Life and Problems Go On
Chinese civilians can be the most docile people in the world and it is pitiful that they are so easy to dominate. The situation had gotten so bad during the early years of the People’s Republic of China that many lived at a subsistence level, but they would not rise up to revolt. This seemed to be true from the beginning of Chinese recorded history including the philosophy of Confucius, to the total dominance of the emperor, to the terror of the warlords. It continued with the Japanese take-over, to the Guomingdang and finally now with the Chinese Communist Party. To me it seems that the Chinese people surely had more grief and domination than any other group of humans. They have endured every hardship.
But at this moment not having adequate housing was the real and pressing problem. In the thirty years since the supposed liberation of China, the housing issue had not been addressed. The population had increased by 100%, thanks to Mao’s encouragement to reproduce. This may have worked for the peasants who could build their own dirt houses with additions as needed. The big problem was for the educated people who lived in the city and like at our company had reached the age of 40 and still could not marry because there was no place for a couple to live. We only had dormitory type housing with men and woman being separated.
My family home in Hangzhou where we formerly lived as one family, now housed ten households. I wondered if there was no housing built, how long would it be until these most docile of people had no choice but to revolt. After the death of Mao, fortunately the government began building a great deal of housing.
I said before that regardless how severe the punishment, I did not learn to be quiet and simply take whatever injustice was being given out. I’m not sure how I got to be so different from my Chinese brothers who seemed to bare everything. They were too docile and I needed to work on that quality for myself. Our company often asked workers to work extra shifts or extra hours with no pay. Especially on Sundays in China, it was a common sight to be working with no pay. The government didn’t seem to think that there was anything to our lives except to work.
But there was one step worse that I do not understand how the leaders had the impudence to enforce. There came a new rule that if you did not come in on Sunday to perform the work obligation, you would have a day’s wages deducted. We didn’t get paid for Sunday, so it had to be a different day’s wages that was taken. This enraged me! I asked supervisors, “Which day’s wages will be deducted? Monday? Tuesday? for not working a day that we are not paid for.” I really was unable to hold back my indignation at such unjust hegemonies. Oh! How outrageous!
But no other person in my company agreed with me and wanted to fight for the most precious thing that life is made of — time. Instead, they all picked on me and said that “the counterrevolutionary has come out in the open to attack the party again.” They found a young worker who did not take part in the labor obligation that Sunday and asked him to say that I had tried to persuade him not to work. I was on my way to trouble again, but he insisted that he did not come on Sunday for other reasons that had nothing to do with me. The goal of getting me in trouble again could not be attained at that time.
Next they criticized and denounced me on my team, at my work section and at my work meetings. The most interesting meeting was the workshop section meeting. That day the director of the workshop, Liu, was coming. The meeting began with a worker making a speech. I don’t know what he was saying because I had more interesting things to be thinking about, but suddenly it became a criticism of me. I had recently published an article in a foreign magazine. It told about Japan and how in developing their economy after WWII they increased production to 1,000,000 tons of steel. I described what measures the government had taken and how America had improved the administration of their enterprises. Director Liu had said nothing during the meeting but afterward he suddenly realized some error he wanted to point out. In a flash he turned his head and cried “ Robert, What did you say a moment ago?” I said, “Sorry director Liu, the meeting and discussion are over.” Why did he not find fault with me earlier during the meeting? Should I always be available for his comments and criticism? It was time for our midday meal.
I planned on doing my normal work in the afternoon. After our mealtime my section chief came to me and said, “This afternoon we will take a meeting just to criticize and denounce you, don’t be afraid.” Those words were meant just the opposite that I needed to be afraid. I am veteran of threats and punishment and I was getting immune to it all. But, this situation was a surprise and this section chief, it turned out, treated me with the best of intentions. It deeply moved me because I learned that many people had interest in my article from hearing the brief criticisms in the morning and truly wanted more information and we had a good discussion under the guise of denouncing me. But, I later listened to the radio and heard that it was being reported that a counter revolutionary was provoking the young workers to sabotage obligatory labor. But they did not do anything else to me yet.