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jimandcoco
StreetBeater
Joined: Apr 20, 2004
Posts: 2204
Location: California
Status: Offline
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 Posted:
Oct 21, 2004 - 11:40 PM |
 
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| Post subject: The lost generation in China |
Once a German told me that it is so hard to find age 50 something Chinese who can speak English. He noticed that there are a lot of intelligent youth and quite a few well educated older ones in 60-70s. But there is a culture faultage of 50s. This reminds me of the fate of my father's generation and how the cultural revolution had destroyed their lives.
About 40 years ago, my father was a very smart and ambitious youth. Go to college was always his dream. He attended the college entrance examination in 1965 the year before culture revolution. He scored high but was not be able to make it to college just because his father was an officer of Guoming party in Nanjing before liberation, who didn't flee to Taiwan in time. ( I don't want to go over my grandfather's story here, his life was miserable after that). My father planned to try again the next year. But the culture revolution started in 1966, and all the colleges stopped enrolling anymore. It was the most frustrating time in his life.
Because of my grandfather's background, my dad couldn't get a good job, with the call on from Chairman Mao "urban youth should walk into the countryside". My father spent next ten or somthing years in the countryside. He worked for a company which collected tea from different villages. He found that some villages in the deep hills didn't have roads to the town. He realized that a road would change the lives of the people who lived in the mountains. He organized a group, he went to province capital get support from up level, gave speeches, collected money. He helped these countryside people build a road which lead to the town. I had never known how these people appreciated what my father did for them, until one day when my father and I walked on the street, and a guy came up to us and said that he was from that hill, and he almost tearfully told my father how the road changed their lives.
My family built a house 3 years later after the road was finished. It was attention getting in the small town back at that time. Someone suspected the money, thought that my father corrupted money from road building. A special investigation group was set up for the case, and my dad was seperated. And I don't know what happened to my dad during isolation. It was end up that he was sent to the madhouse in the name of "Mental depression" and the investigation group was dismissed because they found out that our money was clean. After my dad got out from madhouse his career was pretty much dead. He was put on the most boring and nonresponsible position. My dad became a very quite and obendient person after that. It is just so painful to listen to such a story. But he is not the only one who couldn't fight for his own life at his generation. There are so many tragedies left from that crazy time. I just feel that we are so lucky that we live in era that we can build our future with our will.
My dad spends all this passion and energy in practising Chinese calligraphy all these years. His hand writings and paintings are so good because he writes and paints with his heart. I hope that I can organize an exhibition for him before I leave China as a tribute to his uneasy life.
Coco |
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MaomingMaster
Board Legend
Joined: Feb 03, 2004
Posts: 11059
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Oct 22, 2004 - 12:08 AM |
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xay6pack
Raver
Joined: July 13, 2004
Posts: 420
Status: Offline
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Oct 22, 2004 - 04:29 AM |
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Thanks for sharing the story. Very touchy and I really feel for your dad. |
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fukuman
Wonder Wit
Joined: Sep 18, 2003
Posts: 3699
Status: Offline
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Oct 22, 2004 - 07:05 AM |
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thanks coco, i love hearing stories of real lives in china. it's sad that a man should be tamed so, but it seeems to bea tradition here.
"Go to college was always his dream. He attended the college entrance examination in 1965 the year before culture revolution. He scored high but was not be able to make it to college just because his father was an officer of Guoming party in Nanjing before liberation, who didn't flee to Taiwan in time. ( I don't want to go over my grandfather's story here, his life was miserable after that). "
it worries me that u still say liberation in that passage. is there any substantive resistance out there? |
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IamME
Rocker
Joined: May 23, 2004
Posts: 625
Location: Shanghai
Status: Offline
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Oct 22, 2004 - 07:16 AM |
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I noticed the same thing about the older people and the younger people language etc. thing but never really thought about it.
Yeah that really is a beautiful story.
Not to be cheesy, but it sounds like [it would make] a [good] ZhangYiMou movie.
Too bad he's such a sell out hack now.
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I have your Hamtaro |
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jimandcoco
StreetBeater
Joined: Apr 20, 2004
Posts: 2204
Location: California
Status: Offline
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Oct 22, 2004 - 08:39 AM |
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| it worries me that u still say liberation in that passage. is there any substantive resistance out there? |
Give me a better word.
Coco |
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Caesara
Post Roaster
Joined: July 31, 2004
Posts: 4572
Location: The Middle Kingdom (Shanghai)
Status: Offline
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Oct 22, 2004 - 08:42 AM |
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Coco, that was a heart-touching story about an intriguing life. I do hope you are able to organise an exhibition for your father.
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Monk
Raver
Joined: May 03, 2004
Posts: 440
Status: Offline
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Oct 22, 2004 - 08:45 AM |
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Hi Coco -- thanks for sharing your story. I always find myself having mixed feelings about the Cultural Revolution (and modern Chinese history in general). On a macroscopic level, it's really fascinating to learn and think about it from a psychological, sociological, political, etc. viewpoint. But then when I remember that these phenomena are made up of individual human experiences which are overwhelmingly bad, I feel sad instead of fascinated.
A Chinese author who now lives in Paris named Ha Jin said something like "How can it be that this generation was made to suffer so much?" I think it's a very good point, and one that will be explored, dissected, and perhaps brought to some resolution in literature, the arts, psychology, and historical analysis. When this occurs depends on how the Chinese culture develops. It's already happening to some extent outside China, but I don't feel that foreigners and Chinese academics who have been out of the country for decades can do it completely properly.
Events that affect entire generations tend to create ripples in later histories, such as World War II bringing American women out of the home and into the workplace leading to the rise of feminism in the sixties. I wonder what the ripple effects of the Cultural Revolution will be? Or was that Tiananmen?
And I also hope you can organize an exhibition for your father. If it does happen, be sure to let us all know.
On a side note: agree about Zhang Yimou. |
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jimandcoco
StreetBeater
Joined: Apr 20, 2004
Posts: 2204
Location: California
Status: Offline
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Oct 22, 2004 - 09:14 AM |
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| I wonder what the ripple effects of the Cultural Revolution will be? Or was that Tiananmen? |
The fatal effects of the Culture Revolution is more than 10 years delay in economic developing; people were close-minded from isolating from the whole world. The ripple effects is a whole generation was screwed.
I was fascinated by the culture revolution too. since I was not born in that time, It's just so hard to believe what had happened at that time. I talked to a lot of poeple at that age, seems almost everyone got an tearful story. I am so overwhelmed by how cruel political persecution can be, how big the power can be from massive mob.
How a leader's mistake can change a generation's life.
Coco |
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MaomingMaster
Board Legend
Joined: Feb 03, 2004
Posts: 11059
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Oct 22, 2004 - 09:23 AM |
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I was born during the CR. I can remember watching things on the news and thinking (in my young head) that China must be an evil country full of evil people. The stories of the great famine etc.
This is a strange feeling. Attach the dates of the CR to landmarks in popular culture. Like this:
The year the CR started was the same year that The Beatles released Rubber Soul and advocated the use of drugs and said they were bigger than Christ.
The year the CR ended was the year the Sex Pistols started and released records like 'Anarchy in the UK' and 'God save the Queen' - both extremely anti-establishment songs. They swore on TV and called the housewives favourite presenter 'a dirty f*cker'.
With something as simple and (possibly quite irrelevant) you can see the massive difference in civil liberties and the right to say and think what you want. |
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BaDaXianRen
Low Seater
Joined: July 11, 2004
Posts: 3298
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Oct 22, 2004 - 12:59 PM |
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Coco,
Im glad that you shared that story with us. The Cultural Revolution was an amazing and horrible time in history. So many peoples hearts, minds, and souls were brutally crushed during this period. One of the things that I have found that is interesting with people I know who were persecuted during the cultural revolution is that they have all responded to that miserable time in their lives quite differently. Some people have become more bitter and distrustful. Some people have become sad and hopeless. A few people I know though, have become more caring and understanding. It is as if the horrible injustices of that time have turned them into a lens which focuses the last little bit of compassion in their hearts back out into the world. This is the most amazing thing to me. And I hope and wish that if my life is ever that hard, or if things that horrible ever happen to me, that I am the kind of person who would be strong enough to be able to come out the other side more caring and understanding. I think it would be nice to see an exhibtion of your fathers art as a tribute to him all the crushed people of that time who are living life again and remembering that it can also be beautiful. |
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serend
FooJay
Joined: Aug 31, 2004
Posts: 1712
Status: Offline
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Oct 22, 2004 - 01:41 PM |
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I have no mixed feelings about Cultural Revolution: it is pure evil.
Among the things CR destroyed, inaddition to what Jim mentioned:
1. Chinese cultural legacy, incl. fine art, classics, cuisine, artisanship, literature, etc;
2. Social fabrics of ethics, within family, in school, in workplaces, in urban community and countryside.
3. Numerous relics and invaluable cultural heritage;
4. Common decency and conscience;
5. A healthy cultural confidence;
6. An independent intellectualism; etc, etc..
Some of these losses are reversible and infact going through a reconstruction at the moment. Some of thoem can never be restored again.
Who's responsible? Not just the CCP, but the whole adult Chinese population at the time. Why would Chinese be exempt, if Germans in 30s and 40s were held collectively responsible for Holocaust? The fact that the crime was committed by Chinese to Chinese in no way mitigates its serverity.
And the defense of this heinous crime by some American Leftist intellectuals back in the 70s, incl. some people I have been close to and otherwise respected, is simply nauseating. I can only hope that Chinese would know better, having experienced it. |
Last edited by serend on Oct 22, 2004 - 01:44 PM; edited 1 time in total |
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jimandcoco
StreetBeater
Joined: Apr 20, 2004
Posts: 2204
Location: California
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Oct 22, 2004 - 01:44 PM |
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Serend:
| Quote: |
| Among the things CR destroyed, inaddition to what Jim mentioned |
No, it is Coco who mentioned.
Coco |
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serend
FooJay
Joined: Aug 31, 2004
Posts: 1712
Status: Offline
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Oct 22, 2004 - 01:46 PM |
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Sorry, coco. I enjoy the post very much. Thank you. |
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fukuman
Wonder Wit
Joined: Sep 18, 2003
Posts: 3699
Status: Offline
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Oct 22, 2004 - 03:40 PM |
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"Among the things CR destroyed, inaddition to what Jim mentioned:
1. Chinese cultural legacy, incl. fine art, classics, cuisine, artisanship, literature, etc;
2. Social fabrics of ethics, within family, in school, in workplaces, in urban community and countryside.
3. Numerous relics and invaluable cultural heritage;
4. Common decency and conscience;
5. A healthy cultural confidence;
6. An independent intellectualism; etc, etc.. "
I disagree that it destroyed 2, 4,5 because they simply didnt have it to start with. |
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serend
FooJay
Joined: Aug 31, 2004
Posts: 1712
Status: Offline
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Oct 22, 2004 - 03:43 PM |
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| fukuman wrote: |
| I disagree that it destroyed 2, 4,5 because they simply didnt have it to start with. |
Hear, hear...the Village Idiot has spoken... |
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fukuman
Wonder Wit
Joined: Sep 18, 2003
Posts: 3699
Status: Offline
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Oct 22, 2004 - 05:01 PM |
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Edgewood
FooSlinger
Joined: Jan 28, 2004
Posts: 3906
Location: Colonial Shanghai
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Oct 31, 2004 - 01:54 PM |
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All this talk about the Cultural Revolution is fair enough. What about the Great Leap Forward, in which 43 million poor SOB's died of starvation at the same time China was giving away it's grain harvest to the USSR for free, in order to preserve Face? |
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Conlige suspectos semper habitos |
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jsnlam
Squeeker
Joined: July 24, 2004
Posts: 18
Status: Offline
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Oct 31, 2004 - 04:11 PM |
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commando
Board Royalty
Joined: July 07, 2004
Posts: 7084
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Oct 31, 2004 - 09:44 PM |
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i would like to see your Dads calligraphy, and maybe purchase if it's on offer |
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acujerjer
Board Royalty
Joined: Sep 10, 2003
Posts: 7770
Location: up your butt and around the corner
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Nov 01, 2004 - 07:19 AM |
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Coco,
That is a very nice story and I always like reading your posts but there are two things you said that disturb me:
One is you write this touching story of how hard your dad had it. I have heard hundreds of stories similar to what you told, so it was no surprise. It gives me hope when someone like you, can tell a true story showing how bad things were back then. It gives me hope because I think if all people knew about it, then history won't repeat. But then you refer to the time of Mao's rule as Liberation. This is a term created to fool the people in thinking they are free, when the exact opposite happened. You were not liberated by Mao at all. He didn't liberate you from colonial powers nor the Japanese like he wanted you to believe. It was simply a time where Mao came in to power and China closed. It was not Liberation any more than you are living in the "People's Republic of China". You are not living in a people's republic, but a one party Communist regime.
The other thing that bothered me, is you Coco, being as educated as you are and as internatuional as you are, still refers to the Cultural Revolution as "one man's mistake." It wasn't a mistake. The murders, torturing, brain washing and horrors of the Cultural Revolution were not side effects of Mao trying to better China. They were brutal tactics designed to hurt Chinese people, culrure and spirit for him to maintain power and control. He didn't care about the people. They were not mistakes but intentional. He is just like other Emperors and Dictators of the world that do anything for power.
This bothers me because it shows me that no matter how educated a Chinese person is, and no matter how much knwoledge is laid before them, even if they witnessed the Cultural Revolution first hand, will never come out and say truly what it was. This face concept and unwiling to admit China's faults to me, is a horrible trait that will help lead to the destruction of the planet. Even when all the facts are laid before them, still, China can do no wrong!
I said this once before. The government of China could kill everyone in China and leave one person standing. That one guy will still be waving a flag insisting that China is the best.
Chinese will tell themselves their full, when they haven't eaten in a week. |
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jimandcoco
StreetBeater
Joined: Apr 20, 2004
Posts: 2204
Location: California
Status: Offline
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Nov 01, 2004 - 09:06 AM |
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Ok, I should have said that " 1949 when the communist took over the power....".
I was taught that 1949 was the liberation war since i was a kid. I don't even have feeling about it, we just called it that way. The government feeds us what they want us to hear. And i guess most of governments are doing so too. But since I grew up, I am able to see the world by myself and think on my own. As well as China open up to the world, we are able to see more about the OUTSIDE world. But to change the old concept and regulation, it takes time. And we are learning.
The culture revolution is over! So move on, why are you so pethetic! I felt it really hard to have a conversation with you since you are so pathetic and extreme!
Does it make you feel good by calling all CHinese stupid, all the woman are whore, what else? I forget you have said so many negative things about China.
Coco |
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merdy
Rocker
Joined: Mar 10, 2004
Posts: 747
Status: Offline
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Nov 01, 2004 - 10:33 AM |
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Was about to say something similar coco. All these morons who "agree" with you and always have something to say about everything, these intellectual wannabes, are just taking advantage of your story to plug in their racist ignorant comments.
Truth is, if you wanna talk shiiit about a country, any country, you can. There is not one single culture, people, country, that does not have a black spot somewhere in their history. So passing judgement on an entire population based on their history is irresponsible and idiotic. Are we saying all Germans are nazis because of Hitler? Or all Americans are asssholes because of Bush?
Your story tells the personal journey of a man who lived in a horrible time and somehow has found a way to express the beautiful side of life. Instead of commenting on the touching and inspirational side of this real life tale, these morons talk the same crap they start elsewhere on this site.
Any insults you can give them will still not be anough to really describe how unbelievably retarded these people are.
Peace. |
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yu888
Board Deity
Joined: Jan 25, 2003
Posts: 17960
Location: ZhongShanParkArea SH
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Nov 01, 2004 - 12:02 PM |
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Really nice post Coco. And you handle the critics well too. That's class. Please keep sharing though, we can all learn from such posts. |
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SwedishChef
Low Seater
Joined: Aug 19, 2004
Posts: 3028
Location: Køokin' der yummee-yummer
Status: Offline
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Nov 01, 2004 - 12:42 PM |
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Thank you [b]Coco]
Good post...and it is always interesting to hear the stories from a personal perspective, not just...I once knew a person who...
I would also like to see your Dad's calligraphy...Ihopeyou can set up an exhibition. Even if it's just for us poor ExPats I'm sure it would be appreciated...
Great post... |
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