Cultural Revolution

The topic for this interview is about life during the Cultural Revolution in China. The person I’m interviewing is my mom. She is 49 years old. When the Cultural Revolution happened, she was only about 6. At first, she got caught up in the hype and she really wanted to join the revolution, because all the older kids were wearing bands and marching around the country spreading the word of Mao. During the revolution, many things were restricted, including all things western like skirts. Mao encouraged people to spy on each other, husbands on wives, wives on husbands, and kids on parents. This created an atmosphere of distrust through out the country and in every family.

When she got older, she realized that the Cultural Revolution isn’t as good as she thought it would be, it turned out to be a pure political move by Chairman Mao to drive his rivals in the Communist Party out of power. He used the red guards to persecute many government officials, including my mom’s father, who was the mayor of her town at that time. My grandparents sent my mom and her sisters to the countryside in order to protect them, and they were separated for a long time. Mao personally purged many high-ranking officials and army generals out of the party. He even sent a general who once saved his own life to jail.

Life during the Cultural Revolution was very hard, and the standards of living were very low. A man was considered very wealthy if he could afford a radio. There was only one TV in her town, and every night all the town officials and workers would gather around the TV and watch in awe. Since all the schools were closed, all the kids had to go work in the countryside. My mom and other neighborhood kids used what they had and turned them to toys, including making jewelry from potato leaves and making playing cards from card boards. Food was also pretty scarce, and everything is rationed. My mom’s family is considered to be in the upper middle class, and even they had to save