How are thoughtful Chinese citizens affected by the tightly controlled society of the People’s Republic of China? Li Ming (not his real name) is well-equipped to answer this question. He is a Chinese intellectual— now an emigre—and he has been in a position to observe most aspects of life under the Communists. He has come into contact with other intellectuals, with officials, and with the peasantry. The following interview took place shortly before the death of Mao Tse-tung; whether and how China will change after the transition period remains to be seen.
As possibly the first report of its kind to come out of China, this may need a few words to put it into perspective. The information on China that reaches America is mainly of four types. First, there are propaganda blasts, pro and con, which are far too ideological to be reliable sources. (Li Ming, I should note, is no ideologue, unless sorrow is an ideology.) Second, there are reports from uninformed visitors to China, who do not know the language. These tend to be very similar in tone and even in content to the reports of Westerners who visited China six hundred years ago: everything is orderly and clean, the people are smiling, etc. Third, there are reports from Chinese exiles who return to visit relatives. But these reports are circulated only by word of mouth, for the overseas Chinese fear reprisals against their relatives. Finally, there are reports from refugees to Hong Kong. These are probably the most accurate source; but few of the refugees have been intellectuals and none have been willing to speak frankly of their experiences for publication.
Comments