeing how similar ideals could be applied in more rural areas of my country, particularly for young women. I accepted this job because I’m entering my final year of university and feel that I need more experience to take into the real world upon receiving my diploma. I’ve been financing my education through my job at a grocery store, but this will provide me the opportunity to put my education to use. I understand that we live in a tumultuous time, and it is especially dangerous for a young woman to report on controversial issues, but these stories need to be told.