Yes, we have finished the writing of the updated version of Mr. China's Son and already sent to our publisher, Westview Press. I am now working with my son on another new book, entitled UNDER THE RED FLAG, which will be published in 2002. It would be a sequel to Mr. China's Son.
Mr. China's Son is avaible in most English speaking countries. You can either contact to Westview Press or amazon book store to buy a copy if you could not find the book near your place.
In the '80s when I posted my MS, I had some troubles. But I still managed to post it through the postal service. However, in the early '90s, the country had opened its doors wider and wider, everything became better and better. What was more, what I wrote were true facts. Therefore, politically speaking, no troublesome problems appeared.
Economically speaking, my first book helped me to send the older son to university. The second book (Mr. China's Son) helped me to complete my younger son's university education. Two books helped me in bringing up two university-graduated sons. Both the two brothers felt proud of me, because I had written a book about our family's history. They learned how hard it was to struggle against so many ups and downs. They also learned many lessons from our own country's history. This on the other hand made them understand the heart of their father and encouraged them to redouble their efforts to study harder at school and then be useful men to our society.
My (police-officer) father seldom gave me political lessons. Year after year, he did what he thought he should do. For me, he always encouraged me to be a good student and learn every subject well. In this way I would become a good man and then do something good for society. For example, my brother told me that after my father was killed, they collected his body and found a note for me in his pocket. In that note, all he said was to ask me to pay more attention to my main subject ENGLISH and master our mother tongue. (For details, re-read page 53 of my book Mr. China's Son.)
During the foundation of the Communist Party of China, Chairman Mao showed himself to be a really powerful and good person. After liberation, China entered a new stage. All the Chinese people just faithfully followed Chairman Mao's direction. People thought: We do everything for a prosperous and strong China. Therefore the majority of people listened to and did everything in accordance with Chairman Mao's calls (arrangements). Everyone blindly followed Chairman Mao. That was what I think the main reason why we had a Cultural Revolution.
After the Cultural Revolution, I became very nervous about political affairs. I no longer believed people. I always kept silence in all kinds of meetings, and didn't want to express my thoughts directly. I taught my two sons to think over everything again and again before speaking out. Above all, I would not allow my sons and grandsons to rebuild our old house in the village into a very modern one, I told them to keep it poor looking, just repair it, but don't sell it.
Yes, there are three things: (1) People realized that relationships between family members are extremely weak. (2) People realized that to faithfully run after somebody great might not result in a good end. (3) People realized that the poor-and-lower class is by no means great.
I also see three negative things. (1) People became poorer; (2) People do not trust each other, (3) Many people became more selfish.
I lost the golden years of my life, the Anti-rightist Movement and the Cultural Revolution made me a penny-less peasant for so many years, I was put under surveillance, re-educated and pressed so long that I almost lost all of my abilities and talent. I always regret that painfully!
Yes, at that time, only if I could manage to live on and on, then I would compromise anything. If I refused to compromise, then the only way out was TO DIE. For a time, I had become a person who had forgotten 'I had received a college-level education'. When I first heard some government workers came to apologize, I thought people were making fun of me again. I thought they wanted to fool me again.
At that time, I compromised because I wanted to be alive. I believed: "If I could keep the mountains green, no need to worry about 'no firewood to cook'. " Later, facts proved those who refused to compromise were struggled to death or committed suicide. Luckily I compromised. A wise leader (Mr. Deng) appeared in Beijing. I was able to become a teacher, and be able to write a book to tell the world what had happened in China.
After 1979, an economic construction began in a BIG WAY. The result was: CHINA HAS BECOME STRONGER AND STRONGER, BUT AT THE SAME TIME, EVERY BODY RAN AFTER MONEY. Some people earned (made) money through hard work, but some became rich NOT from hard work. The situation looked like we did almost everything in a CRAZY WAY. In other words, in whatever we did, we did TO EXCESS. I don't think this is the correct way of solving problems. I hope our next generation will learn a lesson from our history. What we must do is to try our level best to avoid, get rid of ' TOO CRAZY'! If we keep on doing everything in a TOO CRAZY way, new problems will certainly appear again.
I cherish lessons learned from life. Learning lessons does not end, lessons can be found in every part of our life. If we are alive, there are lessons to be learned.
My humble advice is to RECEIVE A GOOD EDUCATION FIRST. Too many problems happened in China. The main reason is this country has TOO MANY PEOPLE. Too many people cannot read. What can a person do if he or she has a poor 'knowledge-box'??? One child per family policy is wonderful!! Why are Switzerland and Holland richer and happier? All because their population is very small. We Bai people have a common saying: When you keep too many pigs in ONE SMALL pig-room, the pigs will bite and hurt each other. So, if we have fewer people in one family, there will certainly be fewer problems.
Many young people always think that the grass on the other side of the fence is greener. But actually, from my own painful and joyful experience, let me tell you: "There" is no better than "here". When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will, again, look better than "here". Of course, I do not mean that we should not struggle for a better life, I mean we should be content with ourselves.
Yes, I'll remain a patriot forever and ever. All because I wanted to be a "gardener"(schoolteacher), I made up my mind to be a teacher before I graduated from high school (in the early 40s). I liked to tell the TRUTH but a truth-teller was KNOCKED DOWN. I was forced to bear all the hardships for 22 years. In the end I became a gardener (for 10 years, 1979-1989). In 1988, my older son became a teacher of English, he will keep on going forward. In 1996, I showed people another young 'big-school' graduated son. Now I have educated my sons, they are carrying out my dreams to do something good for the country. Therefore I can say I love my country.
I would like to answer this question in two aspects. One is economics and the other is morality. As for economics, Dali has improved quite a lot. For example, there were only three bicycles and a few radios in our village at the end of the '70's but now, there are three trucks, five walk-tractors, and one motorbike. TV sets and bicycles are very popular now. (I don't know how many.) Villagers dress much much better now. However, as for the morality, I think it is worse than ever. Many people do not take care of their old parents, make and sell fake products, rob graves for gold and silver The traditional moralities have been fading away.
Yes, we have insurance companies in China. They also sell medical insurance, but the people in the cities rely on their units and the country people have not realized the importance of buying the medical insurance now, or they just don't believe the insurance companies. There is still a long way to catch up to the western insurance system.
Before we have access to the Internet, I could only get information by the letters or books from my western friends. Now, I have access to the Internet, I can easily get any information I would like. As far as I know, the government does not censor the Internet access.
Broadly speaking, "one child per family" is the basic policy. However, Mr. China is a country with 56 nationalities. So the policy varies a great deal from nationality to nationality, province to province and sometimes, even from this village to that village at some certain remote corners. But generally, the people living in the cities are required to have only one child, while the country people could have two. According to the policy, the “one child” generation could have two whether they live in the cities or in the country. That means, for example, my son has only one child, and this child will could have two children in the future.
Not hard. According to the latest report, if you put 3000 dollars in the bank, you can apply for a passport. Our government let citizens go out freely, but the problem is that the visa is not easy to get!
Most of our Bai people are Buddhists, but I can say all of us have a different religion: we worship the local Village Lord (just like God). Every village has its own temple for the Lord. This Lord was actually a hero or lady-hero in the past, people considered him or her as a symbol of justice and consider him or her as a guardian. Sometimes a village puts the husband as their Village Lord and another village puts the wife as their Village Lord. The Village Lords have their birthdays too. When their birthdays come, the villagers will get together to celebrate it in the temple. One villager has to go the Village Lord's temple to open the door, clean the temple and burn joss sticks every day. The villagers do this in turns, for example, today is your turn to go the temple and tomorrow will be mine. Every villager has to pay a visit to the Village Lord before they go out on a long journey. In my case, my wife had paid a visit instead of me just before I left for America in March 2000.
If I were a 'big potato' (an important government leader) I would do the following: 1) Create a good and completely safe insurance law (for the aged people). I mean do not let the one-child parents worry about their future. 2) Let the public know the higher (important) government officials' personal properties. 3) Make some very strict policies to protect nature. For example, I mean to plant more and more trees. 4) Sell most of the state-owned factories and companies to the common people. (promote private ownership) 5) Think of a way to let people move to make a living in other countries where the birth-rate is very low.
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Updated：2006年05月14日