Missing Generation

This book was written for the missing generations of 1960 and 1970, during which a lot of young people had been deprived of their right of education, employment, freedom of residence, and not to mention free speech, even lovemaking. In the last phase of Cultural Revolution, in order to clean up the mess of political struggle, Mao Zedong sent the vast majority of students to the farmland to accept so-called reeducation from poor peasants. The young people in Guangdong province, especially in Guangzhou City, were luckier than in other provinces because they were close to Hong Kong and had chances to risk their lives to escape. The lucky ones had chances to climb up Mount Wutong and walk down the Swallow Cliff to enter the New Territories in Hong Kong by climbing over barbed wires and swimming across the Deep Bay in the west or Mirs Bay in the east; it was the turning point of their lives. However, the bad-luck fugitives would break their legs when stepping in the wild boar trap, lose their lives with poisonous snakebites, become meals for the sharks, or drowned in the sea; they had sacrificed their precious lives for freedom. How could the local people with inherent freedom feel the unforgettable joy to set the feet successfully on the free land New Territories and deeply inhale the fresh air there? How could most people understand the feeling of sorrow and helplessness to face brothers or friends dying tragically and unable to help with their hands? The deceased had been long gone and the survivors moved on. There always is worship in heart during Qingming or Chongjiu memorial days, but how can a chicken, a pot of wine, a bouquet of flowers, or a bundle of incense be enough to express the lifelong grief? I hope this book will give survivors a little precious memory and the deceased an eternal remembrance.