WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.140 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.140 --> 00:00:05.650 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] Oh, yeah, at some point, 00:00:05.650 --> 00:00:08.140 align:middle line:84% I actually remembered that I actually 00:00:08.140 --> 00:00:12.370 align:middle line:84% had interviewed my mother a long time ago. 00:00:12.370 --> 00:00:14.920 align:middle line:84% And there was a recording somewhere, 00:00:14.920 --> 00:00:17.630 align:middle line:84% and I had forgotten about it, but eventually, I found it. 00:00:17.630 --> 00:00:20.170 align:middle line:84% And then I had to figure out how to fit it into this book 00:00:20.170 --> 00:00:23.180 align:middle line:84% after I had written that I didn't know anything. 00:00:23.180 --> 00:00:24.550 align:middle line:90% So that was kind of complicated. 00:00:24.550 --> 00:00:27.580 align:middle line:84% I ended up just transcribing the interview, 00:00:27.580 --> 00:00:32.290 align:middle line:90% and it was really interesting. 00:00:32.290 --> 00:00:35.740 align:middle line:84% She gave me a lot of facts, and so this is a letter 00:00:35.740 --> 00:00:37.930 align:middle line:84% that she received from a cousin in China, 00:00:37.930 --> 00:00:43.180 align:middle line:84% and I just translated it or transcribed her translation 00:00:43.180 --> 00:00:46.330 align:middle line:84% of it, and it pretty much mirrors what 00:00:46.330 --> 00:00:47.740 align:middle line:90% I learned in Asian history. 00:00:47.740 --> 00:00:50.020 align:middle line:84% You know, she just found her cousin. 00:00:50.020 --> 00:00:53.410 align:middle line:84% She's two years younger than me, and the cousin, 00:00:53.410 --> 00:00:56.680 align:middle line:84% the letter was just really simple and clean, 00:00:56.680 --> 00:00:58.240 align:middle line:90% all facts, no feeling. 00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:01.540 align:middle line:84% You know, 1950: cousin and family moved to Huabei 00:01:01.540 --> 00:01:04.120 align:middle line:90% and had to learn new thoughts. 00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:07.060 align:middle line:84% 1950 to '59, every two to three days, 00:01:07.060 --> 00:01:09.430 align:middle line:84% they had to participate in new movements 00:01:09.430 --> 00:01:13.240 align:middle line:84% to suppress the revolution and to fight against the Americans. 00:01:13.240 --> 00:01:15.850 align:middle line:84% They had to take all of their pots and metal doors 00:01:15.850 --> 00:01:17.680 align:middle line:90% and burn them to make steel. 00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:21.050 align:middle line:84% But moving away from farming led to starvation and famine, 00:01:21.050 --> 00:01:22.990 align:middle line:84% so that I think is a great leap forward. 00:01:22.990 --> 00:01:24.670 align:middle line:84% Then there's the Cultural Revolution. 00:01:24.670 --> 00:01:27.250 align:middle line:84% All the things that I learned about in school, 00:01:27.250 --> 00:01:30.460 align:middle line:84% the natural disasters that happened that led to famine. 00:01:30.460 --> 00:01:34.360 align:middle line:84% And then '66 to '71, the Red Guard period. 00:01:34.360 --> 00:01:36.370 align:middle line:84% You know, Mao's Little Red Book kind of thing, 00:01:36.370 --> 00:01:40.660 align:middle line:84% was really fascinating to read the letters. 00:01:40.660 --> 00:01:43.060 align:middle line:84% The government doubted everything and everyone. 00:01:43.060 --> 00:01:44.740 align:middle line:84% They came to our house and took away 00:01:44.740 --> 00:01:47.120 align:middle line:90% all of our jewelry and money. 00:01:47.120 --> 00:01:49.640 align:middle line:84% And so she-- just you know, I heard her voice, 00:01:49.640 --> 00:01:52.300 align:middle line:84% and I just kind of transcribed these and put these in here 00:01:52.300 --> 00:01:55.210 align:middle line:84% in collages, and that's just one of them, 00:01:55.210 --> 00:01:57.040 align:middle line:84% and there are more throughout the book. 00:01:57.040 --> 00:02:00.980 align:middle line:84% And that's another one that I think somewhere in here, 00:02:00.980 --> 00:02:02.480 align:middle line:84% I didn't write down the page number, 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:09.190 align:middle line:84% but it talks about eventually how the father died in his 50s, 00:02:09.190 --> 00:02:11.860 align:middle line:84% had a brain hemorrhage, and no one 00:02:11.860 --> 00:02:13.570 align:middle line:84% was able to go to college or anything. 00:02:13.570 --> 00:02:16.840 align:middle line:84% They were all sent to the hinterlands to do farming. 00:02:16.840 --> 00:02:20.500 align:middle line:84% So it was just interesting to kind of match our family 00:02:20.500 --> 00:02:24.700 align:middle line:84% history with history history, which 00:02:24.700 --> 00:02:27.970 align:middle line:84% was both interesting and tragic, and how 00:02:27.970 --> 00:02:30.360 align:middle line:84% when one side of the family leaves a country, 00:02:30.360 --> 00:02:34.120 align:middle line:84% it completely bifurcates, and one side's experience is 00:02:34.120 --> 00:02:37.300 align:middle line:84% so different than the other side, 00:02:37.300 --> 00:02:39.960 align:middle line:84% and that happens to a lot of people.