Dear Teacher,
In 1948 & 1949 I studied at Tongji University in Shanghai. Launched from the student union, students held demonstrations all over the city. Mayor Wu Guo Zhen (a famous man in China) came to mediate. He was pushed and shoved by the students and his spectacles and pipe fell to the ground.
A flying tank (a black arresting vehicle) was sent out to suppress students. Several students were wounded and arrested. Some Communist student leaders leading the demonstrations were arrested, but after two weeks they were set free.
This is how the Koumintang would be defeated. They at last met defeat when in May 1949 the Communist Party entered and was stationed in Shanghai. They did not commit the slightest offense against the civilians. They even slept in the streets. We asked them to rest in rooms that were empty. They would not do it. (This was only during the initial stages of power that they behaved so perfectly.) They were strict in discipline. There was presented a striking contrast between the Communist party and the Koumintang. In society and in camps the Communists were full of vigor and vitality.
You can see how after first suffering under the cruel Japanese and then the corruption of the Kuomintang, we finally held out hope for the wonderful Communist party.
Dear Teacher, can you understand having such hopes for Communism after what we had experienced with the Japanese and Koumintang?
Sincerely, Robert