Out of the Gobi

by Weijian Shan

  A slim, bare-chested, dark-skinned man who looked to be in his late forties or early fifties approached me. As I rolled down the window I saw his face chiseled by weather although his chest and arms were muscled. He looked like any other local peasant. But barely had he started to speak when I recognized him. He was the boy who was jailed for the crime of “lying on top for a moment.”

  “Er Gou!” I cried.

  He tensed up. A stranger calling him by his nickname, “Second Dog,” must have shocked, indeed frightened him. I hurriedly told him my name. He relaxed and apologized for not immediately recognizing me. I would not have expected him to remember me; we were never close. He, of course, became notorious after his arrest and public sentencing.

  I couldn’t believe that, 30 years later, in the middle of a desert where it was hard to find a soul for miles, I had come across not just an old-timer I had known but also none other than Er Gou. Both of us were incredulous at this almost-impossible coincidence. I wanted to know what had happened to him after all these years. I was sure his curiosity about me was equally strong. He invited me to his home. I followed his motorcycle as he led the way.

  Er Gou lived in a nice-looking whitewashed concrete house near Lake Wuliangsu. But inside, his home was a mess. There were dirty dishes in his bedroom and watermelon skins piled up high on the desk next to his bed.

  We sat down and he told me his story.

  After being sentenced, Er Gou served four years in jail. By the time he was released, around 1978, the Construction Army Corps had been disbanded and all the educated youths had returned to the cities they had come from. He went back to Beijing as well. But because of his criminal record, nobody would give him a job. He just stayed with his parents, loafing around without much to do.

  In 1979, Deng Xiaoping, who had returned to power the previous year, launched a campaign to “severely crack down on crimes.” Er Gou was picked up by the police for no other reason than his prior criminal record and sent to a forced-labor camp in Tacheng, in Xinjiang Province. Tacheng was on the very western edge of China, right on the border with Kazakhstan. The Chinese government had been exiling criminals there since the Qing dynasty, because it was farthest from the civilized center than anywhere else in the country.

  Er Gou was in that labor camp for five years. But he did not entirely waste his time there. By the end of it, he received a college degree through correspondence courses.

  But even a college degree couldn’t help Er Gou find a job back in Beijing upon his release, because of his prior record. Although he had always denied the charges, his conviction three decades earlier had condemned him to a life in and out of jail, forced labor, and eventually back to the Gobi. He married a local woman and had a daughter. His wife and daughter were now in Beijing, living with his parents, because, I think, the daughter could get a much better education there. I did not think his wife and daughter would want to return to the Gobi. So he lived by himself.

  Even though he and I now lived in completely different worlds—and he was unlikely to be able to imagine the world in which I now lived—I felt no distance between us as we reminisced about the old times. He wanted me to stay for dinner, to eat fish from the lake, but I told him I had to go back to Batou before dark because there were people waiting for me there. He offered to take me back to our old “battlefields,” where we had spent winters cutting reeds on the lake.

  He first took me to the village of Nanchang, where we had spent a couple of winters. At one time, I stayed in the home of a local peasant, but I could find no traces of his house. The living quarters for our platoon were gone but the row of mud-brick shacks for the second platoon and the sixth platoon were still there, although crumbling.

  I could drive the SUV no further because the trail became too narrow and full of potholes. I left the SUV with the driver and hopped onto the back of his motorcycle. Er Gou negotiated his way slowly forward until we came upon a higher ground on which stood the ruins of a few rows of old mud huts. “This is Fanshengedan,” he told me. Fanshengedan was the cluster of mud huts where we had lived in the winter of 1971–1972 while cutting reeds. There was nothing recognizable, absolutely nothing. Standing there and looking out, I saw sand dunes all around us, and waves of reeds in the distance.

  All was gone, except the crumbling ruins, a fading but potent reminder of what this place meant to my life and to the lives of so many friends.

  Index

  A

  Academy of Sciences (China), 11

  Acupuncture, 194, 197–201, 206–207

  Agnew, Spiro, 306

  Agricultural production, 123–135 Army Corps assignments and, 88–92

  Army Corps costs and, 238–247

  China’s production vs. US (1960s–1970s), 123–124, 232

  Gobi conditions for, 123–125

  grain/wheat planting and harvest, 111–112, 124–135, 160

  Great Famine and, 10–19, 26–27

  insecticides used for, 129–130

  People’s Commune and, 22, 93–94

  potato harvest, 94–108

  in Shandong Province, 69–71

  tools used for, 128, 132–135

  Air-raid shelters, construction of, 112–113, 119–121

  Akerlof, George, 384–385, 411

  Andrews, Andy, 346–350, 352, 381

  Anti-Japanese War history of, 3–5, 52, 361–364, 388

  “uprising of two airlines,” 249–250

  Anti-Rightist Movement, 35–37

  Asia Foundation, 345–378 Calhoun family and, 362

  Shan’s application for PhD program and help from, 381

  Shan’s arrival in US for visiting scholar program, 346–348

  Shan’s PhD program and help from, 388, 390, 395

  Shan’s selection for, 342–344

  travel to New York City and Washington, D.C. with, 369–374

  USF academics and tuition issues, 350–354, 359–369, 374

  USF housing and students, 348–350, 354–355, 357–359, 363–364

  US immigration of Shan family and, 418–422

  Autumn Harvest Uprising, 3, 63

  Aviation (magazine), 256–257

  B

  Bai Chongxi, 263

  Barefoot doctors, 185–212 ailments treated by, 201–211, 229–230, 252–253

  Chinese medicine vs. Western medicine, 190

  guasha (folk remedies) by, 229–230, 253

  Mao’s call for, 186

  need for rural medical care, 185–186

  training of, 186–196

  work of, 196–212

  Barefoot Doctor’s Manual, 206

  Batou medical training in, 189–196

  Shan’s visit to (2005), 438–439

  Beijing Beihai Park, 30–32, 51–52

  first subway line of, 72–73, 113

  housing conditions (1960s), 17–19

  Hu (vice mayor) and The Firing of Hai Rui, 37–39, 53–54

  No. 13 Girls Middle School, 44, 71

  Peng Zhen as mayor of, as class enemy, 44

  pollution in, 314

  Qincheng Prison, 74–75

  Quarter of Foreign Legations (neighborhood), 19

  rationing (1970s), 314–315

  Tiananmen Square, April 5th (1976) Movement, 317–325

  Tiananmen Square uprising (1989), 422–426, 433

  Wangfujing (shopping district), 42–44, 314–315

  wrestling by boys from, 106

  Wu as mayor of, 322

  See also Cultural Revolution

  Beijing Factory of Heavy Machinery, 320

  Beijing Institute of Foreign Trade (BIFT) academics and organization of, 310–313, 316–317

  admission interview and exam for, 282–286

  April 5th Movement and, 323–324

  Calhoun family and, 362

  during earthquake (1976), 325–327

  English language study at, 300, 310–312, 317, 323, 329, 333–3
35

  news of Mao’s death at, 327

  physical description of, 308–309, 312–313

  political study sessions at, 316

  Shan on faculty of, 335–336, 341–342, 380–381, 394

  Shan’s acceptance to, 299–303

  Shan’s application to US PhD programs, 377–378

  Shan’s degree program in US and, 365–366 (See also Asia Foundation; University of San Francisco)

  Shi’s (Bin) job at, 389

  students’ official dossiers and, 310

  Beijing International Club, 338

  Beijing Military Regional Command, 276–277

  Berlin Wall, German reunification and, 428–432

  Boxer Rebellion, 2–3, 153, 282

  Brady, James, 366

  Bretton Woods conference (1944), 405

  Brickmaking, 213–236 ancient methods for, 224

  carts used for, 222–223

  clay preparation for, 218–220

  division of work for, 220–222

  fatigue from, 223–224

  housing as purpose of, 215, 235–236

  kiln used for, 232–235, 441

  machine plans for, 224–232

  mold process of, 216–218

  Brzezinski, Zbigniew, 335–336

  Bush, George H. W., 314, 421

  C

  Cai (teacher), 41

  Calhoun, Connie, 361–362, 374, 396

  Calhoun, Sandy, 361–362, 374–375, 397

  Callahan, Father, 367

  Cao Cao (pig), 260–262

  Capitalism private property concept, 370, 376

  US college tuition and, 351–353, 364–365, 374

  Carter, Jimmy, 332, 335–336, 345, 356, 360, 395

  Cassou, April academic roles of, 350–351, 360, 366–367

  Cassou-Shan Scholarship (USF), 368–369

  as Shan’s benefactor and host, 355–356, 364–365, 367–368, 370–372

  Cassou, Phil, 355–356, 364–365, 367–372

  Cattle stables, 46

  CBS, 424

  Central Air Transport Corporation (CATC), 249–250

  Charlie (law student), 354, 357, 363

  Chen Boda, 138

  Chen Fengqin, 150–151

  Chen Jiamin, 56

  Chen Junda, 358

  Chen Liangyu, 433

  Chen Min, 322, 325, 327, 329

  Chen Yi, 165

  Chen Yizhou, 357–358

  Chen Zaidao, 78

  Chen Zhuolin, 249–250

  Cheng Yulin, 79, 83

  Chiang Kai-shek, 3–4, 5–6, 362

  China Anti-Japanese War, 3–5, 52, 249–250, 361–364, 388

  Han Dynasty, 281–282

  Ming Dynasty, 37

  Qin dynasty, 321

  Qing Dynasty, 2–3, 19, 52, 379

  Qingming Day (April 5, 1976), 320, 322

  rationing in (1960s), 18

  Revolution (1911) and Republic of China formation, 3, 19, 52, 282

  See also People’s Republic of China

  China Economic Review, 426–427

  China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC), 249–250

  China Unicom, 437–438

  Chinese Economists Society, 426

  Chinese Soviet Republic (Jiangxi Soviet), Ruijin as capital of, 59

  Chi Qun, 317–318

  Chow, Gregory, 426–427

  Christian Science Monitor (United States), 240

  Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), 250–251, 255–256, 264, 266

  Cixi (dowager empress), 153

  College entrance (China), 281–303 colleges reopened in China (1974–1975), 282–286, 305–313, 316–319, 326–327

  examination system eliminated/reinstated, 40, 331, 333, 365

  Mao’s views on intellectualism, 281–282

  physical checkup and requirements for, 296–298

  selection process and Shan’s acceptance, 294–303

  selection process and Shan’s initial rejection, 287–294

  Communism bourgeois shunned by, 46–47

  China-Soviet Union relations and Great Leap Forward plans and, 10–11

  German reunification, 427–432

  Great Leap Forward plans and, 8, 257–259

  Lenin and, 159–160, 175, 182–183

  Marxism and, 8, 12, 36–37, 159

  McCarthyism and, 6

  People’s Commune, 22, 93–94

  “people’s ownership,” 98–99

  proletariat valued by, 50–51

  socialist theory and, 159–161

  See also People’s Republic of China; Soviet Union

  Communist Party (China) Central Committee of, 53–54, 237–238

  Communist Youth League, 48, 269, 272, 274, 291

  Company Branch Committee, 188

  on gender equality, 258

  Hua’s role in, 329

  Mao as chairman of, 19

  ongoing war with Nationalists, 57

  People’s Republic of China founding and, 3–4, 5–6, 305

  Red Army, 48, 59, 63–65, 268, 305

  self-rectification campaign and Anti-Rightist Campaign, 35–37

  Communist Youth League, 48–49

  Confucianism, 267–268

  “Coordination Conference for the Great Leap Forward to Eradicate the Four Pests,” 10

  Countryside movement, 77–92 arrival and living conditions, 83–92

  departure and assignments of youth, 79–83

  events leading to, 77–79

  May 7th Cadre Schools and, 81, 245

  promises made to youth for, 82

  “re-education” mission of, 80, 107

  Covitz, Carl, 418–419

  Cowan, Glenn, 213–214

  Cuban Missile Crisis, 23

  Cui Dehui, 291

  Cui Hua (pseudonym), 269–272

  Cui Xianchao Army Corps entertainment and, 174, 179–181

  health of, 201–202

  on potato-digging expedition, 97–98, 100, 105–108

  on Shan’s selection as barefoot doctor, 188

  wheat planting by, 129

  Yihe Canal construction and, 165–167

  Cultural Revolution April 5th (1976) Movement and, 317–325

  Beijing rationing (1970s) and, 314–315

  books banned and destroyed, 46–47

  colleges and universities reopened (1970s) (See College entrance (China))

  Deng’s return to power, 305–306, 315–325

  earthquake (1976) and, 325–327

  Eight Model Plays, 174, 175

  The Firing of Hai Rui (opera) and, 37–39, 53

  “Four Olds” banned by, 42–43, 47, 55

  Gang of Four and, 238, 315, 320–321, 328–329, 346

  Great Networking movement of, 55–65

  inception of, 37, 53–54

  Leading Group, 77–79, 174

  Lin and, 285

  Mao’s death and, 327–329

  “mass steel-making” campaign, 8–10

  Nixon’s visit to China and, 215, 275, 285, 306, 313–314, 364

  Red Guards formation, 39–52

  religious practice denied by, 48

  reopening of colleges and, 285–286

  Revolutionary Rebels formation, 44–46 (See also Revolutionary Rebels (“Rebels”))

  self-rectification campaign and Anti-Rightist Movement, 35–37

  in Shandong Province, 69–71

  “struggle sessions” of, 44, 48, 54, 65–66, 264, 431

  Zhou’s illness and death, 305–306, 315–316

  See also Education (China); Mao Zedong

  D

  Damansky, military clash in (1969), 109–110, 121

  DDT, 129–130

  De Geyter, Pierre, 169–170, 321

  Della (law firm secretary), 375, 397

  Deloitte (Touche Ross), 410

  Deng Xiaoping April 5th Movement and, 318–325<
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  biographical information, 305

  consolidated power by (1979), 75

  on crime, 443

  economic reforms of, 380–381, 393–395, 434

  education reform by, 330–332

  exile during Cultural Revolution and return to power (1975), 305–306, 315–316

  as general secretary of Communist Party, 21

  Hua and, 329

  Mao’s relationship with, 160, 306

  Party leadership role of (1977), 331–332

  Red Guard movement and role of, 54–55

  US visit by, 332, 335–336

  Zhao as premier under, 346

  Diet for barefoot doctors in training, 189–190, 194–195

  at Beijing Institute of Foreign Trade, 309

  Dihe Canal construction and, 168–169

  fishing and, 155–157, 195–196, 241

  frog meat, 229

  horse feed and, 180

  insomnia and malnutrition, 194, 208–209

  mizi (porridge), 86

  rationing and (1960s), 18

  rations for soldiers and gender issues, 166, 196–197

  rations for soldiers and starvation, 126–127, 144–145, 183

  in US, 354–355, 356

  watermelons, 96–97

  while brickmaking, 224

  while cutting reeds, 144–145, 148–149, 151–153, 155–158

  “yellow goat” meat, 26–27

  See also Water

  Ding Desheng (“Dasheng”), 156–157, 162–164, 167, 169, 219, 220–221

  Dongba canal, 265

  Duan Dingshan (“Old Duan”), 88, 246–247, 269