Speaker: Guo Yuhua｜Professor, Department of Sociology, Tsinghua University
Guo Yuhua, born in 1956, is a sociologist who focuses on the plight of China’s underclass, including migrant workers, unemployed and laid-off workers, and labor rights. Her outspoken criticism of Beijing has made her one of China’s public intellectuals and a frequent target of silencing and suppression by the authorities.
As a child, she grew up in an institutional compound in Beijing, where her parents were former soldiers. When the Cultural Revolution began, her father was branded a “capitalist” (short for “a person in power who follows the capitalist path”) and was criticized. When he died of illness in 1968, Guo Yuhua had not yet reached the age of 12. The change in her family made this introverted and timid girl grow up overnight.
After the September 1971 incident in which Lin Biao, “the hand-picked successor of the great leader Mao Zedong,” allegedly “defected from the Party and the country and fell to his death in Wendur Khan, Mongolia,” Mao was forced to lower the tone of the struggle due to the situation. Because of her family background, 14-year-old Guo Yuhua was approved to join the army and became a member of the People’s Liberation Army, which was the most desired by young people at that time. At that time, she loved the Party and the country, and in her own words, “was red and red. This was not only true for her, but also for the entire Chinese society at that time, especially in the military. When she first turned 18, Guo Yuhua joined the Chinese Communist Party.
Guo Yuhua says her awakening did not come from a single moment, but rather a long process. 1980 saw her enroll in Beijing Normal University, where she studied for ten years and earned her doctorate. Most of her awakening was accomplished through the enlightenment of what she saw and heard both on and off campus during those ten years.
Those Chinese who lived through that era remember the vigorous, liberal 1980s. The reform and opening up of the country opened the door to an influx of Western thought and culture, giving Chinese people, who had just experienced the devastation of the ten-year Cultural Revolution and thirty consecutive years of intellectual and cultural isolation, an unprecedented sense of novelty, comfort and hope. However, in 1989, the Chinese Communist authorities launched a field army to invade China’s own capital. The sound of gunfire in Beijing seemed to reverse overnight the direction of China’s “modernization, world orientation and future orientation. Guo Yuhua says she, like millions of Chinese, has not had any illusions about the future since then.
When I was a soldier, I felt that if I didn’t join the Party, I was backward. At that time there was no concept of “pink”, everyone had to be red and red. I was already 24 years old when I went to college, and I had no sense of questioning or criticizing Chinese history and reality before. The process of going from a lack of understanding to some enlightenment or awakening was done in the course of almost ten years on campus.
I grew up in a central government compound in Beijing. My parents were former soldiers. My father was a graduate of Peking University, and after ’49, they were still in the military system, but by the time I was born, they had moved to the local level and were no longer in uniform.
[Editor’s note: During the Cultural Revolution launched by Mao Zedong to purge dissidents, a large number of Communist Party cadres from the central to local levels were branded as “the party’s capitalist faction in power” and were severely persecuted. Guo Yuhua’s father was seized by the rebels, deprived of medical treatment, and died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1968.
I was not even 12 years old when my father died, so of course, that had a particularly strong impact on people, such as their personalities. When I was a child, I was very timid and timid, and I would only cry when something happened. But after going through the Cultural Revolution era, it was actually forced out. My two older brothers, who are more than ten years older than me, have gone to work overseas. My sister, who is five or six years older than me, is not yet an adult, but she is also working. She was always inside the factory, especially late and did not come home, I was particularly scared, I was afraid to go home alone, always waiting for her outside. I remember my sister telling me: “From now on, if you encounter anything, if someone bullies you, you can only rely on yourself.” There was no way, my father was also gone, my mother could not come home during that time, I was the only one at home, hanging a key around my neck, it was a difficult time.
But at that time the age of small, many things do not understand, and do not feel unable to live that feeling. Anyway, when it comes to things, try to remember what my brother and sister said, when people bully you, first you do not bully others. But you can’t be weak and be bullied. Once someone bullies you, remember: people do not offend me, I do not offend. If people offend me, I will offend. So at that time, my personality has changed a lot, right? Many years later, at a class reunion, they still recall that I was the only girl in the class to fight with the boys.
At that time is a little bit of no one to rely on the kind, everything has to rely on their own, including life. In those days, it was a ticket economy, every month to get food stamps ah, oil stamps ah. To buy back these supplies. If you forget this month, there is no more.
[Editor’s note: After the Red Guards and rebels stormed government organs and unleashed a storm of power grabbing, the moderate faction of the Communist Party eventually deployed the military to restore control over government institutions, and they allowed some minors to join the military, which was certainly a privilege at the time].
Many of the children in our institution went into the army when they were very young, 15 or 6 years old, and I told my mother that I wanted to go too. My mother also hoped that I could go, because at that time, if you do not go, secondary school graduation, you have to go to the countryside to insert the troops. Then she made some special efforts to find some people. In the end, I went later than others, they all left in December, but I left home in January, which was a lucky opportunity.
Note: In 1971, at the age of 14, Guo Yuhua enlisted in the army. For nine years after that, she served as a soldier and deputy company technician in the Air Force Communications Corps of the Wuhan Military Region. She joined the Communist Party of China when she was just 18 years old.
When I was a soldier, I felt that if I didn’t join the Party, I was more backward and problematic. Almost all people would think so. Especially in the military, if you didn’t join the party, you would think that there must be something wrong with you, or that you weren’t working hard, or that something was wrong. Join the party is a normal state. If you can’t join, it will be seen as an abnormal state. That’s the atmosphere. If you are not in the military, in other places, maybe the freedom is a little bit larger. The army basically does not have much room for personal freedom. I was not a pinky, there was no concept of “pink” at that time, everyone had to be very red, very red, red, red, red.
I returned to Beijing on the last day of ’79, and took the university entrance exam in ’80. In fact, the process from the original lack of understanding to some understanding, to some enlightenment or awakening was done in the course of nearly ten years on campus.
When we first entered the university, we saw the seniors of the class of ’77 and ’78 freely running for the people’s representative, and there were university students and young teachers who gave speeches and ran for election on the campus. This was very new to us, and we thought they were participating in politics, hoping to be involved in political governance. At that time, the debate and discussion were very active. One is that the social atmosphere has changed, and after all, higher education has stopped for ten years. The desire for knowledge that had been squeezed for so long and the need to seek the truth were very strong and motivating. In addition, the translation and introduction of Western thought and scholarship in various disciplines, such as the “Toward the Future Series” and the “China and the World” series, all played an enlightening role for Chinese scholars.
I was already 24 years old when I went to university, and I had little sense of questioning and criticizing Chinese history and reality before. For example, when the Lin Biao incident occurred, I was still a minor and did not think about those issues. At the time of reform and opening up, at least I knew that even great people or propaganda of a great organization can make mistakes.
I was impressed by the poet Ye Wenfu’s visit to the school to organize a lecture. At that time, his poems caused a great stir, and his attack on corruption of senior officials was actually very critical. The long poem he wrote, “General, You Can’t Do This,” really cheered up many people, who felt that these things should be criticized and these darknesses should be exposed.
But I think it’s better to give up such expectations completely, or 89 June 4, of course. After June 4, I don’t think it was just a mistake that was made, and there was hope for reform, a kind of shattering of previous unrealistic illusions. After more than 30 years have passed, you can see that it is impossible to admit mistakes. If you do not admit your mistakes, what do you have to rely on to maintain? You can only rely on deception. This deception means that the history you tell people is not true. As an oral history researcher myself, I certainly know that history cannot have only one voice. When we have only one voice, one reality, of course, we have to put a question mark, we must question. You also have to use coercive methods to make people accept it, and if they don’t accept it, they will use this way of suppression. Then of course I am against this thing.
I declare that I quit the party is 14 years. In fact, I entered Tsinghua (teaching) in 2000, I never participated in such activities, I also do not pay the party dues. I said, I fund the poor mountain children to study every year, about 2,000 yuan per year. I gave him the return receipt for the financial aid given by others. I said, “That’s it, there’s no money.”
I think one of them is anti-history – they don’t let people know the truth about history; and the other is they don’t allow people to pursue the truth. If you want to pursue the truth, or if you want to tell the truth, then this also brings great risks. We’ve all felt the same way over the years. That leads to the question, where is the legitimacy of your power?
It is a particularly scary thing that the party rules the whole society. Before the reform and opening up, this was certainly the case in the Mao era. But has that changed today? I don’t think it has changed at all. It is the only one that has the power, it is arbitrary and does whatever it wants. The Mao era was a planned economic system, not allowing you to develop a market economy. Today, it encourages you to develop a market economy, but this market is a space for it to make huge profits. Then you say, which will entrepreneurship ah? His property is not safe, dare to start a business? His spirit is not free, how to innovate? Look at how much development the people have? Look at those farmers, those migrant workers, what kind of development do they have? Many of them are leeks. Many of them are leeks, and they don’t know that they are cutting around all day long, but they are proud of it. The huge benefits and dividends of reform and opening up have been taken by who? This is the most fundamental question.
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