October 31st, 1960:Great Leap “Backward”

Our country is falling apart. It all seemed so good when the communists took power, but I was wrong. Our family all used to support communism; however, this is way over the line.

I remember how Chairman Mao was all so sure about the communist world he is making, but look at China now. This Great Leap Forward thing made the situation worse. Initially, it was supposed to make China prosper and equal that it would join the superpowers like Russia and the US.

However, the project was just random implementations of unproven and unreasonable ideas that just messed everything up. People are losing their minds from famine. Businesses are falling down while the working class got too much power. Economy has crashed with inflation and all that.

Even my own family, which we thought were richer than the majority, had barely anything to eat. We only got to eat a bowl of noodles and some rice per meal. Some of my family friends have died due to no food. The ambition of Mao and his party members is too much for the people to handle.

When Mao Zedong and the communists ran the Nationalists and its leader Chiang Kai-Shek out of the mainland, the peasants were happy. They thought that the working class would now have a chance to prosper.

Back then, my father and I was not that happy. My father and his father worked so hard and studied so hard to get to their place. We deserve this place and those peasants do not. How is it fair when the people who worked hard for generations have equal rights to people who just work in the fields? It isn’t.

All those officials like Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, and Zhu De are also ones who worked hard to get to that authority they are right now. Why are they working so hard for ones who are just poor and lazy?

Plus, the Hundred Flowers Campaign and the Great Leap Forward showed that this “communism” Mao is seeking for is not communism at all. When Mao launched the Hundred Flowers Campaign, it was originally for the people to publicly criticize Mao and other officials.

Later when people obeyed Mao and criticized him, Mao decided to kill them all because they were going against him. This does not make any sense. Mao is not trying to be equal with the workers but have the people worship him. What kind of communism is this?

I lost faith in Mao, and I’m pretty sure quite a lot of people did. He definitely should step out of power and let some other smarter ones lead the country. The failure of the Great Leap Forward and the cost of innocent citizens’ lives are too much for him to take. Mao and the communists should have never taken leadership of our country.

During the Great Leap Forward, lots of poor families barely had anything to eat. Even my family had not so much to eat.

November 26th, 1966:The Cultural Revolution

Seriously, Mao is complicating our society even more now. Students beat their own professors, took all their property, and had them on public trials. Most of them…no, all of them were killed eventually. Now I am living in threat, knowing that such harassment can happen to me any time.

After the Great Leap Forward failed catastrophically, the people abandoned the communes. Economy was falling down. It seemed like what I foresaw was true. People lost faith in Mao and the communists, thus Mao stepped out of power while Liu Shaoqi took control over the country.

Liu seemed like he knew what he was doing. He tried to get the country get back on track as a normal capitalist country rather than an extreme communist country. Life became so much better, not only for the workers but even for us. Now our family got meat, noodles, dumplings, vegetables, and even tea for a single meal. The bureaucratic class, party officials and us intellectuals emerged into power. Everything was going fine again.

Unfortunately, that did not go on forever. This summer, Mao suddenly appeared in front of the people again. The PLA leader Lin Biao, one of Mao’s allies, published the Little Red Book for the people to learn and worship. He wanted the people to worship the man who almost killed them? What was he thinking? Back then; I still thought nobody would obey the new rule.

But I was wrong. Starting out from the PLA, everyone in China is for some reason reading all that nonsense from Mao. The worse thing is that the people are actually worshipping this from Mao, thinking he is some sort of god.

Mao is willing to get rid of all the “capitalists-roaders” in China. All of us intellectuals are not that stupid to not realize that capitalists for Mao simply mean Mao’s potential political enemies.

Now the working class is putting up these big propaganda posters, all about worshipping Mao, and trying to basically get rid of all other officials. He literally encouraged the public to attack authority. Why is he doing this to us? We are the right ones that are leading China to a better society. He cannot do this to his comrades that helped him all their lives.

Students formed groups called the Red Guards, trying to get rid of the old ways and ideas of the nation. The Red Guards destroyed religious monuments and burned books. Just yesterday, about 300 Red Guards stormed into our university and burned the entire library down.

It is so chaotic out here now, and it seems like China is heading towards doom. Lots of people will be, and are targeted by this revolution, and that somehow includes me.

The students are out rallying by holding up the Little Red Book, showing their respect to Mao.

October 31st, 1968:Fall of the Rich

Sadly, my hunch proved to be true.

The Red Guards went around the country, trying to get rid of the so-called “Four Olds”. The students destroyed temples, mosques, libraries, and all evidence of the past. They were terminating what our ancestors have done for the past millenniums in just a few years.

They even ferretted out key members of the government, intellectuals, and other members of the higher class. These people included high ranked officials, most notably Liu Shaoqi. Those people were publicly humiliated, beaten up, and eventually died or committed suicide.

It is no doubt that we are living in an era of terror.

When Mao declared the Cultural Revolution two years ago, my friends and I did not give anything. We were all very sure that the revolution would fail just like how the Great Leap Forward did. It was obvious that Mao would collapse again.

But now, I realize that I have never been so wrong.

For the past two years or so, everything has changed for us intellectuals. We no longer teach the students we used to. For me, I now just stay at home, hiding, hoping nobody would find me and kill me like others. I do know I am a coward, but I cannot do anything about it.

I still clearly remember what happened to my friend Zhao Jiehonga month ago. He was one of the most popular history professors in the capital. All students, and even some other professors respected him.

Zhao was ferreted out easily because he wasn’t hiding like I was. He, alongside other professors, held those heavy nametags on their neck. Students pointed at him, criticizing and swearing, ripping his hair off and all that, but Zhao could not do anything about it. I was in the crowd, disguised as a worker, and I could see the misery in Zhao’s face.

It seemed like he gave up now. He died two days later. Oh, my poor friend.

And just today, I heard Liu Shaoqi stepped out of his authority, kneeling down in front of the workers. Even the leaders of our country are giving up and being scapegoats of this revolution.

What can I do? I hope there is something, but I know the truth. I can’t do anything.

My fellow professors were ferreted out and killed. I feel so worthless and cowardly.

October 8th, 1976Peace Once Again

The Gang of Four was arrested just yesterday. That sucks for them. But at least now we can live in some peace, I guess.

It is only a month since Mao, that old bastard, died. The thing is, it seems like people are still despondent because Mao died. Thousands were crying and suffering in front of Tiananmen Square, wanting their “great leader” back. They were acting like the world has ended.

Maybe it has for them, but not for me. After Mao’s death, I could get out of this attic, acting normally outside while people would not even care about me anymore.

I thought this revolution would go on forever when it started 10 years ago. Literally everyone was trying to make this country communist, get rid of the old and make China a totally new country. The revolution seemed like it would succeed.

However, things started to change. The outer world disagreed with Mao’s policies and the Cultural Revolution, so China subsequently became isolated from world affairs. In 1971, Lin Biao died in a plane crash. Critics suspect that Mao plotted his death because he was afraid Lin Biao was gaining too much power. See, Mao is a man like this. He holds hands with people that are helpful and loyal to them, and as soon as they get a bit of power, he brutally gets rid of them.

As the main figure of the revolution died, the revolution started to lose its impetus. Struggles between CCP members continued, while the Red Guards went back to school. I was getting a bit more freedom. Nobody cared who I was because they did not know who I was. I could now freely shop at the store with nobody staring at me.

Groups for or against Mao started to form. The Gang of Four, led by Mao’s wife Jiang Qing, was a major group supporting Mao’s policies. After Mao’s death, they became a major threat to the government.

The Gang of Four purged the moderates. They created the “Five No’s”, including no photos of Zhou Enlai. Oh, talking about Zhou Enlai, he was the only official that was not criticized during the Cultural Revolution. The people liked him for his work to China, and Mao also wanted to keep Zhou near him.

And then all of a sudden, Mao died.

Right after Mao’s death, the Gang of Four was targeted by members of the CCP, most notably Ye Jianying. According to the trial held just yesterday, the Gang of Four has tried to make a coup d’état to get rid of the new government and make China to a world has dreamed of. But thankfully it failed. I don’t want to live in that world of Mao again.

Mao’s successor as leader for our country was just announced yesterday at the CCP committee. For some reason, it was Hua Guofeng who succeeded Mao. Even I think that he is not the one. It should be someone like Deng Xiaoping, who knows what they are doing. Oh well, Hua should be better than Mao.

Now that Mao is dead and the Cultural Revolution stopped, China should be peaceful, at least for a couple of years. Hopefully.

The Gang of Four, including Mao’s wife and other officials, was arrested just before they were going to execute their plan.

May 19th, 1979:A New China

I was right about our future. Deng Xiaoping has announced his economic reforms, trying to get China back into the world affairs and economy. He decided to make the economy more capitalist so that the country would become richer. And it is successful until now. This is the realistic way to go, and Deng is doing it right.

After the Gang of Four was arrested just two years ago, Deng rose into power. He stopped the people ferreting out officials like us, making life more hopeful for me. Thanks to Deng’s policies, I could have taught again at Beijing University. But I didn’t; I decided to take a break for the rest of my life, as I do not think I have much to live.

In 1977, Deng launched the Beijing Spring, which allowed anyone to openly criticize the Cultural Revolution. My former colleagues and I took my opportunity and asserted in front of the people about my ideas about the revolution. Of course, there were lots that disagreed with my thoughts and still worshipped the dead leader. But thankfully, the young ones agreed with us that the Cultural Revolution was a pointless and brutal action. Faith in the future of China was restored, at least in my thoughts.

When Deng rose into power, members of the CCP were not happy. Lots of them were against Deng and still believed that Mao was correct. But reality cannot be ignored. Party officials slowly started to follow Deng, as his policies did make China a better place. He eventually became the number one leader in China, and almost everybody respected him now.

Deng is walking a totally different path to Mao’s. He wants a better economic system. He is trying to open up China to the world. He wants the people to have a better life. That is what the people really need, not some bull that Mao was trying to input in China.

Last December, Deng successfully took over authority from the incompetent Hua Guofeng. He announced his economic plans in the 11th CPC Central Committee. He named this new plan "Reform and Opening Up Policy”. Just as the name says, the plan is to reform the devastated economy from Cultural Revolution, and open up the country to the outer societies.

The lives of citizens got so much better as soon as this policy was launched. This new reforming policy reduced poverty. Incomes increased while the income inequality got narrower. I can go off to the streets and see citizens buying so many products in prosperous markets.

My life is already better when the real policy began only four months ago. I wonder what the final result of this amazing project would be. But it’s a shame that I’m already too old to see the most out of Deng’s ideas. Still, this is what I have been waiting for in my life: a world that can improve the lives of citizens.

Our new leader Deng Xiaoping has made lives so much better for all citizens, including the rich ones like me.