共产党开展土地改革了，我的外祖母评为地主，成为阶级敌人。（网络图片）
我今年82岁，11岁那年，中共的军队到了我家乡，他们声称，我们被解放了。教我们学校的孩子们唱《解放区的天是明朗的天》，我们回家还高高兴兴的教家里人唱，我们对这个解放者一无所知。
到了第二年秋天，我上了初中，就住在城里了。冬天的一个周末，我从学校回家，突然发现整个村庄都杀气腾腾，路口站着持枪的军人，回到家中，我的外祖母已经被关押了。家中只有姨母。小小年纪的我，十分惊恐。
原来共产党开展土地改革了，我的外祖母评为地主，成为阶级敌人。
她在大庭广众面前罚跪，认罪。罚她去做修公路等苦工。她是一个小脚女人，从来没有做过这种苦工，又受种种谩骂侮辱，受尽百般痛苦之后，她终于被折磨死了。土改中我外祖母的房子、土地都分给了村子里的外族人。这些人都是共产党培养起来的积极份子，他们住进我们的四合院，对我们的行动实行监视，不允许我们接待客人，接触亲人，把我们孤立起来。
共产党告诉我，地主是剥削阶级，农民都是受他们的剥削变成贫农的，所以他们是罪人，要我与我的外祖母划清界限，不能同情她。
但是，我真的不明白，她怎么剥削的呢？
我就说说我看到的事实。
我们住的是一座有18间二层楼的大四合院，这个四合院的一半房子是我外祖母的，另外一半是外祖父的兄弟住。这座房子大概有将近100年的历史了。在清朝时，太祖是武进士，在朝廷做武官，所以很富裕，建造了这座房子。我的曾祖父一代一代下来都是独子，而曾祖父的弟弟一代一代都多子女，所以到我外祖父这一代，我们始终保留一半的房子，而他弟弟那一族由于子女多，房子只能一家一房了。再加上，人的能力各不相同，有人比较善于经营，自然就富裕起来。我们住在同一座楼房的人都是亲族。看来是有贫富的差别，但是，根本不存在谁剥削了谁。
我由于生活在外祖母地主家，所以，每次政治运动，都被迫做检讨，是共产党所不能信任的人。
我们的宗族以前有很多公有的土地，每年有很多租金收入，用来祭祀祖先。新年、元宵节、清明节、重阳节，我们族人聚集一起，祭祀祖先，祭品分送给族人，还有玩龙灯，迎罗汉，武术比赛，大家非常欢乐，所以一族的人都特别有亲情。共产党来之后，公有的土地没收了，所有的传统节日都被取消，族人之间也闹阶级斗争了，完全没有了亲情。少年时的欢乐一去不复返了。
我的外祖父有一个姐姐，她有三个孙女。就是我的表姐。三表姐的丈夫是国民党的高级军官，国民党败退的时候，随军到了台湾。当时，三表姐正在生育儿子，所以没有随军去台湾。大约1951年，表姐夫带信来，让表姐经过香港到台湾，他在香港与广州的海关接她，因为路途遥远，她又带了两个年幼的孩子，大家都不放心她独自行动，二表姐就让自己的丈夫送三表姐到广州。三表姐到广州过海关后，二表姐夫就回到自己的家。文化大革命开始，红卫兵把二表姐夫妇关押起来，审问他们，要他们交代，为什么当时二表姐夫没有跟到台湾去？一定是留在大陆为国民党做特务，本来就是无中生有的指控，他们无法交代，结果二表姐夫承受不了红卫兵的暴力，上吊自杀。二表姐被红卫兵在手指指甲上钉竹签，文化大革命结束之后，我看到她时，她的十个指头都是伤残的。共产党的残忍，由此可见。回想起来都不寒而栗。
My heart-breaking experience in Communist China
I am 82. When I was 11, the PLA came to my hometown and claimed that we were liberated. They taught the school children to sing their songs, especially the one that says “The sky in the liberated region is a bright sky”. We sang happily and even taught our family members to sing it after school.
We knew nothing about this “liberator”.
I went to junior high school the following autumn. It was out of the town, thus I moved and left home.
During a weekend in winter, I went back home from school and found everything was at odd.
The whole village was enveloped in a stern and scary atmosphere, and armed PLA soldiers were standing and watching on every crossroad.
When I finally got home, I found my grandmother had been detained. The only one left at home was my aunt. I was terrified.
Later I knew that’s because the CCP carried out land reform. They classified my grandmother as a “landlord”, the so-called exploiting class, a so-called “class enemy”.
From that point on, she had to knee down in front of the public and commit the sin the CCP imposed on her. She was since then assigned to do heavy labors like repairing the roads.
My grandmother was a very traditional Chinese woman. She spent her whole life serving her husband and teaching her kids at home, and she was a woman with bound feet, that’s a normal practice for women at her age.
She had never done such heavy labor in her life, and never suffered such insults and abuses.
All the suffers finally tortured her to death.
During the land reform, my grandparents’ properties, their lands and houses, were all distributed to the CCP activists. They moved into our yard and watched every move of us. They did not allow us to meet friends or contact relatives. They isolated us completely.
The CCP told us that landlords are exploiting class, saying peasants are poor because of landlords’ exploitation. That’s why they have sins, and criminals. The CCP ordered us to draw clear cut with my grandmother and must not show our sympathy on her.
But I really don’t understand, how come she became exploiting class?
What I’ve experienced is nothing to do with exploitation.
Let me tell you my version of the story.
Our big extended family lived in a very big courtyard house with 18 two-story houses. Half of the houses belonged to my grandparents, and the other half belonged to my grandfather’s siblings.
The courtyard had a history of nearly a century.
Our family’s great ancestor built this courtyard in Qing Dynasty. He was a military scholar and worked as a military official in the imperial court. He was very wealthy and built the courtyard. His two sons inherited his property, half for each.One of the sons has more and more decedents, but the other had only one son for generations to pass down the property until my grandfather.That’s why my grandfather’s family has half of the courtyard and his brother’s extended family share the other half.People from our clan have different talent; some are good at doing businesses and get rich, thus are wealthier than others. And we all live in harmony as a big family, there has never been an issue of who exploit whom.
As I lived with my grandmother, I had to confess every time there was a political movement. I was classified by the CCP as the “not trustworthy class”.
Our clan used to have many shared lands and earned good rental income. We used this income to hold ceremonies and rituals to worship our ancestors.
During major festivals like New Year’s Day, Lantern Festival, Tomb-Sweep Day, and Double Ninth Festival, people from our clan would gather together to worship ancestors.
After the ceremony, the offerings would be distributed to the participants, and then we would have all kinds of traditional activities and martial arts competitions. It was very fun time for everyone, and people loved it. We were so strongly together as one big family and were affectionate to one another.
But, after the CCP came, they grab all our lands, and cancelled all our traditional ceremonies and activities. Instead, the CCP classified all the people and let different classes fight against each other.The affections of being a family had completely gone, together vanished the happiness of my childhood.
I have three female cousins. They are daughters of my grandfather’s sister.
The husband of the third cousin was a senior officer of Kuomintang. When the Kuomintang was defeated, the husband moved to Taiwan with the troop.
By then the wife was about to give birth to their baby, so she stayed.
In around 1951, the husband asked his wife, my third cousin, to get to Taiwan via Hong Kong, and said he would wait to pick her up at Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is neighbouring Guangzhou. And she would get to Hong Kong from Guangzhou customs.
As a courtesy from a sister, my second cousin, her elder sister, asked her husband to take her to Guangzhou and help take care of her two young kids on the way.
Her husband thus took them to Guangdong, saw them get across the customs, and went back home.
Later, the Cultural Revaluation came.
The Red Guards arrested my second cousin and her husband, interrogated why the husband had not followed the younger sister to Taiwan.The Red Guards then decided that he must have stayed in China to work as a secret agent for the Kuomintang, and forced them to admit their accusation being true.
They couldn’t admit the accusation made out of nothing, so the Red Guard beat and insulted them severely every day.
The husband couldn’t bear such burden and hang himself.The wife, my second cousin, was nailed by Red Guards with bamboo sticks under her fingernails. But she survived.
I met her after the cultural revolution, and saw that all her fingers were disabled/damaged.
The CCP is so cruel, and I still shudder at the thought of the scene.
