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Short Stories Miscellaneous Stories The Struggle Begins
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The Struggle Begins |
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| Written by Peter | |
| Monday, 05 May 2008 | |
The Struggle Begins
It was early autumn in 1966, at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. In Beijing, many great events happened: on June, the first big-character poster was published in the campus of Beijing University and soon in People’s Dairy. Consequently, Chairman Mao Zedong met the more than 50 million Red Guards on Tian An Men Tower. And soon, the red guards went to streets to destroy the “Four Old” (old idea, culture, custom and habit). In fact, they went to Wang Fu Jing Street (the most flourish shopping mall in Beijing) to smash the signboards of the famous shops and the neon lights and search the houses of the capitalists, landlord, reactionary and confiscate their possessions.
The activities of the red guards got reaction from the highest. On 18th August, Chairman Mao met the red guards second time. He told a girl that you should be of the spirit of warrior instead of being elegant and refined in manner. Then the girl killed many people to show her spirit of warrior. Mao’s most close assistant Li Biao shouted himself blue in face to support the revolutionary actions of the red guards. He praised them: “Your actions couldn’t be better!”
However, in the Maidian People’s Commune located in the countryside about 50 kilometers from the city it was still rather undisturbed. The peasants were working on their fields and the cadres went on their official works as before. In addition, they just read the news paper and heard and spread hearsays, for example, a person in high position had been flattened.
One day the cadres in the commune courtyard were organized to visit the big-character posters in Beijing University. They read the big character posters that disclosed and criticized the leaders of Beijing University and saw the Black Gangs (the former leaders of the university) were doing labor work in the campus.
After the visitation, they were very excited and complained that they were so slow, compared with the revolutionary situation in Beijing. Therefore, they were brewing a struggle. At last the struggle in Maidian People’s Commune began.
The courtyard of the commune was the center of the commune, in which various kinds of organizations worded, such as the bank, besides the offices of the commune. Among many houses and rooms, there was one in which two units worked: one was a bank and the other a credit co-operative. According to the system in China, at that time, the bank was state-run, while the credit co-operative had collective ownership, which meant that the two people working at the bank were of the identity of national cadre who enjoyed various privileges from the state while the four people working at the credit co-op were in fact peasants, though they sat in the office. The difference in system between the two units often caused trouble between the workers in the both. So the workers in the credit co-op always thought that they were lower that those who worked in the bank.
Zhang Meirong, a young girl about 25 years old, who worked in the credit co-op, said with a special tone of revolutionary fervor and said: “We must break with the ‘Four Old’, following great leader Chairman Mao’s instructions to make revolution. In my opinion, the ‘Four Olds’ are in the very room.” As she spoke, she pointed to some bottles on the table.
There were four bottles on the table and their contents were flavoring essence, saccharine, citric acid and sodium bicarbonate, used for making cool drinks, a privilege enjoyed by the workers during the summer. The bank workers mixed the contents with boiled water, poured the mixture into bottles and put the bottles in the well. During the hot summer, when returning from the villages, drinking the cool drink was really eejoyable. However, the workers who were in the same room but worked for the credit co--op couldn’t enjoy it. Furthermore, the head of the bank, who was named Liu Peng, always deliberately sucked the drink noisily, when he drank in the presence of the workers in the credit co--op.Zhang kept saying, “The flavoring essence is just the thing of the capitalist class.” Here, the writer must do an explanation: In Chinese, both words: ‘flavouring essence’ and ‘perfume’ have the same character ‘xiang’'. The flavoring essence is 'xiang jing' and perfume is ‘xiang shui’. At that time, people thought that only ladies in rich families and those in western countries sprayed themselves with perfume. Zhang was therefore using a play on words to urge the people to smash the bottles. Those who wanted to do something to display their revolutionary spirit responded to her call at once.At that time, the most inlportant principle was “It is right to rebel.” If anyone wanted to do some revolutionary action, no one should stop him. So if Liu had been smart enough, he would have allowed them to smash the bottles and said nothing. However, he stood between the table and the workers of the credit co-op and said, “Stop! The flavoring essence is given by the higher authority. It is state property. You can't smash it. If you really want to do it, we must ask for the instruction from the higher level.”Some people stood in awestruck silence after hearing what he said and went away. The failure of the revolutionary spirit depressed Zhang Meirong. So she went to the deputy secretary of the Communist Party of the commune to ask for advice. The secretary’s name was Qian Cong. He had a whole bag of tricks. Since the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, the leading cadres in the different levels had stood aside; they no longer had any power. Qian Cong understood the situation well because Mao had pointed out that the key targets of the Cultural Revolution were the ‘capitalist roaders’ (those in power who took the capitalist road). In the center of the Communist Party the key target was President Liu Shaoqi. In the location, it was the leading cadres. If there were no targets for the political movement in the commune, then he as the deputy secretary of the Communist Party in the commune would be the target sooner or later. Qian thought it as a good chance to find a target in the commune. So he said, “Chairman Mao teaches that revolution is not a guilty act and it is right to rebel. Vice-Chairman Lin (Biao) teaches us that mass movement is natural reasonableness. That Liu Peng does not allow you to smash the bottles of flavoring essence is against the mass movement. Whoever is against the mass movement is reactionary. I suggest that we have a debate to argue who is right.”Qian hatched his plot and the debate was held after dinner. Severa1 of Chairman Mao's quotations and slogans rendered Liu speechless and he became sulky. He could not argue with the people by himself. In his life, he had never been treated as an enemy.Suddenly, a man in the credit co--op stood up and said: “I suggest that the people who stand on Chairman Mao's line stand up!” All the people in the room stood up except Liu, who was too angry. The man repeated his suggestion three times but Liu remained seated. He thought:”I will not stand up. What call you do to me. I am a Communist Party member and I came from a poor peasant family.”In fact, he fell into a trap. The others forced him to become reactionary element by enraging him so that he did something wrong. Someone said: “You don't stand up. So you don't want to stand on Chairman Mao's line. Therefore you are a reactionary!' As soon as this speech ended, another person shouted, holding his hand up, “Long live Chairman Mao! Down with anyone who is against Chairman Mao!' All the people repeated the slogans loudly.After that, Zhang shouted, “Down with Liu Peng! If Liu does not surrender, we'll destroy him!” Clearly, it had been decided that Liu was a reactionary element.At last, the Director of the Revolutionary Committee of Maidian Commune declared that Liu Peng carried out President Liu Shaoqi's reactionary line persistently and opposed the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. So he became an element of the reactionary gang and a capitalist roader. The Director of the Revolutionary Committee of Maidian People’s Commune raised his voice and cried: “We decide to put proletarian dictatorship on him.”At once, two young men came to him and seized him by his arms and put him in a small room. Liu became the first target of the political movement in the commune. He was called ‘the person in power taking the capitalist road’, but in fact, he was merely the head of a commune bank responsible to only on person besides himself. He became a reactionary element because of a small bottle of flavor composition.From then on, he was criticized and denounced every day. The struggle in the commune had begun.
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