By Jeffrey Lin, July 5, 2024
Ms. Jia shares her reflections on the Cultural Revolution and her time as a rusticated youth, where she faced grueling physical labor and connected deeply with rural communities. Her story offers a compelling look at the resilience, camaraderie, and cultural exchange between urban youth and rural peasants during a transformative period in Chinese history.
J.L.: Greetings Ms. Jia. I really appreciate your willingness to conduct this interview with me. What you will say regarding your life as a zhiqing will be of great significance for my research and potentially those of coming historians. You also have the right to keep this conversation private. So feel free to elaborate on any opinions, as we will not disclose any critical information without your permission.
Jia: No need—keeping it private is unnecessary.
J.L.: Great. So before we start, do you have any other questions or concerns?
Jia: No.
J.L.: So, in my understanding, the Cultural Revolution really started with the Red Guard Movement of 1966-68, which led up to Mao Zedong’s implementation of the Down to the Countryside Movement. How did you feel about the events that occurred during that Movement?
Jia: Well we were in school, middle school, to be precise, so I was quite naïve and ignorant when [the Cultural Revolution] commenced. I just listened to whatever they had to say up there [in the Central Government]. Whatever they say, we would do. We were not in a big city—a small town actually—so any political movements there started one step behind the major cities. But we were also affected by the Red Guard Movement: school was suspended in 1966, though we did not know what the Red Guards stood for. Well we were young, so we did not know why there was this political movement and subsequently blindly participated in some violence and pillaging: we destroyed some books and artifacts [that stood against “Revolutionary Values” of the Cultural Revolution]. When the smugglers (referring to “Conservatives” who wished to preserve the existing regime which was perceived as corrupt and inefficient) and people who spoke of profane speech [that stood against “Revolutionary Values” of the Cultural Revolution] were uncovered, we would go parade them in the street and insult them. Reflecting back, [our actions] were inadequate. The only upside was that the people were aroused and energized, so political repression of the commoners curtailed. The corruption and malpractices in the government was much withdrawn and reserved during the years [of the Cultural Revolution].
But all in all, the Red Guard Movement was not worthwhile, I believe. So much time was wasted for us youths not attending school, and factories and work units were shut off regularly for protests. The costs [of the movement] do not match up with the benefits.
But out of our admiration of Chairman Mao, we thought that it was within reason that we educated youths should undergo the training of the countryside, to receive the “reeducation” [by the peasants]. This way, our thought would become more advanced. Bearing this in mind, I signed up for rustication eagerly early on, and since we were not in a big city, the commune-level cadres will come by every home to investigate if you have not signed up. Students at the middle school level or above, some only having been in middle school for a year and a half, some even half a year, were sent to the countryside for training. We were teenagers. I was a little over 15, and we were all in the rural areas by the time I was 16. When we arrived at the countryside, it was the second half of the year, so all the wheat was already planted. But we have to go dig at the seedlings with hoes. But sometimes I dig to hard and break the seedlings, which made me feel guilty and I would cry. After a few days of handling with the hoe, my hands were covered with blood blisters. Thinking back, I was really too little for agricultural labor. But letting our ignorant selves do agricultural labor ad be “reeducated” by the rural peasants. made us realize the difficulty of rural life compared to our urban lives.
Really, planting crops was challenging. Sometimes, their entire year of harvests would not be sufficient for the family’s consumption. If the harvest was poor, and you could not you could not pay the due public rations, then they would take away some of the food allocated to your household. Sometimes the farmers would starve after poor harvests. My production team had a zhiqing who could not do as much labor [as we did], so he got less rations because he had fewer work points. We zhiqing witnessed and underwent this suffering firsthand.
We also had liangpiao (crop/food tickets), which was used to exchange for food. The quantity of crop tickets was set for each person, and we [zhiqing] would save some of our tickets for the poorest of peasants. We really felt sympathetic with them, and as one with positive attitudes, it was hard to reconcile with the suffering of the peasants. I felt that there needed to be change with this “new countryside” that we were supposed to create. We had a strong sense of community by eating rice all from “big pots,” around which people cluster for meals, [we] worked [together]. Some would be lazy and cheat work, but those instances were few and they would realize the grave [consequences] of not working (which included reduced work points, and less food rations and tickets).
J.L.: So Ms. Jia, you mentioned that you were from a small town. So I wonder, what was the school that you attended like, as well as the area in which you grew up at large?
Jia: I grew up in a town in Chongqing which is now called Yongchuan district.[1] Sulai town, Yongchuan city, was the place. The school was called Sulai Town Agricultural Middle School, which was a private school. We were poor at the time and had to help with the family, as well as trek [long distances] to school, resulting in many tardies and absences. I did not study well nor gained acceptance into the Town Middle School, so I attended the Agricultural Middle School, which was managed privately. I attended private school until 1968.
J.L.: And so you rusticated a year after, in 1969?
Jia: Yes, “graduated” Middle School in 1968, went to the countryside in 1969.
J.L.: So when you rusticated, were you still in Chongqing, or were you otherwise located?
Jia: Yeah in the environs of the Yongchuan region. We were allocated to the Seventh Production Team of the Baiguo (white fruit) Dadui. We had three zhiqing there, all girls. Oh wait there was also a boy who lived with his father, a countryside doctor; so he did not reside with us. The [villagers] built a row of bungalows, made of hay and thatch with muddy adobes. We would go with the farmer-workers to agricultural labor, study the way of agriculture from the rural peasants, who would teach us step-by-step, hands-on, how to plough fields and do other agricultural work. We were a studious bunch of girls as well, so we acquired the skills a little slowly. However, since we were not so delicate and squeamish as those from the big cities, we coped easily with the hardship. We also socialized and integrated well with the local commoners. They treated us very nicely and fairly, so our friendship was strong. Often, the villagers would invite us to have meals with them, and they would also give free food and vegetables to us zhiqing. Because the zhiqing were poor, and we were responsible for growing and acquiring our own food on our own allocated plots of land, they also pitied us and provided us with some of their excess lands. They taught us to farm vegetables on these excess plots of lands. So gradually, I had learnt how to farm.
I had toiled in the countryside for three years, which was not a short duration. But anyways, during those three years, I was well integrated into the rural peasant population. So, [one would ask], what use were the educated youths of [in the countryside]? So we zhiqing were of much use as the rural peasants came to adopt much of the new thinking and philosophies that came from the cities [and] gained literacy. We have established mutual feelings with the peasants. That was what the situation was like in the countryside. So we zhiqing were of much use as the rural peasants came to adopt much of the new thinking and philosophies that came from the cities [and] gained literacy. We have established mutual feelings with the peasants. That was what the situation was like in the countryside.
J.L.: I am glad that you had felt welcome and celebrated during your time in the countryside. So in what ways did the welcome reduce the pain and suffering of the process for you, if any?
Jia: Well, that (pain and suffering) was not how I thought of the process of rustication. Because [rustication] was something to do, after all, better than sitting at home chatting about nothing. Well what could we do when we did not have school to attend? Well you would go to the countryside, and train yourself with agricultural labor. It boosted our physical potency. The other benefit was that we understood the suffering of the rural peasants. This was the same philosophy that Chairman Mao held: he wanted us to know that the grains that we eat came through hardship, and that we should appreciate what we eat by understanding the hardship behind them. I felt the challenges of being a rural peasant profoundly. I felt vividly how we live and depend on the grains harvested from the crops of those poor rural peasants. We did not feel the disdain we had formerly reserved for peasants as naïve children. When we were young, we did not know to appreciate. We only knew that it was painful to be a rural peasant, because they were poor and wore shabby clothes. As youngsters we thought rural peasants were one class below [ourselves]. That was an untenable belief. But after undergoing the challenges of rural life, this disdain changed into a sympathy. We stood in solidarity with them in the face of challenges like famine. We felt that life was hard for these village[r]s. This was a profound experience.
And [rustication] was also about spreading culture. Well at least we have completed Middle School. Many rural peasants recognized not a single character, so we had to read the newspaper to them initially. Frequently, when the zhiqing finished agricultural labor and had free time at night, we would ascend a slope and arrive at a large graveyard. The graves were enormous, because they often belonged to landlords and landladies. We would sit on the grass in the graveyard and sing. The peasants would think its interesting and learn singing along with us. We would then tell stories we hear in the city to them, and they would think it is great and fascinating. This juxtaposes with their initial stance, that “ohh the people from the city are coming down to take some rations of our food.” They were initially resistant of hosting urban youths and were unhappy. Nevertheless, after seeing the work that we have done, they thought that it was great, and us kids socialized with them easily.
Afterwards, when our feelings for each other became more engrained and deep, they were reluctant to let us go when we were recommended for work in cities. They missed us, and would not let us go. They would shed tears anterior to our departures, saying “ay ya! We would miss you all if you leave, such great kids!” Some even talk of having us stay to become cadres of the village. But we would not want to stay there and become [full-time] cadres, we wanted to go back out to the world beyond. So those were my real experiences in the countryside.
In the rural areas, I had high expectations of myself and wanted to improve. To join the Chinese Communist Party. We had to fill out application forms for joining the party. I was optimistic and positively-oriented, one dedicated to upwards mobility.
J.L. So what impacts do you feel that educated youths like you engendered in the countryside? What impacts did your rustication have on you zhiqing and on the rural peasants?
Jia: There were quite a few impacts. The rural peasants believed that it was better for them to be exposed to our knowledge, considering that their literacy rates and education levels were low. Though we were only Middle Schoolers, we have accumulated some knowledge at least. Their world view needed to be expanded to beyond the vicinities of their local village, and they also had a few bad practices like cursing and ad hominem arguments. Our arrival promoted more harmony between the villagers and improved the way in which they spoke. I think that was a great impact we engendered. The rustication also strengthened our bodies and minds, as we are more durable and able to confront challenges imposed upon us. So because of this, we gained the [leadership] skills that helped us thrive in our work units, such as [the Army Corps] in the National Defense Unit. The leaders there had ranks of all platoon commanders, battalion commanders and company commanders. They were all commanders. And when we were recommended to work in the army corps and help built the quarries and factories, we were promoted to be platoon commanders. The picture I showed you earlier was one of me in the army uniform as a platoon commander. We still had food rations in the army. Most soldiers who worked would receive more rations, including sugars, a half kilogram load of it, and rice. The army corps was a good work unit, and we felt happy there. For this reason, we also worked really hard, and thus I got promoted to join the party. Then, I was further recommended to attend [South China] [U]niversity [of Technology], so I really appreciate the training and opportunities bestowed upon me by my [military unit]. To be honest, many people from other countries might not understand why we had such faith and creed in our work, why we follow our party so devoutly. Well I have to say, our thought was very plain and honest, we really thought that our purpose was to work hard, to contribute to society.
I graduated Middle School in 1968, right? I originally had to attend more than a year of schooling (middle school) to actually complete the curriculum,[2] not even speaking of high school. But our work unit treated us very nicely. Your grandfather would know, they had 10 university students tutoring me [before sending me off to university], one [responsible for] teaching me chemistry, one for Chinese language, one for physics, one for mathematics, and just teaching me and teaching me day and night. Even in university, I got additional teaching time from the professors. I thus learnt more knowledge than the proletarian workers who were normally promoted to become students. I stayed around 4 years in university, which was a normal duration to obtain an undergraduate degree.
J.L.: So Ms. Jia, can you elaborate on the selection mechanism by which you were promoted from your production team to becoming a platoon commander and then to university?
Jia: This was a complex process, very different from other normal people. Well, as I have discussed, I was a very hardworking youth in the countryside. So the villagers valued me and wanted to turn me into a cadre right, and though I did not, I was still recommended to apply to the Communist Party. After I was also recommended to go obtain a university education, the local cadres did not want me to leave as they wanted me to join them. So I did not get the opportunity to be in the first group of people to leave, and I only got the opportunity the second time the commune leaders came. They knew I was a “five-good” (meaning merited in many aspects) commune-member, a “five-good” zhiqing. They knew me because I was in the propaganda (advertisement) team, and I did many performances and became sort of famous. It is the same process as Ms. Wen, you know. We would organize propaganda team performances at the commune centers and the leaders thus got to know me.
At the same time, my political background was clean and good. My uncle was involved with the army corps, and he was on vacation so he came to my commune and applied to the cadres to have me on the recommendations list. The personal [background] investigation went well; as my uncle was also staying in the commune, he knew about the situation and lobbied for me. Then my name came up level by level.
J.L.: Wow, that sounds like a competitive process.
Jia: Ay, it was difficult. I almost did not make it to the military unit, and my local cadres did not want me to leave. They planned for me to be the Manager of Females’ Affairs in the village. But I was not completely willing to, because to be honest, I had a selfish thought of wanting to give myself better opportunities to see the world beyond the village, where I would be trapped [had I accepted the job]. Village life was hard, so we all wanted to leave, to some degree.
J.L.: Totally, village life was difficult and most zhiqing dreamed of leaving. When I did some research on the zhiqing, I read that most zhiqing on the frontiers, such as in Xishuangbanna, they were very unsatisfied with the work and living conditions as well as the policies that governed their rustication. So they would make acts of protests, and I wonder if there are similar cases of resistance or protest in your region?
Jia: Yes, yes we had resistance here. We [three] were from Chongqing, from the local region, so we [three] would not resist or protest. But those who came from afar, they would often express their anger and indignance through stealing other people’s property, such as Chickens. Some would even eat the little silkworms that the production team raised with broad beans. They did not even care if the peasants found out. But such cases were few in the groups around me. Though I do remember that some zhiqing living together would fight each other, and there were verbal conflicts as well. Speech against the rustication policy was nascent in our region, so it existed but was not widespread. I guess when many zhiqing live gregariously, like those in Xishuangbanna, it is easier to have conflicts. But zhiqing in my region were dispersed sporadically. For example, I was with two other girls, all of whom stuck up to our principles and worked hard. We ended up with very different fates. One saw no future in the village as a cadre, so when recommended to work somewhere else, she chose to go to Xinjiang to find a job and a boyfriend, whom she married. The other girl found a job at the wine factory, and I was the only one left, so I later also went to the army corps and then university.
I would say I ended up better than the other two girls, because the local Department of National Defense wanted me in the army corps. I went with the second wave of departing zhiqing, as the local cadres did not want me to leave with the first wave. Seeing I was resolute in eventually leaving, they did not prevent me from going. So then the commune leaders had me recommended to depart.
J.L.: Great, so just to confirm, which year did you go to the army corps?
Jia: Late 1972.
J.L.: okay so 72.
Jia: Yes, 1972. After we went in 1972, the factories and quarries were still under construction in the [44th Research Institute], so we were part of the civilian labor force constructing the edifices and structures. As a platoon commander, I had to lead 10 to 20 people in our duties of painting the walls and laying bricks. I had integrated and socialized with my platoon members well. We did great work. We were very enduring. We were a generation for whom life was difficult. So because of my team’s and my exceptional performance, the research institute [to which our army corps belonged] recommended me to attend university. Why would the research institute recommend me to go to university. Well my major was semiconductor physics, which aligned with the research the institute was conducting, at South China University of Technology, which was a good university. I did well in university, so when I returned to work at the research institute, I made many contributions. I even became a workmate of Ms. Jixiu Wen during my time in the information room. My research articles have also won “superior paper” prizes.
J.L.: That must have been a great achievement.
Jia: Yeah. Back then, we even had experts and technicians coming from Taiwan, and we would have meetings together. My research article was read publicly at institute-wide conferences [with those experts]. Then, the papers were also read, published, and introduced at national-level conferences with experts in the semiconductor industry. Also, I have been published on seven or eight nation-wide research publications. I was still a very passionate, eager, hard worker back then. We had to build semiconductor equipment from the ground up, and we did it well.
At the time, other employers came to visit, such as those of Wuhan Research Institute of Posts and Telecommunications. They wanted me to work at their research institute because my work was spectacular. I wouldn’t call myself an iron-woman, but I was capable of many things, from research study to the performance arts. I loved to perform, you know? Ay, really. I might have to go soon, so heads up to you that we might have to wrap up our conversation soon.
J.L.: Okay, noted. So one more inquiry. I just wanted to confirm, since you rusticated to a village in your local region in Chongqing, whether you did so through the policy of toukao?[3]
Jia: I rusticated through the “local rustication policy.”
J.L.: So does that fall under the category of toukao?
Jia: No, it is not a policy of toukao. We were simply allocated to a production team very close to our home. You know, the Seventh Production Team of the Baiguo Dadui. We had four people in total, one of which was the boy whose father was a countryside doctor I have previously mentioned. We three girls lived in a house made of hay and thatches that the peasants built for us. You know, they would use the stalks of the wheat that we eat to construct our housing,
J.L.: What types of housing subsidies, if any, did you receive from the government? I recall that in the Chongqing area, the production team received 100 yuan worth of housing for each youth that they received.
Jia: State subsidies, well I was and am not too sure of this. Well we youths did not pay any money. The production team was responsible for building the houses for us. We had no money to pay anyways, so probaby the state paid and subsidized the production team to build houses for us.
J.L.: Great, thank you so much for letting me know about your experiences in the countryside. This interview was wonderful, and it will be a significant contribution to my research. So, if you do not have any more questions or comments, we can finish the interview right here.
Jia: Great, we can finish, thank you!
[End of interview]
[1] Narrator said “district” instead of “town” here but for historical accuracy Yongchuan was an independent city/town in the 1960s.
[2] Students, during the Red Guard Movement, all “graduated” from their secondary schools despite not completing the curriculum as the schools were then shut down.
[3] Toukao (投靠), refers to the policy whereby youths rusticate to a village where they have known family that can provide them with accommodation.