Victims of the Cultural Revolution: An Investigative Account of Persecution, Imprisonment and Murder

Introduction

By Youqin Wang

1. Between Cows and Chickens

When I began writing the history of the Cultural Revolution years ago, I first interviewed hundreds of people who had lived through that period. In view of my assessment that there is in fact a huge discrepancy between the written records from the period of the Cultural Revolution and the historical facts, the emphasis was placed more on interviews and investigations than on materials gathered from previous writings. A vast number of stories that happened during the Cultural Revolution were neither reported nor recorded at the time of their occurrence. As this huge gap existed between what was written about the Cultural Revolution and what actually happened in reality, these firsthand investigations play an important role in portraying faithfully the Cultural Revolution.

My heartfelt thanks go to all those interviewed who have spent their precious time with me to relate past events. These recollections, in many cases, are very painful and embarrassing. However, because of their sense of morality, courage, and good intentions to support my work, they are able to overcome the withdrawal and fears deep in their hearts. These people have spoken out from their recollections, and some even have helped me with my search for historical facts. Furthermore, some among them have not only given me an account of figures and events that happened during the Cultural Revolution, but also shared with me what they learned through their personal experiences.

One elderly person I interviewed is a teacher. He was labeled an active counterrevolutionary during the Cultural Revolution, and spent many years on a reform-through-labor farm. He said that he had done a variety of manual labors, one of which was herding cattle.

His field of study is engineering, and he had never herded cattle. At first, seeing a herd of gigantic monsters who could move freely but could not communicate with humans, he was bound to be nervous. After a period of time, he noticed that the herd was not hostile towards him nor intended to harm him. Little by little, the cattle also began to listen to his command, so peace developed between them.

There was a big willow tree on the farm, and the green grass nearby was thick and luxuriant. The teacher often led the herd of cattle there to graze.

Later, a cow in the herd grew old and could no longer work, so the old cow was slaughtered, and the event took place beside the big willow tree.

After the old cow was slaughtered, the teacher tried to lead the herd to graze near the big willow tree. However, the cattle stood still mooing, and the sound was mournful. He tried again twice afterwards, but the herd still refused to graze there, mooing plaintively in chorus like before, which saddened him also. From that time on he would not herd the cattle under the big willow tree where the old cow had been slaughtered, in spite of the fact that the grass there was more luxuriant than that elsewhere. For many years he has been wondering at the memories and persistence the cows showed.

I listened and asked curiously: Did the cows remember the place where their companion was slaughtered and so mooed plaintively, refusing to go there? Do animals possess such sympathy and memory?

He said that was indeed the case with cows, but was not necessarily true with other animals. For example, chickens were different. Chickens usually played merrily where their companions had been butchered as if they did not sense anything unusual. Sometimes a few chickens were grabbed from the coop and butchered, their feathers were plucked and their chests cut open. When things like intestines were thrown out on the floor, other chickens would rush to peck at them and fight for them with one another. As I listened, two pictures, one describing the conduct of cows and the other the conduct of chickens, unfolded in my mind. They were clear and real. I knew that this teacher was relating a part of his true-life experiences rather than deliberately making up some fable or satire. Stories like these simply cannot be fabricated. Unless you had first-hand observation, you would not know such details. Nevertheless, I was touched by another train of thought.

I thought of people while listening to the stories of cows and chickens.

To ordinary people living in a post-Cultural Revolution era, we are all placed in certain positions between cows and chickens.

A vast number of people died from persecution during the Cultural Revolution. Some of them were beaten to death in public places; some were tortured to death during imprisonment; some committed suicide after being subjected to beatings and humiliation; and some others died of starvation, illnesses, or mental abuse. These victims had been teachers, parents, classmates, friends, relatives, colleagues, neighbors, and members of the community. What kind of memory have their deaths left for us? What kind of response have we made towards their deaths? What have we done for their deaths? Protest? Sympathize? Help? Keep silent? Turn away? Take pleasure in their misfortune? Drop stones on them when they have already fallen into a well? Be accomplices or bystanders? Forget? Embellish? Or devote ourselves to seeking facts and justice? Despite the deep oppressed during the Cultural Revolution, spaces still more or less existed in different kinds of methods, which were for individuals to choose from different ways. After the Cultural Revolution, remembering and recording facts are met with many obstructions, but spaces for individual choice are much wider than during the era of the Cultural Revolution; hence the greater need for people to determine their positions.

The treatments that cows and chickens showed towards their dead companions, observed by the teacher from the reform-through-labor farm, have revealed two patterns and provided a coordinate axis of reference for measurement and comparison.

The writing of this book and all types of work related to it, including investigations and writings, can also be viewed in terms of a struggle and effort that the individual conscience has been making between the ways of cows and chickens.

(To be continued)