China Witness (63 page)

The Chinese internet is full of every kind of Chinese voice: sad laments for the lost and for those single child families, who will never have the chance to have other children; warm thanks to the rescue teams and the People's Liberation Army who have been fighting day and night to save lives; thanks and encouragement for everyone who continues to donate to the poor victims; hatred towards those who allowed the poorly constructed buildings; anger with the millionaires who haven't stood up to help the people lost in this natural disaster; worry about the
China Engineering Physics Research Institute, located in Sichuan Mianyang near Wenchuan, because the research station is responsible for China's nuclear weapons – it is hard to imagine the consequences if the reactor was damaged; and warnings about the
North Sichuan Dam, which, if it were to break, could flood at least 160,000 lives.

These voices mostly come from the younger generation, I guess, because most of their parents and grandparents don't know how to use a computer – they are a generation who know, instead, of civil war, political madness, and queuing for food. In seeing those young Chinese united in such a way, in their care, their outrage and national pride, I realise I may be wrong about them. I used to think that they were too comfortable and too rich to understand China's hungry past, or those poor, uneducated peasants and the misunderstood last generations.

All of this made me think of that song "Dyed with my Blood", again: why does the national flag have to be painted with Chinese blood? I pray for my motherland – I hope there will be peace and strength, rooted in love and happy families, and with friends around the world.

Before I write every book and after I have finished it, the names of many, many people come to mind, and all of them need to be thanked. Some of them may not appear in the text or form part of the book, but they are a part of what I have become today, the Xinran who is able to write books.

Aside from my mother and the rest of my family, I probably owe most gratitude to the hands of the midwife who brought me into the world since she was dexterous enough not to drop me on my head and turn me into an idiot. Then there were the "aunties" of my kindergarten who constantly drilled into me that "tree leaves don't grow in the ground, and roots don't grow in the air". Then there were my primary and middle school teachers who taught me truths about nature like "What is red? The sun at dawn! What is black? Coal underground!" so I learned that as well as people, there were other lives that shared our earth. From them, I acquired basic facts such as that while I was fast asleep, there were other people busy labouring away. There is a Chinese orphan whom I can never thank enough: Yinda had never had a home, but he taught me that by imagining what people were doing behind every door, I could rid myself of the misery of being bullied. Then there are those chattering and twittering flocks of friends at university: among them, the weeping, snivelling "bad girls", severely punished for transgressing the rules, who were a spur to me to work hard to become a good Chinese woman. They all helped my Chinese heart become reflective and mature.

When I was at the radio station in China, it was those listeners who felt I was talking only to them from their radio set that made me understand that China which I had never seen and of which I had no knowledge.

As for my son, Panpan Xue, from the first Chinese sentence he babbled as a baby, to the first book in English he read about China; from the time, at the age of three, that he asked what China was, to his return to China as a fifteen-year-old volunteer, to teach English to poor mountain children; it was through his growing up that I explored my ability to be a Chinese mother. I want to thank him for being my assistant on the project.

Then there is my husband, Toby Eady, who, although he can only say five things in Chinese (and one of those is a swear word), has gone in search of China's culture
and history, and understands, encourages and supports my "China complex". Without him, I would probably never have had the strength to finish
China Witness.

All in all, the list of people whom I want to thank is enormously long. You could say that what these names make up is a book of my own life. When I thought that I might be able to write a book like this, I shouted my thanks – to life, to every tiny little bit, breath and ray of light around me.

There is one other factor in these necessary thanks: what exactly is my role in this book? The author with twenty years of investigative achievements to her credit? The scholar who believes she understands China? A guide along the motorways with their forest of signposts? Or an attentive student and listener who, by dint of her familiarity with Chinese culture and her passion for its people, has opened one or two doors for Westerners, and walked into China with them? My head still teems, night and day, with the multitudes of things I saw, books I read and things I experienced. So what am I in this book? What is the information which I am so keen to give my readers? What do I hope that they will feel after they have made their journey through it?

I am actually saying to those who want so much to understand and have things explained to them that time not only forms the construct of our lives, it creates space and clarifies our memories. What has actually happened is that an increasingly clear memory has taken me to the answer to these questions. In May 2006, Toby and I were invited to attend a workshop on literary translation in Holland. For two days, publishers, translators, writers and reporters from thirty-odd countries discussed our different national literatures and argued back and forth about how to get translated works published for the rest of the world to enjoy. The event, enthusiastic, liberating and endlessly thought-provoking, was organised by the NLPVF (the Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature) and the chairman who brought us into this space and made it possible for us to enjoy it was Martin Asscher, a Dutch scholar. As we embarked on the day's agenda, and more and more people launched into what became a single-minded debate on literary issues, I realised that it was our conference "maestro" Martin Asscher who was guiding and controlling the way in which our three-sided discussions – on literature, translation and publishing – developed. Yet quite unlike most politicians, teachers and other figures of importance so keen to display their wisdom, he was entirely self-effacing. Instead, he became our "general", allowing each participant's enthusiasm for literature, translation or publishing to blend with his plans, and the needs of world literary thinking to be absorbed by Dutch scholarship. Two days of this and, thanks to Martin, my memory was steeped in debate – and I was just a foreigner and a novice! Through him, I learned to "mediate" my awareness of other cultures, and to contribute my own building blocks to a shared cultural "bridge-building".

Through this book, I hope my own readers, standing like me outside the door looking in at China and its history, will experience these memories of China for themselves. I long for my readers to empathise with the people in this book and their families' stories; and to see how a people have risen from poverty and conflict
to assume a new self-respect. And it will not be me – limited as I am to existing within a single moment, a Chinese cell with a single function – it will be the China witnesses who, with their stories, have the real power to persuade.

China Witness
is a crystallisation, too, of numerous people's combined efforts. Without the help of the following, this book would never have seen the light of day now: in Beijing, Chen Linfei and Cheng Lu ran the research side; in Nanjing, Zhang Ye and Hao Chong coordinated the collection of background information; Yang Ji, Kate Shortt and others filmed and recorded; Julie from Jindian travel agency did the planning and organising; London office volunteers John and Li Yi did the email communications work, led by Motherbridge of Love (MBL) CEO Wendy Wu; and Xiao Shenshen (Beijing University), Wei Xuan (Beijing Broadcasting University), Pan Zhigang (Nanjing University Web) and more than fifty students from Shanghai's Fudan University, helped with documentation.

Without Esther Tyldesley, Nicky Harman and Julia Lovell, who translated this book from Chinese into English (putting Chinese clouds into an English box, as Esther says); without my two editors, Dan Frank at Pantheon Books, who formed my writing into a readable book, and Alison Samuel, who has done so much not only for this book but also my other books published by her Chatto & Windus team; without those Random House people who have worked on this book, and many friends in different countries and the wisdom and dedication they have brought to the project – without all of them these Chinese stories would still be gathering dust in my Chinese memory or even left in the past of China.

Please do not think that I have simply given you a long list of names. In fact, they are not only a part of this book, they are part of China's witnesses today. I thank them, as China will thank them in the future, because they gathered together for us these precious historical records. Every book is imbued with the blood, sweat and reflections of so many people, and forms a building block in the Long March of literature.

My thanks go to all the following for their help:

Wendy Wu, MBL CEO and
China Witness
supporter:
As CEO of Mothers' Bridge of
Love (MBL), I feel that the book opens a door for exploring a cultural journey for Chinese
children, for those who were adopted by Western families and for those Chinese who now
live in the West.

Leo Hao Chong,
China Witness
Nanjing research team leader:
I realised, as I worked
with the team, that the stories the book told were going to be very different from those
in our school history textbooks.

Julie Zhu,
China Witness
travel and office assistant:
This experience helps me and
many others understand our parents' and grandparents' lives, with their tears and suffering,
and their happiness which is different from ours.

Chen Linfei, Beijing research team leader:
These witnesses have put up with such
immense hardship and yet still stand miraculously tall . . .

Li Yi, London MBL office and media assistant:
These people and their lives are both
very distant and very close to us. I discovered a very simple fact: China is very big. They
truly have testified to this most ordinary and yet most important fact about China.

Yang Ji,
China Witness
media assistant and cameraman:
I never thought about what
my parents' and grandparents' generation had lived through before this.

Xuan Xuan,
China Witness
media assistant:
Ordinary people emit a very uncommon
strength. Our self-restraint cannot conceal this expression of our national self-respect.

Panpan Xue,
China Witness
media assistant:
The stories were different but the witnesses
all felt relieved that someone was there to listen to them, to comfort them. I hope that
people reading this book will reach a new level of understanding and be educated in the
same way as I was.

Jiang Wei,
China Witness
media assistant:
This project has awakened my interest in
discovering the untold story of my own family.

Li Xu,
China Witness
media assistant:
Now, wherever I am, I can say with complete
confidence: "I am proud of my country and her people!"

Li Yuan,
China Witness
media assistant:
I feel I have grown up by working on these
stories about the kind of lives which I had never encountered in my life before . . .

Xu Ke,
China Witness
TV assistant:
I had never been so moved as when I listened to
those old people tell of the joys and sorrows of their lives. Now the whole world will
listen to these hidden voices.

Kenny Renhu,
China Witness
research support:
I gave my parents traditional respect,
but I didn't learn about their history or try to understand them. My mother told me
that she would not allow me to suffer the way she did.

Pan Zhigang,
China Witness
assistant manager, Nanjing
Shen Wei,
China Witness
assistant manager, Beijing
Cheng Lu,
China Witness
research assistant, Beijing
Xiao Shenshen,
China Witness
research assistant, Beijing
Yan Yan,
China Witness
research supporter, Beijing
Tea,
China Witness
research supporter, Nanjing
Xin Meng,
China Witness
research supporter, Nanjing
Liang Qin,
China Witness
research supporter, Henan
Wu Suiping,
China Witness
research supporter, Henan
Yi Zhang,
China Witness
research supporter, Xinjiang
Lin Xue & Ping,
China Witness
research supporter, Sichuan
Zhang Yongmin,
China Witness
research supporter, Shanghai
Zhong Jane,
China Witness
research supporter, Shanghai
Liu Tong,
China Witness
research supporter, Gansu
Zha Xi Liu & Pu er Min,
China Witness
research supporters, Anhui
Xi Fenglan,
China Witness
research supporters, Guizhou
Li Lin,
China Witness
research supporter, Shandong
Gao Feng,
China Witness
research supporter, Shanxi
Hu Feibao,
China Witness
research supporter, Silk Road
Wu Fan,
China Witness
research supporter, Guangdong
Kate Shortt,
China Witness
photographer

What we have done together with Xinran is so that Chinese history will not be forgotten,
and so that our history will be known and remembered throughout the world.

^*1
At 2007 rates, approximately US$700, €460, £350.

^*2
A revolt against the Guomindang government of Xinjiang.

^*3
The idea of "Harmonious Society" was introduced by China's president, Hu Jintao, in an attempt to address some of the increasingly serious inequalities and divisions of Chinese society.

^*4
A valued medal given to outstanding women workers, awarded each year on 8 March (International Women's Day) at different levels: national, provincial, county and city.

^*5
Shenzhou VI was the second human spaceflight of the People's Republic of China, launched on 12 October 2005 on a Long March rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert.

^*6
Caramel-like sweet, high in energy and milk protein.

^*7
To give some idea of the scale, most Chinese provinces are the size of a medium-sized European country. Some of the military areas mentioned here, such as the Chengdu military area, cover several provinces.

^*8
Shang dynasty: 1600–1046 BC; Zhou dynasty: 1046–256 BC.

^†1
Spring and Autumn Period: 770–476 BC.

^*9
12,500 kilometres/8,000 miles.

^*10
The Central Soviet Area, also known as the Jiangxi Soviet, was an independent government established by the Chinese Communist Party in Jiangxi province in southeastern China, 1931–34.

^†2
Li De was the Chinese name given to Otto Braun, the German advisor sent by the Communist International to advise the Chinese Communist Party in 1934. Later that year, Braun, Zhou Enlai and Bo Gu became the leaders of the early First Front Army and made all decisions, despite opposition to them and their tactics from revolutionary leaders Mao Zedong and Peng Dehuai. Much of the Communist Army was destroyed due to Braun's doctrine of direct attacks on the far larger and better-equipped GMD Army.

^*11
In fact, some units did not participate in the Long March, but of course a single soldier could not know what was happening in detail to the whole army.

^*12
Canadian surgeon, b. 1890, Ontario. He joined the Communist Party, after a visit to the Soviet Union, and went to China in 1938 where he became a hero for his dedicated work, and died in 1939.

^*13
Guomindang planes.

^*14
Post-war liberation from Guomindang control by the People's Liberation Army, the troops of the Chinese Communist Party.

^*15
130 hectares/330 acres.

^*16
See the following chapter p.307, for a selection of these remarkable letters.

^*17
Its English title was
Random Harvest.

^*18
This phenomenon is also recounted in Cao Jinqing's
China Along the Yellow River:
Reflections on Rural Society.

^*19
16 acres / 7 hectares.

^*20
Part of the Chinese court system, formed of a hierarchy of prosecuting offices called People's Procuratorates, the highest being the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

^*21
Liu Shaoqi (1898–1969) was Chairman of the People's Republic of China from 27 April 1959 to 31 October 1968 but during the Cultural Revolution he was labelled a "traitor". In July 1966 he was displaced as Party Deputy Chairman by Lin Biao. By 1967 Liu Shaoqi and his wife Wang Guang-mei were under house arrest in Beijing.

^*22
Tao Zhu (1908–1969) was Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Committee and Commander of the Guangzhou Military Region. He later became First Secretary of the Central-South region, and in 1965 was moved to Beijing as Director of the Central Propaganda Department. He was a Vice Premier of the State Council and Secretary of the Central Secretariat of the CCP, as well as an advisor to the Central Cultural Revolution Group. In May 1966, he was promoted to No. 4 in the Party, behind Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Lin Biao, but was purged during the Cultural Revolution in early 1967 and died under house arrest in 1969.

^†3
Xu Haidong (1900–1970) was born into poverty and was made Grand General in the People's Liberation Army of China in 1955. Mao Zedong praised him as "a banner of the working class". He died in Zhengzhou in March 1970.

^*23
After Deng Xiaoping came to power in 1978, Liu Shaoqi was politically rehabilitated (in February 1980) with a state funeral.

^*24
Date is 2005. This text as been reproduced a number of times on blogs and even university websites.