Dear Teacher,
In 1958 the Great Leap forward began. Everybody lay awake all night or did not even go home at night, but continued to work. Most people were into steel making. I helped improved a machine, so called “Steelmaking.” The scrap iron was cast into the indigenous furnace, also real iron or steel was melted and out poured steel with only the need to declare numerals. Within the Iron and Steel Company scrap iron was found everywhere. If people could not find enough in their homes, we might steal some from the iron works. There was a problem in that people can only use their kettles as scrap iron once and the same with the use of tables and benches as fuel. There was a limit to what was available.
At the end of this year I discovered that there was no more flour or rice, but only maize pellets that were big and tough and hard to swallow. As for other dishes, there was little to eat. Only at the Spring Festival could we get some meat. I remember that in the Spring Festival of 1959 we were also granted one ticket to buy an orange. My shoes were worn out and I did not have enough money to buy leather shoes. I hoped to buy gym shoes, but I could not get any. I found that we could not buy much of anything.
At this time, our party was immersed in great debate and division. Mao held the power and arranged for Peng Dehuai, who had criticized The Great Leap, to take some blame for its failure. He was dismissed.
Except for great steel making, we wrote many Da Zi Bao day to night, the one who wrote the most was a hero.
Sincerely, Robert
My first semester of teaching at Hohai was soon over. The teacher’s classes ended early because the Chinese teachers need the most time at the end of a semester because of the way they teach. The Chinese pattern of teaching involves having weeks of lectures and reading and then one big final exam that provides the grade for the entire course. The most time usually is needed to grade the exams.
By the time the semester was over, I had spent hours of time with Robert and his family. I knew that there was much more to tell. I was planning on traveling the entire summer to Beijing, the Three Gorges, Tibet, Chendu, Josiago, Xian
I asked Robert to continue writing over the summer. I was very surprised that when I returned he first brought me a few sheets and then more and still more. I think that he was being careful and waiting for my reaction before he presented me with the great number of pages.
He mostly wrote about his time in various laogai or re-education work camps. Please prepare yourself for this last part which has many brutal, sad and heartbreaking sections.