Hu Jie's magnificent film, Looking for Lin Zhao's Soul, gives name and face to one of the million drops of blood shed during the Maoist period in China, 1949-1976. This is the first English translation of the commentary in the film. It is the work of Ye Weiyou, to whom Hu Jie and all of us express our gratitude.
-BH
(Part One)
Lin Zhao was born in December 1932 and killed in April 1968. She lived on her miserable land--Mainland China-- for just over 35 years. But her life was really great and her death was indeed glorious. This pretty girl's surname is Peng, but after joining the Red Revolution in 1950, she changed it to Lin for a determination--making a cleanbreak with her so-called counter-revolutionary family. Lin Zhao's father, Mr.Peng, having studied politics and economics in Britain,was chosen Provincial Head as a result of number one in a nation-wide examination. But after 1949, he was soon held in control for his service to Guomindang (The National Party organized by Sun Zhongshan and then by Jiang Jieshi) who was defeated by Mao and escaped to Taiwan )In the Movement to Suppress Counter-Revolu-tionaries from 1950-1952,Peng was shut in prison.Her mother Ms.Xu first joined the CPC but then withdrew from itand joined guomindang.In the Anti-Japanese War,patriotic Xu stayed in prison with her little daughter Lin Zhao for a period.For this, she had much better fortune and was selected as a local committee member of CPPCC of Suzhou (China People's Political Consultation Conference)Lin Zhao was a sharp-mouthed girl,when having truth in herpart,she would not give up,persisting in arguing with the wrongside till they admitted their mistakes.In 1950,a student of two year-News College,Lin Zhao joined the revolutionary work:land reform movement.In the work team,when finding some cadre's(mostly communists) bad behavior,she would point out and give criticism,i.e.quite a few of them deserted their virtual country wives for a new one,Lin openly compared them to the heartless Chen Shimei in the play
( Part Two )
In 1949 Lin Zhao firmly rejected her mother's plan for her togo to U.S.for further studies,and soon she even separated withher family for revolutionary work.Lin's good classmate in thetwo-year college of journalism Ms Ni said that at that time Lin adored Mao so much,simply taking him as her father.In the film Ni read some words from two letters Lin sent to her:
"I know he(Mao)is now in Beijing or Moscow,I am so far from him and miss him...I find my feelings toward my family is not as deep as before..."
" I used to think my father was not reactionary,but with classmates' help,I now see that working for Guomindang itself is really reactionary.I must try to reform my thoughts to live up to the Party's request....."
In 1954 Lin Zhao entered Beijing University,Dept.of Chinese with an excellent grade in the exams.She is said to be very smart,warm,considerate and good at dressing,just looking like the pretty and delicate girl Lin Daiyu,a main character in thefamous classic novel
(Part Three)
In 1956, not knowing Mao's scheme---luring snakes out of holes, hot-blooded students and teachers began to put up big-character posters giving sincere butmild criticism and opinions to the school leaders or to the Party. More andmore posters appeared on the campus and according to the posters, spontaneousdebates started. One poster with the title "It Is Time",attacking the then dead political atmosphere in school and in society-whole nation was of onevoice---attracted many readers. At once, around that poster appeared quite alot, for and against. Zhang Yuanxun, one of the writers of that powerful posterbegan to get severe criticism from the left students who questioned the articles writers "What time is it?" "Is it the time for you right students to attack our great Party?! No Way!" But more articles supported that poster,more and more, hotter and hotter debates going on. One night, Zhang Yuanxun,the main writer of that poster was dragged to theplayground ,strongly criticized by a group of left students with slanders andpersonal attack. At this, Lin Zhao jumped onto a table used as a stage,started her criticism to the left students:
"For what are you doing this way? Is this a debate or a public accusation meeting? If it an accusation, no need, Zhang is not an enemy. We need reason, need peaceful talk and discussion...."
With her sweet mezzo-soprano voice, speaking common Chinese with southern accent her powerful beautiful speech immediately silenced the crowd. But suddenly, a rude voice sounded:
"Who are you?!?? Who are you ?! What right have you got todemand me that way?! But I can tell you, my name is Lin Zhao. Since I have come here, now I do not care whether the knife is on my mouth or on neck!..."
Look, the words showed Lin Zhao's spirit.As expected, Lin Zhao and quite many patriotic and brave students were labeled rightists. All of them were not allowed to speak each other openly and the non-rightist ones were also warned from talking with the rightist students. One morning after that, Shen Zeyi,also a right student, who was in love with Lin inheart,found Lin having simple breakfast at a small restaurant near the school.They both glanced at each other without any words. When asked how Lin lookedthen, Shen said that in a white blouse, pale-faced, she looked so holy, evenholier than before.In 1958, after graduation, Lin was given a special care by the schoolauthority: unlike many other rightist graduates, she was not sent to the remotethought-reform-through-labor farms, but assigned to People?s University,working in the reference room. In this school, Lin met with another rightistboy-student named Gan Cui assigned there from another college. They worked inthe same office. Almost every day a male and female walking together to and frothe dinning hall made people around suspect their relationship: in love.Soon,they were warned by the authority that rightists should not have thatrelationship. Gan said actually they were not at all in love then, but the twostrong-personality young people just had a spirit to fight back."Well, you donot allow us to be in love. We must show we are!?"
So they pretended to walk holding their hands to let people see! Nowadays it is so common and evenbravier that that, but in those days it was really a daring action! Not longthe false play became true: they wrote an application to the authority for acertificate to marry. Of course, it was rejected with the same reason:rightists are not permitted to get married! During the time they worked together Christian Lin led boy Gan to know God by taking him to a churchregularly on Sunday and telling him Bible stories. With their application formarriage turned down,Gan was soon sent to a thought-reform-through-labor farmin Xinjiang(northwest) and there he had endured hell-like days for 20 years! The year of 1981 was a relatively good time for putting right all thepolitically wrong cases in the past decades and over 90% of rightists regainedtheir reputation, though did not get back the cut salary in the past overtwenty years. The salary for college graduates from 1950s till 70s was all 54or 46 yuan, depending on the length of time in higher learning institution:5years 54,while 4 years 46. But all the rightist graduates?were given only 18yuan a month to keep soul and body together as a punishment till the label wasremoved by the above. Whether the label could be removed after a few years of?thought reform? depended on their behavior: doing labor well, making one afteranother sincere self-criticism, etc and of course, mostly depended on theirrelationship with the direct boss!Taking advantage of the good situation of rehabilitation in 1981, Chen Weisi,areporter in the magazine named Democracy & Law in Shanghai got the permissionand went to Tilanqiao Jail(in Shanghai) for reading files on Lin Zhao. He thenwrote an article