The Times interviewed people in China about their lives during key moments in the country’s communist history. Here are some of their experiences:
anniversary of the People’s Republic of China on Tuesday will mark a triumphal moment for the nation’s ruling Communist Party, as it surpasses the defunct Soviet Union’s 69-year existence and rivals U.S. global dominance.
Marchers raise their fists in a welcoming salute for the Chinese Communist forces entering Beijing on May 2, 1949. Behind them are portraits of Chinese Communist leaders including Mao Tse-tung, center.1949-1960s: The theme of Mao’s China was constant struggle and radical revolution to achieve a Communist utopia. It was a period when ideology overrode reality, resulting in mass deaths.
He became an apprentice chef at Beijing International Hotel. He spent four years in the air force, where he was deployed in the administration office because of his skills on the abacus. His wife, Zhang Honglan, also benefited from her lightning-fast abacus skills, working in the accounting department of one of China’s largest state owned companies, Capital Steel.
Yu, 72, said only people who don’t understand the Communist Party complain. The arc of history has led him from deprivation to plenty. One recent lunchtime he and his wife sat down to stir-fried chicken and green beans, fried chicken, braised beef, rice and stir-fried potatoes. Youth militias called Red Guards roamed the country, smashing temples, museums and schools, and beating teachers, landowners and other authority figures. There were brutal daily public “struggle” sessions and mass killings.Li’s father was denounced and sent with his family to perform manual labor in rural Hebei province. Later, Li joined the army as an artist. He painted posters criticizing Confucius, imperialism, capitalism and whichever party leaders suddenly fell into Mao’s disfavor.
The guns had started firing in early June 1989, but Han Dongfang vowed he would not leave Tiananmen Square. Pro-democracy protesters swarm atop a government armored vehicle near Chang'an Boulevard in Beijing on June 4, 1989, as violence escalated between demonstrators and Chinese troops, leaving hundreds dead overnight.
Zhou Guangtao with daughter Tami Xiang, who was born despite being targeted by China's one-child policy. Zhou and her husband managed to bribe a relative who worked there. They paid for a doctor to induce a premature birth instead of using the toxic abortion injection. “They only talk about the good side of China, not the dark side. But it’s the reality,” she said. “My mother was a very strong woman. All she wanted was to get this baby to come out alive.”“Development is the only hard truth,” Deng Xiaoping famously said in 1992 on a tour of special economic zones in southern China, meant to revive business after the Tiananmen Square killings.
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