PART I

PART II

Tiananmen Square Rebellion of 1989

An intimate perspective of Chinese History

Opium Wars

At the end of the Opium Wars, it became clear that the Manchurian Dynasty would collapse. The Dynasty faced severe pressures, both internal and external. China's isolation from Western Civilization and the dynasty's centralized control - based on Confucianism - created the atmosphere for collapse. The Opium wars and the Taiping rebellion made the Chinese government and the Dynasty aware of their weaknesses and failures as a formidable nation, an international force and a superior civilization. They were no-match for the ironclad automatic rifled enemies of the West. They could not match forces with the British empire, the Dutch, the United States, and others who trafficked the Opium trade in the China Sea. Because of their isolations from Western Civilization, they had no understanding of the Europeans and was unable to remove the Western pressures they faced. Similarly, the Confucian scholars-officials could not counter the attack to the established order when it occurred from within the empire. Outside influences coupled with internal disparities led to the self-strengthening movement.

The Taiping rebellion symbolized the collapse of the order and marked the beginning of the self-strengthening movement. The mandate of the heaven had shifted when the Manchus had lost creditability and the respectability from the Chinese people. This occurred, I believed when Lin Xexu - who was Chinese - was replaced by Qishan, a Manchu in the handling of the foreigners during the Opium wars. Necessary changes were needed otherwise the dynasty would die, and if change occurred then this would ultimately lead to its end. The Qing Dynasty depended on the survival of Confucianism as did the Manchurians [an alien race] needed the dynasty to continue their settlement and control of China. Without Confucianism, the dynasty would collapse. Although the Manchus assimilated in the Chinese culture, they remained the ruling class. They were depended on the Scholar-officials, who were appointed their positions because of the Confucian system to manage the government. From the 1800's to 1850's the government became corrupted. Local officials became wealthy through evading taxation and overtaxing the poor. Many of these revenues went no further than the pockets of the tax collectors - the local gentry - and never reaching the Emperor. China badly needed reform, but the Confucian system, by nature and structure, was counter progressive.

Every aspect of China's internal structure needed reforming. The very elements that made China an empire were mitigating its power. The Manchus Army had deteriorated and was inferior by western standards. The Dynasty=s policy of centralized power was undermined when local officials started building their own militia to protect villages from banditry. The power of control in China was removed from the hands of the Qing Dynasty and into the hands of Chinese reformers. Moise writes that, Ahowever assimilated they might be to Chinese culture, the Manchus knew that they were a small number of aliens dominating a huge number of Chinese; any concentration of power in Chinese hands was potentially dangerous.(33) When the Taiping Rebellion occurred, the Manchus were incapable of repressing the insurrection. When they turned to the local militia - led by Zeng Guofan - for help they ultimately sealed the fate of their destruction.

It was within this context of distrust for internal foreign rule coupled with foreign threats from external pressures that made scholars-officials, reformers and intellectuals preoccupied with consolidating a strong Chinese state and society. The first generation of self-strengtheners was Zeng Guofan, Feng Guifen and Li Hongzhang and they advocated the Ti-yong idea (for essence and practical use) of the self strengthening movement. The efforts of these men strengthened China militarily by the creation of the Xiang army. The Xiang Army - as it was later called - was created outside the traditional structure of bureaucratic army; as not to compromise the essence of China while adopting Western ways. Moise points out that, Athe policy was to use Western techniques as tools while retaining Chinese culture as the fundamental basis for all activities.(35) This generation accomplished the establishment of Western schools geared toward educating and training the Chinese in international relations and laws, behavior and language translation of the West.

The Chinese by the end of this generation had a good understanding of the West but were still inefficient to better deal with the Western countries. The Europeans were still able to win concessions and privileges in China, for the examples, the Treaty system, the establishment of the Amost favoured nation principle and the principle of extraterritoriality. What the great leap toward improving the Western understanding did, was to also undermine Confucian beliefs and interpretations. The generation that followed, Kang Youwie and the young emperor, Liang Qichao could not reconciliated the paradox of the practical use of Western techniques and the maintenance of the Chinese essence. Kang Youwie threatened the established Confucian beliefs by his progressive and revolutionary interpretation of the Confucius Classics. When Kang Youwie and Liang Qichao began reforming and modernizing the central government of China, they were met by oppositions from traditionalists and conservatives who feared the eradication of the old order. The young emperor was accused of filial impiety for attempting to reform Confucianism.

The empire temporarily and superficially lapsed into conservatism, when the Dowager Empress (the Old Buddha) reclaimed the throne. In the midst of these internal upheavals, the foreign threats had not subsided. Japan occupied the southern regions of Manchuria. While Chinese warlords was growing in strength and power, the dynasty continued to weaken. The entire self strengthening movement by 1911 was orchestrated by the military commanders or warlords. And so when the empirical dynasty collapsed the warlord assumed power. Miose stated that, "The Manchus had fallen because they were weak, not because Sun Yat-sen or any other revolutionary leader was strong.(44)

There were three noted factors that influenced Chinese nationalism before the era of the warlords. These were the Boxer's uprisings of the 1900's, the publication of the revolutionary army by Zou Rong in 1903 and the anti-American boycott of 1905. Perhaps if the dynasty had been less conservative during these three occurrences, it would have lasted longer. Perhaps Chinese democracy would have occurred instead of communism. However the dynasty followed a course of actions that made them defenseless and incapable of preventing its death. The various concessions given to the foreigners for the sake of preserving the dynasty, made the Chinese intelligentsia more distrustful of the Manchus. If the dynasty and eventually the generals had made the egalitarian reforms that China needed, perhaps the total intellectual awakening would not have occurred so soon. It was then that the third generation of self-strengtheners, Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, began the period of Chinese history known as the Iconoclastic, or "the day Confucius died."

The iconoclastic movement lasted between 1919 and 1925. The Chinese people were suddenly awakened to the Western views of democracy, egalitarianism and socialism. The intelligentsia were faced with the dilemma of reconciling land reform in favor of the landed few or the improverished many. They struggled with the idea of democracy verse socialism. Chen Duxiu called for radical westernization while Li Dazhao looked to Lenin-Marxism. The former was viewed as Mr. Democracy and the latter as was seen as Mr Science. The China chose communism because it best explained the Chinese struggle toward self strengthening. Li had then maintained with great vehemence that to suffer even the most tyrannical state was better than to have no state at all and to become slaves without a country.[I took this from one of your handouts] Many from the intelligentsia saw communism as the only viable solution to strengthen China and distrusted anthing else that did not redistributed wealth. Those who held power saw giving the poor the land as anarchy. The Chinese Communist Party [CCP] formation was shunned by the landed class, on the basis of this ideology. But it was this ideology that led China into the twentieth century and established the People's Republic of China.

Chiang Kai-shek, his ideology, his policies, his politics, his successes and his failure.

When Chiang Kai-shek resumed leadership of the Guomindang state, China was faced with problems of land distribution, the Communist uprising, and the Japanese invasion. These issues dominated Chiang Kai-shek politics and accounted for his failure to nationalize China. China was split in three ideologies, Guomindang nationalism, Russian communism and Mao communism. Chiang Kai-shek had allied with the warlord armies, by absorbing the regional leaders within the Guomindang forces and this brought about some consolidation of his power. He could not count on the full support of the warlords, who retained their power in their regions in much the same way they had during the dying stage of the Qing dynasty. His realm of power was focused in the cities, where western-educated Sino-liberal inhabited. He accomplished great successess with the Westerners, and was able to negotiate concessions such as the elimination of the extraterritoriality principle. Although he was highly accepted by the United States, he was not sympathetic to democratic ideas.

In ideology, Chiang may have been accused of being a fascist. He was attracted to fascism and he feared the consequences of egalitarian ideals from democracy, especially in terms of his treatment of the land reform issue and the army reform. According to Moise, Ahe thought of a good citizen as one who gave loyal and unquestioning obedience to the government, rather than one who thought independently about public affairs. (68) His ideology, the centrality of his realm and his distrust of his subordinates hindered him from having true power and control of China. Much of what occurred during Chiang rule was beyond his control. Without changing his anti-democratic and fascist views, Chiang was incapable of suppressing the growth of the communist regime. The old dynasty and Nanjing government, under Chiang Kai-shek, followed a persistent centrifugal tendencies in policy making that separated them from the real vital political arena. Their reluctance to change to a policy of "open door" led to their fall and failures.

The Guomindang made the same fatal mistake that the Qing dynasty did, they alienated themselves from the Chinese people when they should have been assimilating to the peasants. Moise remarked that, "the peasants, the bulk of the population, felt no identification with the government and might barely be aware of its existence." (68) They repressed the Chinese when they should have been liberating them. They took from the Chinese villages, plundered and destroy crops and offered no remuneration in return. The Guomindang state could have achieved the unification of China if not for their inadvertent treatment for the Chinese peasants. They had the making of a formidable army despite the shaky loyalty of the warlords. Spence indicated that, "As they took back city after city from the Japanese, and seemed to have the goal of reconstructing a united China once more within their grasp, their carelessness, their inefficiency, and often their corruption whittled steadily away at their basis of popular support." (485) Also if they had realized the significance of the Chinese peasants as the key to the revolution, the nationalist movement would have taken a different turn.

The Communist regimes was able to achieve a greater solidarity and almost unquestioned loyalty from the peasant army than the Guomindang army could from the warlords regime. Because Chiang Kai-shek separated the army, there was no real feeling of solidarity among the Manchus, the landlords and the wealth class that joined the Guomindang force. Moise points out that, "Chiang had no network of reliable cadres spread out through the countryside to popularize his ideas and enforce his policies." (68) It can be argued that because Chiang Kai-shek had not indoctrinate and imposed disciplinary regulation on his army, he may have been able to reconcile the unjust wealth distribution. But because Chiang Kai-shek underestimated the potential of Mao's bandit army resulted in the fall the Guomindang government. Chiang Kai-shek distrust of the communist movement perhaps made him less sympathetic to socialistic views of ameliorating the conditions of the peasants - thus the cut off "from real contact with the mass of the population." (68) Mao envisioned government controlled by the mass. The task of Mao Zedong army was "to win the loyalty of the peasants, and place the movement on the solid mass base." (70) To do so effectively would be to break traditions and customs by enriching the poor and de-landing the wealthy.

Chiang Kai-shek was neither willing or able to do so, else risk complete lost of his power and government. In Bianco's words, "From the logic of attaining power by compromise to the logic of preserving power at any cost," (123) Chiang saw no other alternatives. The land reform was a significant political intrument that influenced the army issue and the Japanese threat. The peasants were highly affected by the Japanese invasion. The invasions and wars took place in the rural area, destroying land and crops and reducing the peasant's food supplies. Being exploited by both the Japanese and the Ninjing forces gave the peasants reason and cause for insurrection. It was not difficult for Mao to recruit and politically mobilize them into the People's Liberation Army against the Japanese and later the Red Army against Chiang's forces.

Chiang Kai-shek was incompetent to mobilize his own army needless to say the peasant force, especially if the land issue remain in the control of the wealthy. Mao's peasant army was dedicated and loyal to him, because it was voluntary. Chiang army was led by Warlords who held no great love for him. Under this condition, Mao offered a strong challenge to Chiang since its strength lied in loyalty and dedication rather than in numbers. The great turning point of the Goumindang regime occurred when the Chinese Communist Party established the People's Liberation Army [PLA]. Chiang's government was rendered unable to retain power of China, that when the United States dropped the atom bomb that ended the war with Japan, the government was unprepared to deal with the convergent issue of the land reform. Chiang's troops that occupied Manchuria treated the city as a conquered city. Chiang lost the support of Zhang Xueliang, the regional warlord, who resented their presence and forged forces with Mao. His kipnapped of Chiang led to the formation of the United Front. Chiang power was never the same after the Front. Eventually, his regimes was overthrown CCP and the Red Army during the Long March. The result was the fall of the Ninjing government and the formation of the People's Republic of China.

The role the United States Government in China from the Japanese invasion to the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

The United States was instrumental to China, during the Japanese invasion in China and the establishment of the People's Republic of China but not of a high significance.They gave aid to the Guomindang government during the nationalistic movement, volunteered armed forces to Chiang's forces to defeat the Japanese and later supported Mao's in the Chinese Communist Party that later became the People's Republic of China. In the beginning of the Japanese invasion, the United States gave their support China because they feared the threat that Japan would pose to the balance of power in Southeast Asia. The United States aided China indirectly by its reduced trading with Japan by 1940 - the Japanese economy depended on imported raw materials, the majority of which came from the United States.

The Japanese government did not want to risk losing faith and trading with the United States although this would mean aggravating the United States by its invasion of China. As Moise pointed out, "Persuading the USA to continue or resume trade in petroleum and other vital goods would require Japan to abandon its effort to conquer China." (95) They realized that this would mean some form of compromise and would discredit the Japanes military rulers. The important issues here was the lost of vital raw material and conquering China. So instead of pulling out their troops, they conquered Manchuria - gaining the raw materials in rubber and petroleum and more land in Southeast Asia. That resulted in the bombing of Pearl Harbor by United States in December 1941 and the beginning of war between Japan and the United States.

The United States sent General Joseph Stilwell to coordinate aid to Chiang Kai-shek and US activities against Japan. Stilwell was unsuccessful in dealing with Chiang and the China-US relation was never genuinely consolidated. Chiang was against the army reforms suggested by Stilwell and this opposition led to hostility between the two men. Chiang felt that United States would defeat Japan with or without his forces. He feared the consequences that Stilwell reforms would do to his insecure power by reforming the army. "Chiang preferred to listen to the advocates of air power," (95) rather than put his faith in strong subordinates who may overthrow him. Moise noted, "he was not likely to forget how two of his generals had taken him prisoner and almost executed him in 1936." (95) General Claire Chennault offered the Chiang the perfect solution to his policy of nonreform since the airforce was not under the control of the warlord commanders was less likely to undermine his power. Chennault=s the "Flying Tigers" were American pilots who were sent unofficially by the United States to fight and aid Chiang Kai-shek against the Japanese.

The United States began giving support Mao's communist regime which was more successful - in its use of guerrilla warfare - in disarming and defeating the Japanese in the countryside than the Ninjing government. The United States sent a group of Americans, the "Dixie Mission" to collaborate with the Chinese Communist Party. After the Japanese surrender, the United States began working toward consolidating the US-China relation, by settling the internal problems. The United States attempted to act as neutral mediators between the Communist party and the Guomindang government but failed to be impartial to both sides. They continued to give support to CCP over the existing government. In this area the Americans were inaffective in creating a tru truce between the two forces. The truce was broken by both Chiang and Mao, and by 1947 the United States was caught in between the two forces.

In the domestic arena they were ineffective in maintaining neutrality and often sway one way or another depending on the situation. For example, they gave support to the Mao while at the same time they working with Guominding - the legitimate government.Much of the relation between the United States and China was influenced by the relation between Stilwell and Chiang. In the transiton from nationalism to communism it was Russia that influenced China and America. For political ideology, it was communism that united China and not democracy from the United States.

December 17, 1996

PART II

The significance of the Tiananmen Square student rebellion of 1989 in Beijing to the May Fourth movement of 1919

From as early as 1987 the Beijing students staged a protest against the Communist government in Tiananmen Square. With continued repression of democracy fueled by the grievances of university students - stigmatized as bourgeois and the hated Jlites - by the government and the society. The scale of this rebellion was no less significant than the rebellion that occurred two years later, since the government had not appeased the condition of the student and was farther maximized. While China experienced economic growth in industries and the economy, funding to education decreased, especially higher education. University students lived in abject poverty. They began to realize that the condition was at a lower level of standard than many foreign countries. According to Moise, "China's spending levels were low even by Third-World standards."(216) They were more willing to voice open protest against the government despite the risk of punishment than their earlier brothers and the intelligentsia of the decade before. Although the Tiananmen rebellion of 1989 bears tremendous similarities to the May fourth movement of 1919, the atmosphere was different.

By 1980s, China had undergone tremendous changes - in the economy and culture. Deng Xianoping=s economic policies of capitalism - such as, the responsibility system - and the restoration of many rightist individuals - who were condemned capitalist roaders during the Cultural Revolution - created the atmosphere for the fermentation of Democracy. Maoism was almost dismantled by 1978 when protests and criticisms were plastered on the Democracy Wall. The new generation voiced their protest against the system and the government without fear of retribution. Moise wrote that, "Many college students treated their compulsory courses in Marxist theory with undisguised apathy or even contempt; this would have been unthinkable a few year earlier."(214) The China of the 1980's and early 1990's permeated revolution reminiscent of the May Fourth movement - when a new movement [nationalism] defeated the old system [Confucian].

Democracy was stemmed after abolition of the Democracy Wall. But it flared up again when the students protested in Tiananmen Square in 1987. Hu Yaobang, CCP Secretary -General who had been sympathetic to the protesters was removed from office in that year. When he died of a heart attack on April 15, 1989, the government cut short the traditional Chinese mourning ceremony held on his behalf. Because he had been sympathetic to the students cause in 1987, the students of Beijing University Aseized the opportunity to stage demonstrations in his honour, demanding that the verdict against him be reversed but also demanding other reform.(217) The condition was further exacerbated when the government, two day before had declared that university graduates had to find jobs on their own instead of state assigned jobs. A network of university students and supporters in Beijing - who were only too eager to challenge the system and spread democracy - united and drew up a list of seven demands.

As the government unrelented to the students, the more radical the demands became, to the point of asking the Communist rule be replaced with democracy.(218) When the government published a statement, Adescribing the protest movement as a direct threat to order and stability,(218) approximately 100,000 non-student supporters joined the rebellion. Students protests erupted across the country at other universities. Similar to the May Fourth movement, the 1989 demonstrations were a national movement.(218) At least two million local citizens in Beijing blocked the advance of the Army sent to disperse the demonstration and enforce marital law.

Massive human rights violation occurred the night of June 3. Numerously protestors and ironically non-students were massacred by the Army. Moise estimated that, "The number killed is unknown; the total was probably somewhere between 700 and 3,000."(221) The ring leaders of the rebellion of 1987 were detained but no punishment was dealt to the mass of demonstrators. The government's response to the Rebellion of 1989 was tremendously more forceful than two years prior. The government reported false accounts to the media and to the outside world of the rebellion. The government concealed and doctored the number of those massacred and depicted the soldiers as national heroes, "victims rather than the perpetrators of violence."(222) The aftermath of the rebellion was marked by a wave of repression. The government of China had become hardened to western ideology and just as repressive in its measure to stemmed democracy in China.

What is similar about the Tiananmen rebellion of 1989 to the May Fourth Movement was that China's order was again threatened by the western ideology of democracy. Significantly, Confucian had a longer history than socialism in China. Perhaps that is the reason why the rebellion failed to destroy the old order and established full democracy in China. Ironically both rebellions were orchestrated by university students. Significantly, democracy still did not take strong roots in China after both incidences. Although some egalitarian reform occurred after the rebellion of 1989, China again lapsed into a policy of eradicating "spiritual contamination" by the "infiltration and subversion by foreign hostile forces." All students who had participated in the Tiananmen rebellion of 1989 were re-indoctrinated to socialism in the Army - in the hopes that the Army training would "discipline and immunize them against subversive ideas."(225)

Moise commented that, "if the Tiananmen Square demonstrations had ended on a note of government humiliation, two things would have been certain: that the next democracy movement would be very large, and that it would come soon."(220) I can not help but again notice the similarity of Moise analysis of the 1989 rebellion that was a premonition of the May Fourth movement. Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao had been successful in stimulating the intellectual awakening in China but failed to plant democracy in its institution. The May Fourth movement is symbolic in that it had totally destroyed the Confucian government and system. For that reason the movement was denoted as Iconoclastic. The biggest difference as Moise noted was that the rebellion of 1989 was not iconoclastic. Since the rebellion of 1989 failed, another challenge to China=s order is inevitable in the future.

A True Communist

The father is - unlike both the daughter and the mother - a devoted communistic. I think that Mao would have greatly admired the father for his deep loyalty to the movement. His strictly "selfless" ethics to achieve Mao's goal, at the expense of his own family's well-being was the making of true communist. The mother is highly critical of the father relentless code of conduct in being a true communist and in many instances she sees his behavior as a betrayal to his family's well-being. The daughter seem to be in agreement with the mother, that father was too inflexible and dedicated to the cause that in many instances he was the indirect cause the family's problems. The narrator points to instances where the father was cold and unswerving, where others in his position relented. For example, the time when his wife and another pregnant official wife was saved by the landlord, instead of sparing the man's life in gratitude he ordered the man's execution. (158-159) Also during their long march to Yibin, the father refused to even carry his wife's bedroll or offered to give her lift in the jeep. The author points to another official who gave up his privileges to comfort and aid his wife; "although the husband was a senior official, and had the right to use a car, he had waived his privilege in order to walk with his wife." (143) In fear of being criticized by the communist supporters for being to soft on his wife and her being accused as bourgeois, the father "never offered." (143)

Although the narrator tries to be impartial to both her parents, it is evident that she sympathize with her mother's cause, "the fact that my father was giving her no sympathy while she was sick and exhausted the whole time, trudging along, carrying her bedroll, sweating, vomiting, her legs like lead." (143) This was again clearly seen in her description of her grandmother's "long march" to her daughter, emphasizing the difficulty of the journey and the father's cold and unforgiving attitude to the grandmother's presence. She goes into great detail to describe the grandmother's concern for daughter's well-being in selling her jewelry to ensure that the mother was properly nourished during her second pregnancy. This draws our attention to father attitude to his wife during her first pregnancy.

Because of his inflexible maintenance that she should not be pampered because he was an official and his own fear of being criticized by the communist movement had led to her miscarriage. This comparison between the father's treatment to his wife and grandmother's sacrifices for her daughter explicitly tells you where the narrators rest on the subject of traditions, peasant-turn-officials, the family and women's treatment by the communist movement. (160-166) Her mother constantly felt that her husband did not love her nor "he did not treasure her." (159) Both the daughter and the mother realized that the father's loyalty was first to the communist movement and this was great disappointment to both. The narrator lamented that her mother "could see that my father's first loyalty was to the revolution, and she was bitterly disappointed.(159)

In every situation where the father compromised the well-being his family, the writer points to the fact that he was a high official who only acted as a good communist. She seem to be using the communist movement to explain but not excuse the cruelty the father directed to his wife. The narrator makes it plain that the father did what was expected of him and if had done otherwise he would have been a failure to the cause. To the traditional Chinese way, the father's actions were insensitive and they demised the family values. According to Mao's policy the father did not do anything wrong. The weight of being a high official to the communist cause made the father more relentless to not break the rule and strive to be different from the officials the previous government. "In old China one of the major vices was that anyone with power was above the rules, and an important component of the Communist revolution was that officials, like everyone else, should be subject to rules."(163)

The narrator also sought to explain the misunderstanding between her parents on the grounds that the father and the mother had traveled different routes to communism. But I do not think that she fully accepts this as an excuse to his behavior. I think that the father's name is significant in explaining his daughter's attitude toward him and his commitment to the communist movement. The narrator makes a points to show the difference between the mother and the father in citing to the meaning of the father name, Yu meant "Selfless to the point of being considered foolish." (153) This example tells us that she sees his commitment as foolish, and perhaps cowardly. She depicts her mother as brave because the mother had a "bourgeois" upbringing. "She was also brave." (166)

Her reform in the movement was more radical and difficult. Although the mother had more liberties than the grandmother, she was essentially still very much traditionalist. The narrator does points out instances where the tradition was preserved although this would mean the mother would be further criticized by the party- the mother wanting the grandmother to stay with her during second pregnancy despite the opposition from Mrs. Mi and her husband (162-163). There was the instances where the grandmother fought communist beliefs to preserve traditions. For example, the grandmother wanting to give Dr. Xia a traditional burial, the mother realization that, Ait was vital to get into the Party, because if she failed she would be stigmatized and ostracized.(165) Great difference between the mother and the father is seen in instances where traditional values were questioned. When Communist policy of liberating daughters-in-law and getting rid of kowtowing to elders, the father agreed that mother should not break the Chinese tradition. Yet he could not do the same because he feared repercussion - criticism and excommunication from the party. (155)

A degree of contempt for peasants-turn-officials in the writing of the daughter the novel White Swans

There is a fair amount of contempt to peasants-turn-officials by the narrator, but it is not overt. Her view of peasant-turn-officials were shaped by her own father. She both respected her father for his conviction in not succumbing to corruption. The established beliefs in the society of official were that they were corrupted and easily bought. Idealistically her father - a peasants-turn-officials - was without corruption. The narrator lamented Dr. Xia opinion in how different her father was from the most officials, "he used to say he had seen many officials in the past, but never one like my father. Common wisdom had it that, there is no official who is not corrupt, but my father never abused his position, not even to look after the interests of his own family." (178) The narrator was very critical of her father for always putting his wife=s interest last and the communist movement first.

Our first major example of this occurred during her parents journey to Yibin. The author points to the unequal privileges given to officials, especially the ones who were from peasant stock - her father- to ordinary communist and the supporters (her mother). Her mother had to walk with the rest of the peasants, while her father was being driven along in a deep; because, "his rank entitled him to transportation- either a jeep or a horse, whichever was available." (143) I think was a great double-standard in the communist policy. The peasant-turn-officials lived enormously better than the peasants. The writer tells us because her father's position he "was living in an elegant mansion which had been taken over by the new government." (151)

The Communist officials preached that the Chinese people should be humble- be less bourgeois- and pragmatic, in the words of Mrs. Mi in criticizing the mother for the grandmother making clothes for the baby, "Who ever heard of a baby wearing new clothes?" and "Such a bourgeois waste!" (164) Moreover, "cleanliness was regarded as unproletarian," yet "there was a rule that only officials above a certain rank were entitled to wash with hot water." (164) The narrator saw in every instance that the communist party fostered corruption and encouraged "petty" grievances of the peasant-turn- officials against those were not peasant born. The narrator's father was an exception to most of the peasant-turn-officials and maintained Mao's policy of true Communism on the basis that, "that nepotism and favoritism were the slippery slope to corruption, which was the root of all the evils of the old China." (180) What occurred - as a result of the power and privileges that went to the peasant-turn-officials- was the same corruption by many officials. What Mao sought to destroyed in re-educating the Chinese had extended to the peasant-turn-officials who wanted to live above sustainable existence in hard times.

An intimate protrayal of the Cultural Revolution - White Swans

The Cultural Revolution brought about significant changes in the China's culture. Although the communist movement had replaced the role of the family with the communism it had not delved deeply in the culture to cause the tremendous change as transferring power from parent to child. Communism, certainly sought to destroy the family and empower the state. But the Cultural Revolution threw China into a cultural back lash. It segregated, terrorized and brainwashed the society, kindled anarchy from the youths and established the cult of Maoism. The Cultural Revolution swirled and twisted through every Chinese cities, villages and states, sweeping away old customs and values, displacing people, instilling fear and uncertainity in the hearts of devotedly communist supporters. Mao sought to changed the face of the Chinese culture through the complete elimination of capitalism and "class enemies," in his party. Officials and teachers became the target of Mao's totalitarian rebuke.

Officials and treachers became the scapegoat for revenge and jealousy during the cultural revolution. The force of the revolution was so dramatic that many Chinese were merely swept along incomprehensibly. Those who became wary of Mao's intention and began to see the revolution as harmful feared the consequence of rebellion and remained inactive and passive. Mao had changed the course of the communist movement with the push toward cultural revolution. The author commented that, "my father and mother, like other senior Party people, could see that Mao had decided to punish some official. . . Apprehension and bewilderment overwhelmed them."(277) Those who protested inadvertly or in the slightest way were deemed counterrevolutionary and were subjected to suspicions. Any criticism of Mao was subject to harsh condemnation and punishment; Mme. Mao said in response the father's action against the Tings, "For the man who dares to attack the Great Leader so blatantly, imprisonment, even the death sentence, is too kind! He must be thoroughly punished before we have done with him."(349) Chinese children were divided and labelled according their parents devotion to the party. The society was further segregated by a great generation gap between the communist revolutionaries [the father and the mother] and the cultural revolutionaries, such as the Red Guards. Moreover the emergence of the Rebels - through their corruption and petty grievances- stigmatized many loyal and sincere communists as capitalist-roaders and counterrevolutionaries.

The father felt victim to this corruption. What happened to the father, I think was ironic, since he was so devoted to Mao's communism and incorruptible for an official. The Cultural Revolution was more incomprehensible and devastating to those who had remained loyal to Mao's original doctrine. The author commented, "the dreadful truth dawned on us: my father had gone insane."(347) The alternatives to not accepting the revolution was suicide or insanity since protest and rebellion only ensured further demise to human dignity - being physically beaten, arrested and publically demoralized. The father went from being a respected official to a hated capitalist-roader, simply because he distrusted the Cultural Revolution. During the Cultural Revolution being a official no longer made your position in the Party secure. The author remarked that it was when the Mao started eliminating his officials that, "the mammoth Cultural Revolution was formally launched."(276)

When the father saw the random destruction and the terror conducted by the Red Guards and the scapegoating of innocent and loyal official [by the corrupted officials] he realized that the revolution had changed course. "Party officials all over China were choosing scapegoats in their panic to save their own skins."(303) He became subject to suspicion for being, "the most obstinate capitalist-raoder, the diehad who opposes the Cultural Revolution.'(300) His first letter to Mao tells that he was naive in not seeing sooner that Mao fully supported the revolution and any opposition to it would be seen as one aimed against Mao. The author commented that "Mao the Emperor always overrode Mao the Communist."(276) The problem was that revolution was no longer communistic by totalitarian. When the father realized what the Cultural Revolution meant it shattered his whole world and his reality. "He could see clearly that it had nothing to do democratization, or with giving ordinary people more say. It was a bloody purge to increase Mao's personal power."(333) Unfortunately, the father did not realize that Mao no longer cared about the preserving the party and sought to destroy it. "Now Mao turned to his major goal: to replace the bourgeois headquarters and existing Party hierachy with his personal power system."(326)

The Cultural Revolution, moreover, destroyed the father's faith in the party and his own family. Upon his release from the Rebels, the father was told by his interrogators that Ahe was being allowed home to be kept under the eyes of his wife, "who has been assigned by the Party to watch you."(348) In his insanity, the mother became the focus of his protest against the party. "He raged at her, calling her "shameless," "coward," and accusing her of "selling her soul."(347)

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