Wake up（271）

 

Chapter 48

 

271

 

Hong Wenxuan and Shen Zhirui strolled along the beautiful Victoria Harbour, with the sea breeze blowing, but they could not be intoxicated by the bright lights on both sides of Victoria Harbour. Their exchanges are full of worries about the future of the country and the nation. They don't know where the future of China will go?

Perhaps nothing represents Hong Kong more than the skyline of Victoria Harbour. This deep-water port, located south of Kowloon and north of Hong Kong Island, can be said to have led the transformation of Hong Kong from a small fishing village in the past to an international metropolis today. Today, Victoria Harbor is not only still a treasure of Hong Kong people, but also a popular landmark for many tourists to take pictures.

Hong Wenxuan and Shen Zhirui strolled along the beautiful Victoria Harbour, facing the world-renowned skyline, no matter how many times you look at it, you will be amazed. There are many skyscrapers, surrounded by green hills, azure blue harbor, and ships that frequently shuttle through it, etc., forming a magnificent and beautiful picture.

The two old professors strolled from the Star Ferry Terminal to the east of Tsim Sha Tsui, passing by the former Kowloon-Canton Railway Clock Tower, the Avenue of Stars, the Hong Kong Cultural Center and the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade and many other attractions. Although it is night at this time, you can see the charming scene of bright lights. Looking across from the waterfront of Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon, this is the most classic location.

Enjoy the night view of Victoria Harbor from a gorgeous angle. After nightfall, Victoria Harbor is transformed into brightly lit make-up, and the large-scale light and music show "A Symphony of Lights" further transforms Victoria Harbor into a gorgeous party show. At 8 o'clock every night, many landmark buildings on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon will release flashing searchlights, lasers and other lights and LED screen patterns with the sound symphony, performing a feast of sound and light, which is amazing.

When Hong Wenxuan and Shen Zhirui left the Victoria Harbour, they hailed a taxi from Tsim Sha Tsui.

The taxi driver turned out to be a 70-year-old man. The old driver, surnamed Wang, is very enthusiastic and talkative.

The old driver introduced the scenery of Victoria Harbor to the two old professors while driving. Board the century-old traditional Star Ferry, and in just 10 minutes, you can completely indulge in the beautiful harbor scenery. For more than a century, the Star Ferry has been carrying Hong Kong citizens to and from Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. Although there are many subsea tunnels and subways, many citizens still love to take the ferry to and from Victoria Harbor every day. Located on the top of the newly expanded five-story building of the Ocean Terminal in Harbor City, there is a "Maritime Viewpoint" viewing platform, surrounded by the sea on three sides, with a 270-degree viewing angle. Located on the observation deck on the 100th floor of the International Commerce Center, the tallest building in Hong Kong, you can enjoy a 360° panoramic view of Hong Kong's magnificent skyline, overlooking Hong Kong and the Kowloon Peninsula.

The destination of Hong Wenxuan and Shen Zhirui is the Golden Bauhinia Square in Wanchai. The large-scale sculpture of "Bauhinia in full bloom" standing on the square is an important landmark for the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Every morning from 7:50 to 8:03, police officers in uniform will host a flag-raising ceremony in the square.

The old driver asked, "Are you from the Mainland?"

Hong Wenxuan said: "I immigrated to Hong Kong before the return of Hong Kong. My friend Mr. Shen came to Hong Kong for the first time." Hong Wenxuan asked the old driver: "You are the same age as us, and you are old people. Why do you still drive a taxi? car?"

The old driver smiled: "I also immigrated to Hong Kong before the reunification. I worked as a teacher in a school in Hong Kong for a while. After I retired, I had nothing to do, so I started working as a taxi driver. There is no age limit for taxi drivers in Hong Kong. I drive every day. I can get in touch with more Hong Kong people, and I usually like to take some street view photos.”

Shen Zhirui: "After you settled in Hong Kong, have you been to the Mainland?"

The old driver smiled bitterly and said: "I have been there twice, one time to take the whole family to Hong Kong, and the other time to visit a Chinese teacher at my alma mater. The teacher's surname was Mei. Didn’t go to the mainland either.”

The old driver talked about "cleaning up the class ranks" during the Cultural Revolution.

The old driver said all the way:

In September 1964, I passed the entrance examination and entered junior high school. Unexpectedly, two years later, in June 1966, the "Cultural Revolution of the Great Revolution" broke out, and the "suspension of classes to cause a revolution" left many students with no books to read. In October 1967, when the "resumption of classes caused a revolution", my wish to resume classes was not realized. I also witnessed the "Three Loyalties" and other tragedies such as god-making farce and "cleaning up the class ranks". Looking back at those years, one of the most profound feelings is that the "700 million people can only have one thought" was billed as "the greatest cultural revolution in history".

I can never forget Teacher Wang who teaches physical education. He is the head of the school's physical education teaching and research team. He is over half a century old, already bald and in good spirits. He often wears a blue sportswear and a pair of white sneakers. Smiling, amiable, the students respect him very much. However, who would have expected that he would die unexpectedly in the "clearing team"!

When the Cultural Revolution broke out and the school was closed, I rarely saw Mr. Wang. Later, I heard that in May 1968, after the large-scale "clearing team" movement started, Teacher Wang suffered a tragic misfortune. The "School Revolutionary Association Materials Group" and "School Revolutionary Association Organization Group" put on the three hats of "KMT remnants, old counter-revolutionaries, and reactionary military officers" on the school's "Great Criticism Column"! Mr. Wang was "isolated and reviewed" by the school reform committee, and was detained in a single isolation room set up by the school. When Mr. Wang learned of this, he was very angry, and finally embarked on the road of fighting with death. It was July 3, 1968. At 6:30 in the morning, he pretended to defecate, climbed out of the gap in the toilet, climbed to the fourth floor of the East Building, and committed suicide by jumping off the building.

I always remember that I arrived at school at around 7:30 as usual that day, and when I walked into the school gate, I heard that something had happened. On the north side of the school gate on Songshan Road is a bicycle shed, which is not allowed to enter at this time, but I heard that there is a corpse on the right side of the gate of the shed, which is covered with waste paper. Immediately I arrived at the scene of the incident. It was the north patio of the East Building of the school, and there were many onlookers, who crowded shoulder to shoulder and saw the blood in the corner of the wall on the ground, which had not been washed away....

Just two days after Mr. Wang committed suicide, the "Great Criticism Column" posted a new issue, which continued to use the same slogan: "Implement Chairman Mao's latest instructions, further mobilize the masses, unite all revolutionary forces, and firmly Attack a handful of class enemies!"

My homeroom teacher, Mrs. Mei, is an ordinary teacher with no official position. He was also denounced for "communicating with foreign countries" because his parents are both from Hong Kong. At that time, in addition to continuing to criticize "Chinese Khrushchev", "the largest capitalist roader" and "the other largest capitalist roader", China added verbal criticism of the Kuomintang remnants and so on. I remember very clearly that with the help of the People's Liberation Army, the school held a large number of Mao Zedong Thought study classes, paid close attention to class struggle, and carried out in-depth revolutionary criticism. In the editorial of two newspapers and one issue on May 1st, "Advance by Victory - Celebrating the "May 1st" International Labor Day", there is such a statement: "To completely defeat its enemies, the proletariat must be good at uniting its own class ranks and must Be good at uniting and winning over allied armies, strengthen the worker-peasant alliance, and unite the overwhelming majority of the people.... At all times, we must distinguish between contradictions between the enemy and ourselves and contradictions among the people, between the broad masses and the very few bad guys who have mixed into them, and between the principal contradiction and the secondary one. To contradict, unite against the enemy, and always target a handful of class enemies.”

After the passage of time, over the years, those who have experienced the Cultural Revolution will never forget the phrase "cleaning up the class ranks", while the phrase "uniting one's own class ranks" has become unfamiliar to the next generation.

The old driver said to the two old professors: I believe you will remember that the most popular saying at that time was to unite all revolutionary forces to fight against the enemy; to launch a fierce attack on class enemies; , to win the overall victory of the Cultural Revolution.... There are also sayings such as "actively attacking the enemy", "grasp class struggle, and purify the revolutionary ranks". The "latest instructions" at that time announced that the Cultural Revolution had targeted "a small group of class enemies who had infiltrated the masses" and was no longer limited to "overthrowing the capitalist roaders." And "uniting one's own class ranks" is only a precursor to "cleaning up the class ranks".

Hong Wenxuan said: I remember that in "Mao Zedong's Manuscripts Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China", in addition to the "latest instructions" on April 10, 1968, his other instructions on "cleaning up the ranks" were the telegram "Beijing Xinhua Printing Factory Military Management Experience in Mobilizing the Masses to Struggle Against the Enemy".

Shen Zhirui said: Mr. Hong is right. This telegram published on May 12, 1968 by the Xinhua News Agency in the special internal reference issue "Cultural Revolution Trends" stated that the Beijing Xinhua Printing Factory Military Control Committee guided the masses to correctly handle two types of Contradictions of different natures, unite the majority, severely attack and isolate a small group of class enemies, and achieved stability, accuracy, and ruthlessness. The main experience introduced by Xinhua Printing Factory is: since the founding of the People’s Republic of China 18 years ago, the class struggle in this factory has been extremely sharp and fierce. The specific method is: for the broad revolutionary masses, we must firmly rely on them, and we must also be good at guiding them; we must strictly demand those who have made serious mistakes, and we must also pay attention to closing them down; It is also necessary to divide and disintegrate, and point out the way out.

Shen Zhirui thought for a while and then said: Yao Wenyuan, who was a member of the Cultural Revolution Group of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China at the time, submitted the material "The Experience of the Military Control Committee of Beijing Xinhua Printing Factory to Mobilize the Masses to Struggle Against the Enemy" in the report submitted to Mao Zedong on May 13. "This piece summarizes some of the policy issues in the cleanup team," it wrote.

On May 19, Mao Zedong gave instructions on "The Experience of the Military Control Committee of Beijing Xinhua Printing Factory in Mobilizing the Masses to Struggle Against the Enemy".

The comment said: "It is recommended that this article be distributed nationwide. First print a few copies and distribute them to relevant comrades, and then read it out at the meeting, make revisions, and then issue comments. Among the similar materials I have seen, this article is the best written of."

On May 25, 1968, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Cultural Revolution forwarded this experience material to the whole country, requesting that it be implemented as a reference. The "Notice" requires all localities to learn from the experience of Xinhua Printing Factory in the struggle against the enemy, and pay attention to summarizing the experience of the region. In the work of cleaning up the class ranks of teachers and staff in factories, mines, government agencies, and cultural and educational systems, conduct in-depth and meticulous investigation and research work, distinguish between two types of contradictions of different natures, and strike a small group of class enemies steadily and ruthlessly.

Since then, campaigns to "clean up class ranks" have been carried out across the country. In the movement to clean up the class ranks, various localities adopted the method of military control committees and garrisoned workers’ propaganda teams to deal with landlords, rich, counter-revolutionaries, bad actors, rightists, spies, and traitors who were picked out in various names and in various ways during the Cultural Revolution. , capitalist roaders, rightists who slipped through the net, and the "remnants" of the Kuomintang, conducted a major investigation.

Hong Wenxuan said: If I remember correctly, on September 28, 1979, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China approved the report of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and the State Publishing Bureau on completely rehabilitating the issue of Beijing Xinhua Printing Factory, pointing out that the "Gang of Four" concocted the "Gang of Four" in Beijing Xinhua Printing Factory in 1968. The false experience document should be denied; all the slanderous and false statements imposed on the cadres of the factory should be overthrown; all the unjust, false and wrong cases caused should be vindicated.

Driver Wang drove the car and said to the two professors: After I settled down in Hong Kong, I heard that Teacher Mei, the class teacher, was seriously ill, so I went to Shanghai to visit him. He told me again about "cleaning up the ranks". He said that among the more than 2,000 counties that were impacted at that time, on average, about 100 people died in each county due to this activity. In some counties, more than 200 people died. For example, in Chuansha County, Shanghai, 5,063 people were ganged up in this activity, 236 of whom died; in Baoshan County, 1,702 people were ganged up, of which 334 died.

The last words Teacher Mei said to me: "Hong Kong has returned to the mainland, you don't have to return to the mainland." At that time, I didn't understand what Teacher Mei meant. After the Umbrella Movement and the anti-extradition parade in Hong Kong, I finally understood what Teacher Mei told me.

Hong Wenxuan and Shen Zhirui looked at each other and fell silent.