The Lost Generation: The Rustication of China’s Educated Youth (1968–1980)

8. The Conditions of Departure: “Voluntary” Deportation

CHAPTER 8 The Conditions of Departure: “Voluntary” Deportation From an early age the adolescents of the Red Guard generation had received an education that aimed to familiarize them with rural life and instill a favorable image of it. From the mid-1950s up until the Cultural Revolution, when the authorities were busy sending young graduates from rural backgrounds back to their villages and rusticating a small proportion of urban graduates, schoolbooks presented an extremely positive image of the peasants. That image was omnipresent, and even in schoolbooks destined for large cities such as Beijing and Shanghai “people were always pictured in a rural environment , urban life was never shown.”1 Furthermore, schools organized spells in the countryside, usually on the holidays, during which students assisted with agricultural labor. From 1963 onward, agriculture-related subjects were even taught in some normal high schools.2 High school students were also subjected to a more targeted propaganda, geared to promoting the rustication of zhiqing, notably through the use of 1 Roberta Martin, “The Socialization of Children in China and on Taiwan: An Analysis of Elementary School Textbooks,” China Quarterly 62 (June 1975), p. 253. 2 RMRB, June 20, 1963, p. 2. THE LOST GENERATION_FA02_17June2013.indd 215 THE LOST GENERATION_FA02_17June2013.indd 215 19/6/13 3:14 PM 19/6/13 3:14 PM 216 | THE LOST GENERATION models, from both rural and urban backgrounds, such as Xing Yanzi, Hou Jun, and Dong Jiageng,3 who achieved nationwide fame. In addition the authorities published Soviet and Chinese novels that glorified pioneers taming the wilderness for the edification of young people.4 However, all the information I gathered shows that despite this systematic ideological preparation, the majority of young urbanites did not envisage an agricultural future for themselves and the propaganda failed to radically change the values of the urban population. Furthermore, while a small percentage of young urban graduates in the early 1960s did indeed prove receptive to the propaganda and considered the countryside as an alternative way of fulfilling their ambitions, by 1968 this minority had decreased further. By then, the realities of rural life were better known, partly due to the reports from young people who had already gone there, notably those who then returned to the cities during the Cultural Revolution and those who had journeyed to “exchange revolutionary experiences” (chuanlian), which enabled many Red Guards to discover the extreme poverty of the Chinese countryside.5 Mobilization For these reasons only a minority of young idealists actually volunteered to leave for the countryside after the fall of 1967. A mobilization system was later put in place, which became increasingly restrictive. First military training groups (junxunzu 軍訓組), and later worker or military propaganda groups and the “triple alliance” groups they controlled (including representatives of the army, the Red Guards organizations, and “revolutionary cadres” who had survived the big purge) organized propaganda in schools in the form 3 See Feng Jicai, “Yige laohongweibing de zibai” (Confessions of an Old Red Guard), Shiyue 6 (1986), pp. 6–22. 4 The writer Liang Xiaosheng believed that reading these novels had played a role in his decision to go to the Manchurian “Great North” (interview on September 21, 1986). Another writer, Zhang Kangkang, stated that just before the Cultural Revolution she had been so deeply moved by a novel glorifying a young girl who went to work in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps that she seriously considered interrupting her own studies to go to Xinjiang. See Zhang Kangkang, Xiaoshuo chuangzuo yu yishu ganjue (Literary Creation and Artistic Sentiment) (Tianjin: Baihua wenyi chubanshe, 1985), pp. 153–54. 5 See “Autobiographie de Wei Jingsheng,” Perspectives Chinoises 19 (September– October 1993), pp. 52–60. THE LOST GENERATION_FA02_17June2013.indd 216 THE LOST GENERATION_FA02_17June2013.indd 216 19/6/13 3:14 PM 19/6/13 3:14 PM CHAPTER 8 THE CONDITIONS OF DEPARTURE | 217 of “Mao Zedong Thought” study classes. Some schools used the pre–Cultural Revolution method of presenting an idyllic image of the proposed destination .6 However, it was more usual to call on the revolutionary spirit of selfsacrifice and the young people’s loyalty to Mao. Initial efforts were focused on convincing “advanced elements” so that they, in turn, would influence their comrades.7 The first to sign up were encouraged to write big character posters to announce their decision, and their names were written on honor rolls (hongbang 紅榜). This moral pressure was backed by...