共產黨開展土地改革了，我的外祖母評為地主，成為階級敵人。（網絡圖片）
我今年82歲，11歲那年，中共的軍隊到了我家鄉，他們聲稱，我們被解放了。教我們學校的孩子們唱《解放區的天是明朗的天》，我們回家還高高興興的教家裡人唱，我們對這個解放者一無所知。
到了第二年秋天，我上了初中，就住在城裡了。冬天的一個週末，我從學校回家，突然發現整個村莊都殺氣騰騰，路口站著持槍的軍人，回到家中，我的外祖母已經被關押了。家中只有姨母。小小年紀的我，十分驚恐。
原來共產黨開展土地改革了，我的外祖母評為地主，成為階級敵人。
她在大庭廣眾面前罰跪，認罪。罰她去做修公路等苦工。她是一個小腳女人，從來沒有做過這種苦工，又受種種謾罵侮辱，受盡百般痛苦之後，她終於被折磨死了。土改中我外祖母的房子、土地都分給了村子裡的外族人。這些人都是共產黨培養起來的積極份子，他們住進我們的四合院，對我們的行動實行監視，不允許我們接待客人，接觸親人，把我們孤立起來。
共產黨告訴我，地主是剝削階級，農民都是受他們的剝削變成貧農的，所以他們是罪人，要我與我的外祖母劃清界限，不能同情她。
但是，我真的不明白，她怎麼剝削的呢？
我就說說我看到的事實。
我們住的是一座有18間二層樓的大四合院，這個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。這座房子大概有將近100年的歷史了。在清朝時，太祖是武進士，在朝廷做武官，所以很富裕，建造了這座房子。我的曾祖父一代一代下來都是獨子，而曾祖父的弟弟一代一代都多子女，所以到我外祖父這一代，我們始終保留一半的房子，而他弟弟那一族由於子女多，房子只能一家一房了。再加上，人的能力各不相同，有人比較善於經營，自然就富裕起來。我們住在同一座樓房的人都是親族。看來是有貧富的差別，但是，根本不存在誰剝削了誰。
我由於生活在外祖母地主家，所以，每次政治運動，都被迫做檢討，是共產黨所不能信任的人。
我們的宗族以前有很多公有的土地，每年有很多租金收入，用來祭祀祖先。新年、元宵節、清明節、重陽節，我們族人聚集一起，祭祀祖先，祭品分送給族人，還有玩龍燈，迎羅漢，武術比賽，大家非常歡樂，所以一族的人都特別有親情。共產黨來之後，公有的土地沒收了，所有的傳統節日都被取消，族人之間也鬧階級鬥爭了，完全沒有了親情。少年時的歡樂一去不復返了。
我的外祖父有一個姐姐，她有三個孫女。就是我的表姐。三表姐的丈夫是國民黨的高級軍官，國民黨敗退的時候，隨軍到了臺灣。當時，三表姐正在生育兒子，所以沒有隨軍去臺灣。大約1951年，表姐夫帶信來，讓表姐經過香港到臺灣，他在香港與廣州的海關接她，因為路途遙遠，她又帶了兩個年幼的孩子，大家都不放心她獨自行動，二表姐就讓自己的丈夫送三表姐到廣州。三表姐到廣州過海關後，二表姐夫就回到自己的家。文化大革命開始，紅衛兵把二表姐夫婦關押起來，審問他們，要他們交代，為什麼當時二表姐夫沒有跟到臺灣去？一定是留在大陸為國民黨做特務，本來就是無中生有的指控，他們無法交代，結果二表姐夫承受不了紅衛兵的暴力，上吊自殺。二表姐被紅衛兵在手指指甲上釘竹籤，文化大革命結束之後，我看到她時，她的十個指頭都是傷殘的。共產黨的殘忍，由此可見。回想起來都不寒而慄。
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.
