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(The great proletarian)
Life of Li©
By Jalen Menser
Letter from Father
HelloLi
I am sorry to say I will not be able to make it back in time for the New Years this year. I have been asked to help build a road from Beijing to Shanghai and we are behind schedule. I heard you applied to Beijing No. 1 high school, I wish you the best of luck getting in.
Today I came face to face with one of the evil capitalists. They said he had been smuggling food to Taiwan, so he had been sent to help build the road through the mountains (an especially dangerous task). Which reminds me, I figure if your going to school I might as well tell you about how we came to become the China you know and love. You see after the second world war the darned nationalists had taken power and they were lead by Chiang Kai-sheck. The communists helped liberate us and made us communist.
Mao then lead us on the great leap forward to help industrialize us. That is why I have been sent to help build roads. The great leap has ended now but rumors say Mao is going to launch a revolution against the party!奏偷 ( No translation)November 29th 1966
The Flag of the traitors, Rightists are sometimes forced to wear one.
July 31st 1966 (the prehistory of
madness)Today is the day my life changes for the better, today is a great day. I have been accepted into Beijing No. 1 high school! I
finally will be able to better provide for my family.
Times where hard when I was little, we didn't’t have much to eat, no one did, but my parents managed to find time to teach me how to read a write when they weren’t in the fields. When I got older they took me
with them to help in the fields, this was when things were the hardest, I was about nine but age didn’t matter everyone had to
pitch in to provide enough food. And I almost forgot the best part of going to Beijing, Mao! I will get to be closer to our glorious leader and maybe I will even
get to work for him in our great communist government! I guess I’m also kind of sad to
be leaving behind my family but I know I will be able to better help them, myself,
and Mao in Beijing.
One of the posters promoting the great leap forward
January 1st 1967 (corruption of the
minds)I don’t believe I just don’t believe it, how did we let the monster in
the “gang of four” come to power? Thank goodness Mao put them in their place. All over the
country people have taken to the streets and are taking down the corrupt capitalists who had
managed to slip into power in the past couple of years. I was with
my class on a field trip to Tiananmen when he gave one of his speeches. It was amazing, the
people the atmosphere, the accent. All of it was beautiful. I
have recently reconsidered leaving my high school to join the
Red Guards I had thus far decided against it but now after
seeing Mao himself I am less sure. Afterwards I bought myself a copy
of “Quotations from Chairman Mao” and I have set about to memorize the whole thing.
Banners from the Tiananmen rally
January 1st 1967 (part II)
Many of the local officials have been thrown out as well. I was at one of the
denouncing ceremonies, It was rather frightening with all the yelling and screaming, I don’t think I would
like to go to another one but it is reassuring to know justice is being
brought to the bourgeois party members who have abused their power and attempted to return
capitalism to china. Mao has also turned his attention to the old
culture which stands as a testament to the oppression
and tyranny of the imperialist days. I am Glad I did not so foolishly join the
corrupt party government as I mentioned in my earlier entries as I
now understand the depth of the Counter-Revolutionaries control.
Although it also makes me wonder if I could have been slightly indoctrinated by one of my teachers to support the
Party.
Top: Our glorious leader Mao, still going strong despite his age.Bottom: A denouncing ceremony, I’m in the middle of the crowd
December 2nd 1967(Red Chameleon)
I have become a red guard, not that I had much choice in that decision. After
our school got sacked there was no reason to remain. But I guess I’m
getting ahead of myself lets me start at where it began.
Well I guess it had been happening all over, the teachers were being
discovered as rightists and had to be done away with, I just didn’t expect it to
happen to my school. Of course I supported the overthrow of these
teachers since Mao had come up with it but, afterwards there is nothing left at the school to learn about or learn with. The books are damaged or destroyed and the teachers sent away. The red
Guards are nice but I would have preferred to have continued my
education so I could get a better job.
As a Red Guard many things are different. The only book is the red
book, the only word is that of Mao, and the only thought is that of Mao.
Top: Our Daily recitationsBottom: Marching in a parade
(December 2nd continued)
I believe Mao is great but I do not believe he is to be worshipped as a
god. Either way I am safer in the Red Guards, and after being witness to the
beating of my teachers I will do whatever it takes to avoid this.
I suppose one of the advantages to being a Red Guard is I get a better look at China. I realize the legends of life I
the country side are just that, legends. I assume things are better than in the Imperial Days but I cannot Imagine
they where that much worse. I suppose this is the fault of all the party
members who have been purged but the true test will be if in the coming
years whether things become better or worse as Mao leads us forward.
One of the Rallies at Tiananmen
July 27 1968 (Red dawn for Red
guards)Gunfire, I awoke to gunfire. Not that it was the first time but this time it was different, this time it wasn’t the sound of some poor person who was found as a rightist, or the
noise of a rival Gang of Guards shooting at the alley cats, no It was the sound of a well organized group of men mowing down some school boys with guns. As I soon found out it was the government, who had been sent to
bring peace to the streets by doing away with us. Within an hour it was over. As I crawled out of our Makeshift barracks I was quickly
seized by some soldiers and dragged away. But I suppose I am getting ahead of Myself, I had been sent down to Guilin with some of my fellow Red Guards in order to bring the revolution there. We began by first sacking
the schools and denouncing the teachers (I still find these ceremonies unpleasant). Then for a little while we contented ourselves by dealing with the “rightists” who had been “caught” by their neighbors. It was brutal
business and I doubt any of the people were actually rightists but in the name of Mao we beat them to pulp anyway. I personally tried to avoid partaking in these ceremonies but
many of the
Our Gang of guards persecuting members of a “rightist Red Guard gang.”
(July 27 1968 continued)
More barbaric guards had no problem beating up some poor man who had
forgotten his Red Book. That’s when we found the Kerosene. It probably had been hidden in the warehouse back in the Civil War but that didn’t make it burn any less. We took the stuff out to some of the old
temples and followed the way of Mao and set fire to them. That old wood burns slowly
at first but once it really catches fire nothing could stop it and in the end we had
accidentally burned down some of the neighboring houses. Then finally some idiot got it into his head that we must prove our worth to Mao by defeating the other groups of Red Guards for not being revolutionary enough. I think that’s why Mao decided let
the military intervene. The street fights were pointless bloody and caused lots of
collateral damage. I don’t think Mao needed to arrest us though. Well I guess
that doesn’t change the fact I’m sitting in a cell right now. Hopefully I will get set free, I
mean its not like I did anything wrong, I was against all of this from the start. But its not like I’m going to say any of that to the guards because then I would have been
counter revolutionary. I am running out of Charcoal to write with so It may be a while
before my next entry
Burning Buddha's, from one of the local temples. I’m in to the left in the third row.
September 10th 1979(Memoirs of an
intellectual)What have we done? When did the madness
begin? Was this revolution folly from the start? And Mao, Mao, MAO! we hailed him
as a god and yet he was the one who started this all. We did all of this for Mao. We burnt the temples for him, we beat the teachers,
and even fought one another to win his favor, and what did we get in return? Banished to the god damned countryside! Oh that was
wonderful just wonderful, as If any of us new how to farm. Sure as a child I had farmed but that was a long time ago and that was before
I got branded in the hands for bing part of one of the revolutionary gangs. Well at least Mao is dead. I know I should be mourning but I’m not and I don’t think I will be for a
while because I had a chance at a better life, I had a chance at being happy, at having a good job, and maybe even a happy family
but Mao took all of that away with his damned cultural revolution. I was at school, I was happy, Intellectual was a compliment,
but now! NOW IT’S A CURSE! Since I went to high school I was banished to the villages for
a second time even though I had never gotten to leave in the first place. I remember
mentioning before that life in the villages wasn’t like what the newspapers described
them, as
Above: Communist propaganda, as if we actually had tractors for all, what lies, all lies.
(September 10th 1979 continued)
But that doesn’t eve begin to describe it, after the great leap forward
destroyed all of the Iron and Steel in China things hadn’t progressed.
People where still using backwards technology and backwards methods.
Now that Mao’s dead the former members of the government who were actually fixing things can come back
and help us get out of this societal rut. Mao was once a great man who
wanted what was best for China but as time progressed he digressed, he new how to start a revolution but not how
to run a nation. Now that Mao is out of power his reputation has quickly
declined, although he is still hailed as the father of China there is now an
astrix saying he was also the death of old China. Times have changed in many ways and yet so much has
stayed the same, its almost like no time has passed since I first was back
in the fields and yet deep inside I know everything has changed.
The village where I was sent to be forgotten.
Selected Bibliography
Brooman, Josh. Longman 20th Century History Series: China since 1900. 15th. London: Longman Group, 2003.
Coutsoukis, Photius. “China History.” China 2001. 16 Mar 2008 http://workmall.com/wfb2001/china/china_history_index.html
”Ignoring The Past.” The Economist 20 May 2006: 29-30
Kong, David ChiShing, and Keit Kin Fun Leung. 20th Century World History. Hong Kong: Macmillion New Asia, 2004.
Clark, Paul (2008). The Chinese Cultural Revolution: A History. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Fong Tak-ho. (2006, May 19). "Cultural Revolution? What Revolution?" Asia Times Online. Asia Times Online (Holdings). Retrieved at <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/HE19Ad01.html> on June 15, 2011.
Gao, Mobo (2008). The Battle for China's Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution. London: Pluto Press. ISBN 978-0-7453-2780-8. Retrieved at <http://www.strongwindpress.com/pdfs/EBook/The_Battle_for_Chinas_Past.pdf> on September 2, 2012
More Bibliography
Spence, Jonathan D. (1999). The Search for Modern China, New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
Poster titled "Proletarian revolutionary rebels unite” "Cultural Revolution." Cultural Revolution. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2013. http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/graph/9wenge.htm
Image of Taiwan Flag: "Taiwan Flag." Taiwan Flag. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2013 http://www.only-flags.com/taiwan-flag-p-132.html?cPath=25_176http://www.only-flags.com/taiwan-flag-p-132.html?cPath=25_176
Image of cultural revolution Denouncing ceremony "Wuhan-Mao's Cultural Revolution." Wuhan-Mao's Cultural Revolution. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2013.http://phobos.ramapo.edu/~theed/Cold_War/d_Brezhnev_Era/c_1968/ff_Wuhan.html
Great leap forward: "Great Leap Forward." China Geography Study Guide. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2013. http://chinageoquiz.blogspot.com/p/geography-study-guide.html
All other sources previously cited