The Lost Life of a Historical Counter-Revolutionary and the Broken Family He Left Behind

——Interview between Ming Ying & Lanqing Ying

Location: Shanghai

Time: August 7, 2021

Compiled and Translated by Beikun Wang

Ying Family

Timeline

· Before 1945: Bainian Ying worked as a low rank military secretary in Zhejiang Province.

· 1946 – 1949: Civil War between CCP and KMT (or Liberation War as called by CCP)

· 1946: Bainian Ying had worked as a technician in a National（KMT）Printing House in Shanghai ever after.

· 1949: PRC Founded or Liberation as called by CCP

· 1950 – 1951: Suppressing of the Counter-revolutionaries Campaign, the first of dozens of Campaigns after Liberation

· 1953: Bainian Ying was apprehended as a “historic counter-revolutionary” and was sent to Huai River Flood Control Construction Site.

· 1957: Anti-Right Campaign

· 1957: Bainian Ying died in Huai River Construction Site; 15-year-old Juqing Ying died after working in a factory for two years; 17-year-old Xiongqing Ying wrote a letter demanding his father’s remains and death cause.

· 1957 – 1959; Xiongqing Ying was put under surveillance in high school and was denied access to college.

· 1966 – 1976: Cultural Revolution

· 1966 – 1969: Xiongqing Ying had been “struggled” for three years before being sent to receive reeducation in a village.

· 1978: Economic Reform and Opening Up

1. Arrest

M: Dad (Xiong Qing) said that, in 1954, he was 14 years old and was in junior high school. Every evening when it was almost dark, he would hold you in his arms, waiting at the entrance of the alley for Grandpa (Bai Nian). One day, he didn't see Grandpa. The next day, someone from the factory informed that Grandpa had been arrested. Is it true?

L: I couldn’t remember. I was just over 1 year old at that time.

M: I learned about those things from Dad. Grandpa was initially asked to work under public surveillance— which means that he didn't have serious problems, or he would have been arrested in 1950 or 1951 during the Suppression of Counter-Revolutionaries Campaign.

L: It was just after liberation in 1950 and 1951. The government was seriously suppressing the Counter-Revolutionaries.

M: Right. Shanghai was cautious at first, but then was reproached for being lagging

behind by the Central Government, and was asked to make up for the lessons of Suppressing the Counter-revolutionaries. In 1951, Shanghai killed 3,000 people and arrested tens of thousands. in 1954, the cruelest time had passed and the Purge of the Counter-revolutionaries Campaighn (1955) had not yet begun. Being put under public surveillance during time, he should not have a big problem.

L: He just didn’t get along well with his boss. You Grandma (Cui'e) told me that, in those days after liberation, the Government encouraged the people to criticize their leaders and colleagues.

M: Mao had the idea of A Hundred Flowers Blooming in 1951, and A Hundred Schools of Thought Contending in 1953.

L: Yes. Grandpa was so naïve that he went to criticize the wrongdoings in the factory. The boss looked for an opportunity to retaliate against him. He didn’t do any bad things. He came home and told your Grandma about this. The next-door neighbor who eavesdropped

went to report, saying that he was complaining. He was totalled trapped by those people in his factory. The government didn't know anything.

M: It exposed the dark side of human nature, almost the same as Dad later experienced during the Cultural Revolution. The dorm mate stole his diary, sought excerpts from the chapters, and fabricated charges. For example, Dad copied a poem "Ascending to the Phoenix Platform in Jinling (ancient name of Nanjing, once the Capital of the KMT Government)” by Li Bai. Unbelievably, it became the ironclad evidence of nostalgia for the Chiang (Kai-shek) Dynasty.

L: Human nature was twisted.

M: What you just tell me is correspondent with what Dad said. He said that most of the accusations of Grandpa had no specific content, like complaining secretly, not working hard, etc. except that Grandpa "was responsible for catching the revolutionary security chief Ah Zhi."

L: How did your dad know?

M: When he was working under surveillance, Grandpa wrote his appeal every night and asked Dad to transcribe it. Before coming to Shanghai, Grandpa worked as a secretary in the military in Zhejiang Province. There were constant wars and chaos, and someone would break into their home, searching for something. Dad still remembered that Grandpa would wrap up the official stamp and hide it under the eaves. Adults could not find it, while dad, who was very small, could see it as soon as he looked up. Grandpa had been educated in the traditional village school and was good at calligraphy. So he earned a living by it.

L: Yeah, he used to write, draw and design in the printing house after liberation.

M: Grandpa didn't agree to the charges. In the appeal, he mainly wrote about his whereabouts in various periods, what he did, and who proved it, explaining that he did not have the opportunity to participate in the arrest of revolutionary security chief Ah Zhi. Everyday, he wrote the appeal in the evening and get up at four o'clock the next morning, then he had to walk for more than an hour to the factory, so that he had the time to do the all cleaning before office hour.

L: So sad!

M: My guess is that the charge was baseless. If they had evidence, they would have arrested Grandpa long ago. They would not wait until 1954. Grandpa’s biggest fault was being disobedience. "Severity to those who resist", so he was sentenced to 7 years.

L: Too naive! Your Grandma said that he believed in "seeking truth from facts" and was able to explain his problems clearly. Finally, the more he explained, the less unclear.

Experiences

M: In fact, Grandpa went to Shanghai, working in a printing house at 1945. After liberation, his class status should be workers, belonging to the proletariat, shouldn’t it?

L: No. I remembered I was taught to fill in “clerk” for my family background.

M: Clerk? So, did it mean doing technical work?

L: I don't know. I feared to fill in those forms. When I went to elementary school, I had to fill out those forms. I would tremble every time I had to put a note "historical counter-revolutionary" after filling in “clerk”. During the Cultural Revolution, people would be scornful of you if they knew you were not from a good family background.

M: Anyway, Grandpa came to Shanghai in 1945, right? Before the War of Liberation (Kuomintang Civil War), he worked in the printing house.

L: I don't know exactly when. I was born in Shanghai in 1953. Grandpa and Grandpa got married over a decade before in Ningbo.

M: In Cixi (a county belonging to Ningbo city). Dad was born in Cixi in 1940. Dad said that his earliest memory was that Grandpa walked in the field, with two baskets on his shoulders. Dad sat in one of the baskets. Later they went to Ningbo. But in 1946, the whole family must have been in Shanghai, because Dad spent his entire primary school in Shanghai.

L: In 1946, your uncle Ah Hui was also born. He was born in Shanghai.

M: Grandpa got settled down in Shanghai in 1946. I guess that he arrived in Shanghai at least in 1945. Did you say that the name of the factory where Grandpa worked was No. 5 Printing Factory?

L: Yes, No. 5, which printed the RMB. I remembered Grandpa did drawings. The factory was later moved to Hubei Province. I know one of Grandpa’s colleagues, whose son substituted his father and later moved to Hubei with the factory

.

M: Dad told me that the factory’s name before liberation was Liulian (meaning Six Union). Dad then added that Liulian suggested six shareholders. I found out that during the Kuomintang period, the four state-owned banks, the trust bureau and the post office, were collectively known as Liulian. So it was a factory with strong equipment and technical workers. So it could take on the task of printing money. I also found out that Liulian Printing Factory was later relocated to Xiangyang, Hubei Province in the 1960s, and called the 603 Factory.

L: Ming, you are so careful.

M: Grandpa was taken away in the factory. Do you know if the verdict was sent later?

L: Your Grandma was illiterate. She didn’t tell me about it. But I’m sure that the death notice was not sent.

Death

M: I know. The cause of Dad's lifelong misfortune was it. No one informed how Grandpa died and where he was buried. That's why Dad would write to the labor camp. The letter fell into Dad's personal archive, oppressing him for the rest of his life.

L: Your Grandma said that her brother came to see her, advising them to write a letter. The prisoners in the labor camp are also humans. Why don’t you tell us how he died?

M: No wonder Dad signed that he didn't have the right guidance of his elders when he was young! Grandpa should have undertood the situation. How could he ask a 17-year-old child to write a letter to the labor camp and use words like "act as if human life is not worth a straw”? But, indeed, they acted as if human life is not worth a straw! Dad remembered that, one day, a parcel that Grandma sent to Grandpa was returned. The post office marked "This person is dead" in the column of return reasons. What had happened? There was nothing wrong with him when he left. How did he die? Where was he buried? How desperate Grandpa was when he died so far away from his family!

L: When he died, your Grandma was only in her thirties. Let me think. She was born in 1919.

M: So, in 1957, she was only 38 years old.

L: Grandpa is six years older than her.

M: Almost. Dad said, Grandpa died at 43. Dad was 17 years old then.

L: No remains, what a tragedy! I was 4 years old, and I only vaguely remembered Grandma sitting there crying. In fact, Grandpa was not sentenced for a long time. He did not survive.

M: Dad said that he was sentenced to seven years. By 1957, three years had passed. One evening, just before Grandpa’s death, Dad saw a stranger come to see them. He introduced himself as Grandpa’s friend in the labor camp, and he was released after completing his sentence. He told Grandma, “Mr. Ying’s face is dark. He doesn’t have enough clothes to wear in winter, and uses a straw rope to tie up his jacket.”

L: Didn't treat them as human beings.

M: Grandma didn't have the ability to send enough clothes. She had to raise five children. Aunty Ju Qing dropped out of school and worked in a factory. Dad also had to help the family after school, taking care of his younger brothers and sisters, setting up a tea stall on the roadside.

L: I don't even know where Grandpa’s labor camp was.

M: In Xinyang, Henan Province. Dad was in high school at the time, and he regularly wrote a postcard to Grandpa. He remembered the address was Xinyang, Henan. However, the literature that can be found now does not mention the participation of prisoners in the Huai River Flood Control Project. At last, "Shanghai Prison Chronicle" revealed some information. In the 1950s, 80,000 prisoners were transferred from Shanghai to Anhui Province. The headquarter of the Huai River Flood Control Project was located in Bengbu, Anhui Province.

All the prisoners were sent to the headquarter, and then were assigned to different construction sites along the Huai River. Grandpa went to Xinyang, Henan Province, where he built Southbay Reservoir. I thought Grandpa might have been there, so I took my son to the Southbay Reservoir. Time has passed, and it is now a sightseeing spot. Traces of the past have been erased.

L: Builing river works was full of hardship.

M: Yes. Some people abroad mentioned (Wu Hongda's speech, first-hand information to be checked) that during the period of 1955-56, the number of labor prisoners transferred to the Huai river construction site in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai was 2 million. In the following year ,1 million people died. I doubt this figure, but the country does not allow access to related archives.

L: 1 million people died of exhaustion? However, there are not many people alive now, and the youngest should be eighty or ninety years old.

Broken families

M: After Grandpa died, what happened to the family?

L: Grandpa left behind a chaos. Grandma worked in the electroplating watch factory at first. I was 3 years old, following her to the factory everyday. In 1960, when the factory was moved to Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, Grandma was forced to go there too. Your dad was 20 and was already in Anhui Province.

M: I know. Dad was not deprived of the opportunity to go to college after graduating from high school, so he left for Hefei, Anhui Province in 1959.

L: Yes, I was 6 years old. I have no memory of my dad, nor any pictures of him. People always told me, “your eldest brother is most like your father.” In my childhood, I looked on my eldest brother as my dad. When he came home, he bought me candies and fruits. He took me out to play, and I was always happy. (Choking) I tasted a lot of bitterness as a child ...Your Aunty Juqing died earlier than Grandpa. Grandpa loved Ju Qing most. Fortunately, Grandpa didn't know that Ju Qing died so young.

M: Yes. Dad said he was sorrowful when he thought of Aunty Juqing. She was two years younger than Dad. Grandma loved the oldest son, and insisted that the oldest daughter drop out of school and work in a sock factory. Aunty Ju Qing hated the arrangement, and soon died of tuberculosis.

L: And her body was buried by the hospital. Grandma had no money for her burial. There were also three small children in the family. I’m the youngest, and I went to Yancheng with Grandma for a year. The other two brothers were older, and were left in the care of neighbors in Shanghai. The next year, Then, Grandma took your uncle Xiong Yao to Yancheng, and I stayed in Shanghai. I used to be go hungry, without knowing where the nex meal was. The neighbors told Grandma that I would die soon if she didn’t come back. Grandma quitted her job and stealthily came back to Shanghai. We started to do some small business, buying something at the Sixteen Shops and selling them at the intersection.

M: Uncle Xiong Hui graduated from junior high school and went to Xinjiang, didn’t he?

L: No. Uncle Xiong Hui also studied in Guangming Junior High School (a top high school in Shanghai). But he had a heart attack. After graduating from junior high school, he took a few years off, then he left in July, 1966. At that time, the government encouraged the youth to go to the vast rural areas and make great achievements. Xiong Hui was a person who aspired to make a great difference, so he went to a distant place, Xinjiang. Uncle Xiong Yao later went to the nearby Chongming Island.

M: After Grandpa left, the fate of the whole family changed. When the family just moved to Shanghai, life seemed to be quite promising. Grandpa found a decent job. The factory assigned a comfortable apartment in the Zhonghui building.

L: Yes, Uncle Xiong Hui was born at that time (1946). The family was not prosperous, but quite comfortable and hopeful. Shortly after I was born (1953), Grandpa was arrested (in 1954). The main income was cut off.

M: The apartment was taken away too.

L: Yes. I was born in the Zhonghui Building. The next year, we were forced to move to Sichuan Road.

M: It was after Grandpa was caught.

L: Later, we moved from Sichuan Road to Hubei Road. There were several rooms in a Shikumen ( a kind of traditional residential building). The counter-revolutionary family members could only wait for the others to pick the rooms first, and the rest two rooms were facing west and north.

M: Did you have government remedy then?

L: Yes, we called “eat relief rice”.

M: Dad said that, after Grandpa was caught, rice and cotton clothes were distributed by the government, which he often mentioned in his later confessions as an evidence of the Party’s grace. But dad still lacked food and clothing. He only had a pair of pants. One day, some classmates came to his home, and he had to hide in bed and pretended to be ill. Because he had no pants to wear, when the only ones were washed.

L: At the beginning of liberation, there were many people with bad family backgrounds. Anyway, the real capitalists did enjoy a good life before. We were at the bottom. I didn’t know why we became the counter-revolutionary family.

M: Did you go to Xishuangbanna after leaving junior high school?

L: I was actually an elementary school student, though called a junior high school student. It was in 1966, the beginning of Cultural Revolution, that I entered junior high school. I didn't learn anything during the three yeas.

M: Were there any campaigns in the school during this time?

L: The resumption of classes for revolution. Stop classes for revolution, and resume classes for revolation. In the class, we memorized Chairman Mao's quotations.

M: Was there discrimination at that time?

L: I didn't feel much discrimination in those years, because I was not in the school for a long time. I used to go home after listening to people shouting slogans. The 66th and 67th classes still knew a lot of things. We, the 69th, didn’t learn anything. We didn’t read books. Those bookds were tossed back for decades.

M: The fate of the family was completely changed.

L: Yes. People would see family background at any cases. As the saying at that time goes, “the son is a bastard if the father is counter-reactionary.”

Distorted emotions

L: Grandma used to talk about your Dad, "Is he silly? Who would hate his father because he beat his son? ”

M: Really? I remembered that my father had told me many times that he had no affection for his father because his father used to beat him as a discipline. When I grew up, I couldn't understand. Grandpa might be bad tempered. But isn't it the father’s love to support his family and provide good education to his children? Why did dad only remember being beaten when he was naughty?

L: Grandma didn't understand either.

M: So, Dad was serious about it... (Pause) If there was no emotion really, how could you write such an emotional letter to for your father? (Pause) I suspect that it was because Dad suffered the biggest blow after his father’s death. The whole family suffered, but it was my Dad who experienced public criticism and struggle.

L: Your dad should have had a good future. He was smart. He passed the exams, and was admitted to Guangming High School (a very selective school at that time). None of his younger siblings had a chance to get into high school.

M: I know. Guangming High School was formerly a French-run school with a long history. Guangming in 1950s was one of top schools in the city and was difficult to get into. Quite a few classmates of Dad later became academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Dad was an excellent student. He had belief in the Communist Party, and was one of the first students in high school to join the Communist Youth League. Ironically, he was the Propaganda Commissar in high school. His was eager to learn journalism at Peking University. However, at the age of 17, his wrote a letter for Grandpa and committed a mistake that impacted his whole life.

L: It was so sad.

M: Dad had two most painful periods in his life time. The first was from 1957 to 1959. His letter to the Labor Reform Corps, demanding inquiry into Grandpa's death, went into his personal archive — he learned about it decades later. The class dean often called him to public lectures, believing that he had expressed grievances for his counter-revolutionary father and took a reactionary stand. The class dean warned that he was lucky in high school where there was no Anti-right campaign. If he were in a secondary school, he could be identified as the extreme rightist. The class dean wrote in his college application form that "this person is not suitable for admission" — Dad knew it decades later.

And then came the period of 1966 to 1969. Dad left Shanghai and worked in Anhui Chemical Research Institute as a school teacher. He became a good teacher and won the commendation of the Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League. However, after the Cultural Revolution began, the old problem was turned over again. His diaries were confiscated and copied as evidence of crime. He became the only target of public criticism and struggle in the primary school section. A board with his name hanging around his neck, he was forced to confess repeatedly. He almost lost his desire to live after being struggled for three years.

L: I've heard about it.

M: It was in the 1980s that his colleagues started to sort out his personal archive. They talked about the letter, the confessions and various forms in his archive. Those papers and files were more than a foot high, all of which were about his reactionary father. He was forced to admit bearing a grudge against the Communist Party for killing his father, and had to repeatedly vow to draw a clear line with his reactionary father. Later, his colleagues said, “Those materials were useless. They were burned out.“ Dad felt relieved. Now thinking back, it sounded ridiculous. Why burned the evidence?

L: So?

M: When I read those absurd remarks in the Cultural Revolution, I used to think that the individuals concerned were against their wishes. Now I think, under such pressure, a person who was isolated and helpless would gradually believe what they kept on talking about.

L: People thought differently at that time.

M: I found a diary Dad kept in late 1960s and early 1970s.

L: Did you?

M: It mentioned a letter Dad received from Uncle Xiong Hui in Xinjiang. Dad praised Uncle for drawing a clear line with their reactionary father. (Original diary: October 12, 1969 Just received a letter from Brother Xionghui... In his letter, he said: "We are all ready to fight, to fight into Moscow, and let the red star of Red Square shine again." The letter expressed his determination to be infinitely loyal to Chairman Mao and to carry out the revolution to the end. He also expressed his deep hatred for our reactionary father. )

L: Oh! People at that time! Now, the trend is going back. Isn’t Confucius worshipped again? The Cultural Revolution was all wrong. Grandpa had a colleauge who also had unclear history. His son shouted slogans like class struggle, at him every day. People were reformed.

M: I thought Dad had his diaries confiscated and his later diaries might be written in fear of being confiscated again. So his diary wouldn't tell the truth totally. But I do feel that his affection for his father was really distorted in the process of confessing guilty again and again. Later, Uncle Xionghui turned around and was busy redressing Grandpa’s case, but Dad didn’t seem to be interested.

L: Uncle Xionghui was later moved back to Shanghai, and it was more convenien for him to do the inquiry.

M: Not only for that reason. Dad just wasn't enthusiastic. I asked him, "Grandpa’s calligraphy was very good. why did he ask you to transcribe his appeal?" Dad paused for a while, and answered, "I don't know.” Dad also recalled that when Grandpa asked him to transcribe, his tone was particularly humble. I seemed to understand those enigmas, but I have no chance to tell Dad. "Dad, Grandpa wants you to remember him! When you had a hunch that you weren't recovering well, you sent a long message to your two daughters, reviewing your life experiences, didn't you? Grandpa hoped that his eldest son would remember him in the future.” However, it is a tragedy that Dad did not emotionally reconnect with Grandpa even at the end of his life. I might have been able to help Grandpa, but I missed the opportunity.

Lonely soul! Come back

M: Did Uncle Xionghui want to investigate Grandpa's case in the 1980s?

L: Yes. Many cases were overturned then. But it also took energy and time to do this. Among the four siblings, Uncle Xionghui was most resourceful. And he moved back to Shanghai from Xinjiang, having better access to those clues. He had a clever head, but he was not in good health. He had been engaged in it for quite a time, looking for witnesses. He first went to see our upstairs neighbor the Bao family, and the Bao family referred him to another person. The clues were all broken finally. By then, more than twenty years had passed. The factory as a whole was moved to inland. Young people knew nothing. Old people still alive were not the key witnesses, unclear too.

M: So, was there anything in paper about it?

L: Even when Grandpa died, they didn’t send a notice. If there were other documents, Grandma might not preserve them. She was an illiterate.

M: Here's the trouble. We want to check in the Archives, but cannot show any credentials or evidence. Time is changing. The archives are opening up more than in the past.

L: I see. But now, even if you find something, so what? It's been so many years.... In 1992, we were about to order a grave for Grandma. Grandma asked for a double grave. The other cinerary casket was empty. Uncle Xionghui put a letter in it.

M: To whom?

L: To Grandpa. He showed it to me. I read it, tears running down ceaselessly. I still remember it. “We know that you have been wronged. We do not blame you. We know, you are a good person. Where is your lonely soul? We hope you can find your way back home.”

M: Uncle Xionghui fulfilled the eldest son’s obligation in stead of Dad.

L: I read it, tears running down ceaselessly. (Crying). The letter said, “we know, you are a good man. We know, you have been wronged.

M: Dad couldn't say such things, although he understood. He once said that Grandpa was just a small person who earned a living for his family. He didn’t commit any crime. After retiring, Dad had been ordering "Yanhuang Chunqiu" (a liberalism oriented magazine banned in 2016). He was particularly interested in the articles of Li Rui (liberalist in the CCP). Online speech was much freer for a time. He must have read and thought a lot. The night before he died, Dad talked to me for over an hour, about how much Grandma had suffered, about my Mother dying at a young age. He missed them so much. Yet, he didn't mention a word about Grandpa.

L: The two brothers had different personalities. Uncle Xionghui was meticulous and flexible. Dad was straightforward.

M: And Dad sufferred most because of Grandpa.

Terms

l Work under public surveillance／管制劳动: A kind of criminal penalty.

l Before ／After Liberation解放前／后: Before or after 1949 when PRC was founded.

l Suppressing the Counter-revolutionaries Campaign / 镇反 The first Campaign after liberation.

l A Hundred Flowers Blooming and A Hundred Schools of Thought Contending /百花齐放，百家争鸣： The first slogan was put forward by Mao in 1951， and the second in 1953, encouraging free expression and criticism.

l Active Counter-Revolutionary／现行反革命

l Historical Counter-Revolutionary ／历史反革命

l Class status/成分 One’s social status classied according to Marxism

l Family background/出身 Class status of one’s parents

l Confession／检查：Method of thought reform that the person reviews and criticizes himself for wrong doings.

l Substitution / 顶替: A kind of job assignment in the age of Plan Economy that allows the child to take over the job of their retired parents.

l Huai River Flood Control／治淮

l Public criticism and struggle／批斗

l Anti-right／反右