NYT Interviews 徐军

choi

(1) in Chinese:
储百亮, 作家徐军谈文革：对文革保持沉默更多是自愿的. 纽约时报中文网, Apr 5, 2016.
http://cn.nytimes.com/china/20160405/c05chinaeberlein/

(2) in English:
Chris Buckley, Q and A: Xujun Eberlein on the Legacy of the Cultural Revolution. New York Times, Apr 4, 2016 (blog)
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/0 ... ution-eberlein.html

Quote:

"Xujun Eberlein, a writer who grew up in Chongqing and is now based in Boston, is the author of 'Apologies Forthcoming,' a [2008] collection of stories about the Cultural Revolution. In an interview, Ms Eberlein, who is working on a memoir, reflected on how that time affected her and her family.

"I'm working on a memoir, and the Cultural Revolution is part of it. One thing I want to say is that my memoir will not be victim literature. We were all participants at the time, whether one admits or denies it.

"Another overlooked factor is the lingering damage of the great famine from 1959 to 1962. Sichuan, which included Chongqing then, had the largest number of starvation deaths, estimated at one-seventh of the province’s population. Lots of anger during the Cultural Revolution came from that painful history, and suddenly the causes became clear as the Red Guards dug up undisclosed party documents and put them on big-character posters and fliers.  Because there was no school to go to, I spent lots of time on the streets reading those things. Once, I saw a flier glued to a wall, with a bold red title: 'EXTRA GRAND GOOD NEWS! 特大喜讯 [WSJ translation, same as the next]' It said medical experts had scientifically proved that Chairman Mao would live to be 130 to 140 years old. A few moments later, this flier was covered by angry comments: 'Extra grand nonsense 特大废话! Venomous attack! Chairman Mao is immortal! Long live Chairman Mao! Long, long live Chairman Mao!'  But they also uncovered things we wouldn’t have known otherwise.

"I once did a little poll on a US [American] writers' website, asking what [American] people thought China's Red Guards were. The answers were all in the line of 'pretty much the same as the Hitler Youth.' At the other extreme, I've seen Chinese youngsters, high school and undergrad students newly arrived in the US to study, who simply refused to believe the crazy things that happened during the Cultural Revolution. Their typical argument was that, 'my parents would’ve told me about those things if they were true.'

"The silence on the Cultural Revolution has been more voluntary than enforced, and it is because the memory of the time is very painful to the victims and shameful to those who victimized. Adding to the emotional complexity is the fact that many people took turns in both roles — victims and victimizers. Parents don't pass their experiences of the time to children. * * * This is where the danger lies: Because the lesson has not been learned by the later generations, the disaster might be repeated in the future.

Note:
(a) "I witnessed my mother being perp-walked in a dunce cap by her students"
(i) The "perp" is short for "perpetrator."
(ii) perp-walk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perp_walk
(Within the United States the perp walk is most closely associated with New York City)

is an American term.

(b) "My big sister was a middle-school student, and she became a Red Guard in the “August 15” faction. In July 1968, she drowned [age 16] while commemorating [photo caption: 'emulating'] Mao's 1966 swim in the Yangtze."

(c) About Xujun Eberlein.
(i) "After she moved to the United States with her American husband [Bob Eberlein], earned her doctorate and raised her daughter, writing fell to the wayside."

Meghan B Kelly, Writer Aims to Bridge Cultural Gap Between US, China. Taunton, Mass: Taunton Daily Gazette. Sept 10, 2008.
(ii) Bob Eberlein. Consultant at Systems Innovation Practice
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-eberlein-b9875b34
("Greater Boston AreaManagement Consulting"/ Education MIT)

(d) Hitler Youth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Youth
(section 6 World War II)

(e) 重庆红卫兵墓故事|同学日记里的艾淑全之死. 澎湃新闻, Aug 7, 2014.
www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1260021_1

徐若丹 is the elder sister of 徐军.