For China, the People´s Republic, 60 is the New 30
Wendy Liu
October 01, 2009
When I was an elementary schoolgirl in China, wearing a red scarf as a member of the Communist Young Pioneers, I looked up to an exclusive group of people, including my brother: those who were born in 1949, the year the People´s Republic was founded. The "49ners" never failed to brag about their age, same as New China´s, especially around October 1, China´s National Day.
None of the 49ners, or anyone else, however, knew what drama New China was going to be.
Now with the biggest National Day celebration going on in China in six decades, with 60 floats parading down Changan Avenue through Tiananmen Square, and with the largest population on earth looking back at their lives over 60 "springs and autumns," most complicated feelings rose inside me.
Complicated because of all the upheavals and transformations packed in 60 years through the eras of Mao and Deng; Complicated more because of the contrast and contradictions between the first 30 of extreme proletarian revolution and the second 30 of anything-goes capitalist reform; Complicated also because this year is my 10th as a citizen of the United States, once "America the Imperialist" in Chinese vocabulary, now cooperating, and codependent, with the Middle Kingdom.
It is never easy to look at China, or life in China, without getting a heavy heart. But if the Chinese people could laugh at the ridiculously ultra-left Cultural Revolution after suffering through it, we should all be able to enjoy a somewhat light-hearted look back at New China, especially its comic, or tragicomic, U-Turn:
Deng, once dubbed China´s "No. 1 Capitalist Roader," was purged by Mao twice in the 1960s-70s; After Mao "went to see Marx," Deng turned China into the biggest "capitalist roader" in the world; the Communist Party, or "Common Property Party" in Chinese, having set out to eliminate private ownership, now presides over "China, Inc." and protects private property; the masses of yesterday´s proletariat, or the "property-less" in Chinese, are now enthusiastic property owners; Confucianism, which was criticized during the Cultural Revolution as serving the exploiting class, now serves as a theoretical basis of the current regime´s policy of a harmonious society.
And the "joke" was on everyone, like my brother:
Born in Yanan, the revolutionary capital before Beijing, with both my parents having joined Mao´s army in their teens, my brother was "red" by birth. Soon after the Cultural Revolution started in 1966, my brother, at 17, joined along with his friends one of the most radical Red Guard organizations: Red Terror Brigade. The group, by its name, went about terrorizing and confiscating "class enemies" at their home, enemies such as former landlords, business owners, counter-revolutionaries.
As with millions of his peers, my brother´s revolutionary act was followed by several years of "learning from the poor peasants" in the countryside, then a stint in the army. In the 1990s, this former Red Guard joined a real estate company formed by his old Red Guard friends. Together they swam and struggled in the "sea" of business. Today, retired, my brother is living a pretty calm life. I don´t know if he remembers his "Red Terror" days. And I doubt his artist/entrepreneur son has ever heard about them.
Although I was not as radical as my brother or active as some of my friends in my youth, we all went through the same motion: growing up naively revolutionary under Mao and then entering adulthood cynically pragmatic under Deng. But never did that red-scarfed girl dream of becoming an American voter, independent for that matter, who voted for Bush in 2000 and Obama in 2008.
I am not sure if it is more comic or more tragic to see one´s youth years all but negated by one´s adult years, or New China´s first 30 years all but nullified by its second 30 years.
But hey, it is time to celebrate. And a generous discount seems a good idea.
So here is to New China, and all the 49ners: Happy New Thirty!
Look at that float!
None of the 49ners, or anyone else, however, knew what drama New China was going to be.
Now with the biggest National Day celebration going on in China in six decades, with 60 floats parading down Changan Avenue through Tiananmen Square, and with the largest population on earth looking back at their lives over 60 "springs and autumns," most complicated feelings rose inside me.
Complicated because of all the upheavals and transformations packed in 60 years through the eras of Mao and Deng; Complicated more because of the contrast and contradictions between the first 30 of extreme proletarian revolution and the second 30 of anything-goes capitalist reform; Complicated also because this year is my 10th as a citizen of the United States, once "America the Imperialist" in Chinese vocabulary, now cooperating, and codependent, with the Middle Kingdom.
It is never easy to look at China, or life in China, without getting a heavy heart. But if the Chinese people could laugh at the ridiculously ultra-left Cultural Revolution after suffering through it, we should all be able to enjoy a somewhat light-hearted look back at New China, especially its comic, or tragicomic, U-Turn:
Deng, once dubbed China´s "No. 1 Capitalist Roader," was purged by Mao twice in the 1960s-70s; After Mao "went to see Marx," Deng turned China into the biggest "capitalist roader" in the world; the Communist Party, or "Common Property Party" in Chinese, having set out to eliminate private ownership, now presides over "China, Inc." and protects private property; the masses of yesterday´s proletariat, or the "property-less" in Chinese, are now enthusiastic property owners; Confucianism, which was criticized during the Cultural Revolution as serving the exploiting class, now serves as a theoretical basis of the current regime´s policy of a harmonious society.
And the "joke" was on everyone, like my brother:
Born in Yanan, the revolutionary capital before Beijing, with both my parents having joined Mao´s army in their teens, my brother was "red" by birth. Soon after the Cultural Revolution started in 1966, my brother, at 17, joined along with his friends one of the most radical Red Guard organizations: Red Terror Brigade. The group, by its name, went about terrorizing and confiscating "class enemies" at their home, enemies such as former landlords, business owners, counter-revolutionaries.
As with millions of his peers, my brother´s revolutionary act was followed by several years of "learning from the poor peasants" in the countryside, then a stint in the army. In the 1990s, this former Red Guard joined a real estate company formed by his old Red Guard friends. Together they swam and struggled in the "sea" of business. Today, retired, my brother is living a pretty calm life. I don´t know if he remembers his "Red Terror" days. And I doubt his artist/entrepreneur son has ever heard about them.
Although I was not as radical as my brother or active as some of my friends in my youth, we all went through the same motion: growing up naively revolutionary under Mao and then entering adulthood cynically pragmatic under Deng. But never did that red-scarfed girl dream of becoming an American voter, independent for that matter, who voted for Bush in 2000 and Obama in 2008.
I am not sure if it is more comic or more tragic to see one´s youth years all but negated by one´s adult years, or New China´s first 30 years all but nullified by its second 30 years.
But hey, it is time to celebrate. And a generous discount seems a good idea.
So here is to New China, and all the 49ners: Happy New Thirty!
Look at that float!
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