Gang of One: Memoirs of a Red Guard (American Lives)

296 Pages·2004·1.01 MB·English

Gang of One
American Lives Series editor : tobias wolff
Gang of One
Memoirs of a Red Guard
fan shen
University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London
䉷  by Fan Shen
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the
United States of
America
Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-
Publication Data
Shen, Fan, –
Gang of one :
memoirs of a Red
Guard / Fan Shen. p.
cm. – (American
lives) isbn --
- (hardcover :
alk. paper)
. Shen, Fan, –
. China – History –
Cultural Revolution,
–.
. China – Social life
and customs – –
. China – Biography.
. Chinese Americans
– Biography.
I. Title. II. Series.
ct.s a 
.⬘ – dc

This is what life is made of:
Fire
Earth
Metal
Wood
&
Water.
Lao-tzu (th century bc)
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
part one: fire
. ‘‘Burn the Old World!’’ 
. ‘‘Long Live the Red Terror!’’ 
. ‘‘That’s My Piano!’’ 
. The Great Wall Fighting Team 
. ‘‘Revolution Means Chopping Life’’ 
. The Forbidden Books 
. The Great Leader Meets the
Red Guards 
part two: earth
. The Journey West 
. The Beijing Kids 
. ‘‘Be a Revolutionary Peasant!’’ 
. The Great Mountain Flood 
. The Barefoot Doctor 
. Moon Face 
. Smoking Devil’s Wedding 
. The Death of Uncle Cricket 
part three: metal
. A Mouse Wants to Fly to the Sky 
. Li Ling 
. ‘‘Another Jumped Last Night’’ 
. The Year with Two Augusts 
. ‘‘The Goal: Join the Party’’ 
. ‘‘Confession Is Death!’’ 
. The Lucky Eleven 
part four: wood
. The Heavenly White Pagoda 
. ‘‘Two Uncles Are Here to See You’’ 
. ‘‘Clever Zhao’s Missing!’’ 
. The Nun 
. The Monster of Ambition 
. The Last Battle in College 
part five: water
. ‘‘Forget It!’’ 
. Watery Stool, No Bacteria? 
. A Stinking Stone from the
Outhouse 
. ‘‘You Have Launched a Satellite!’’ 
. ‘‘I’m the Only One Who Reads
Your Letters’’ 
. The Campaign for a Passport 
. ‘‘Savor It’’ 
. Don’t Laugh Yet! 
Preface
I am a first-generation immigrant and a proud American. I came to
America in January  as a graduate student. Like most immigrants to
America, I brought with me little money ($ to be exact) but a big am-
bitious heart. In the next six years, I studied very hard, supporting myself
with a scholarship and odd jobs at a restaurant and a bookstore. To com-
plement my formal schooling, I also took every opportunity to visit vari-
ous institutions that make up the vital parts of American society, in or-
der to study and understand the country that I admired. I sat through
church services and court trials, visited farms and state penitentiaries,
toured TV stations and newspapers offices, and volunteered in retire-
ment centers.
I received my master’s degree in a year and a half and my Ph.D. in five
years. Today, I have a happy family life and I teach as a professor at a
beautiful college in southern Minnesota. Happy as I am, I still often
wake up in the middle of the night and find myself reliving my tor-
mented past, a life full of struggle and despair, and yet, a life that sharp-
ened my determination to succeed and made me appreciate the opportu-
nities in the land of the free.
It took me a long time to make up my mind about whether to write this
book and to divulge the secrets that I had harbored in my heart for many
years. The decision was agonizing because the book will almost certainly
upset my parents; it may even cause them to regret that they had ever
given birth to me. Having been revolutionaries all their lives, they will be
angry and hurt because I have committed the ultimate crime as a revolu-
tionary: I have rebelled against the Great Leader, Chairman Mao, and
have become an anti-revolutionary despite their lifelong teachings.
Without a doubt, my ‘‘treachery’’ will be unbearably painful and dis-
appointing to my parents, since they had every reason to believe that I
would grow up to be a perfect revolutionary, having been born and
brought up in a family full of dedicated revolutionaries. Both my grand