Evening star., 1951-05-20
Recreation Meetings.
Entered Academy of Arts.

eSACu -SduCIuy Oh AFtS.
With this unhappy BACKGROUND
to our formative years in the
Communist Party. it was little
wonder that Chi-haw and I were
pleased to be sent to Yenan. We
arrived there in the spring of
1912. 1t was barren and primitive
not at all what we expected, and
the people all lived in caves. !
entered the Lu Hsun Academy of
Arts. whose head was Chang Wei
wen, the name assumed by the
famous authoress Ting Ling, who
had written a number of books
including Mother, Wei HUI and
Water. Chi-hwa changed his name
TO LIN Wen, while I changed mine
to Tao Ii.
At the Lu Academy the one
thing l found difficult to get used
to and detested was the fact that
men and women lived in the same
room. Each night I was careful to
go to bed without undressing. I
saw many Of the girls saunter
around publicly, barely attired. It
made me feel sad and wonder how
people could have lost their sense
of shame.
once, deep in the night. I was
startled from my dreams by the
small voice of a female protest
ing.
Then came a mans voice laugh
ing:
Come on, stop putting on an
act! 1t was you who seduced me, :"
Then the girl giggled.
BY the moonlight 1 caught a
glimpse OF her naked breast.
l quickly ducked under nv
covers. The girl was Comrade
Chou Wei, Slight and winsome
girl, one of the schoolmates whom
l admired.
Purge Started in 1912.
The year 1912 marked the
beginning of the party's tidyine-
up movement. This was really
nothing more than a party purge
in disguise.
In the tidying-up movement,
members were subjected to endless
mental and physical tortures. You
were asked to write a "self-exami-
nation" dairy and a "self-exami-
nation report. You might some
tlmes be required to write it twice
thrlce-up to seven or eight times
Then, from your innumerable
photographed reports would be
found Inconsistencies and many
undreamed of crimes would be
proclaimed against you. MANY of
the crimes would be so picayune
that you would have no way of
ever recalling having committed
them. If so, you would be ordered
TO ponder the problem" day and
night without sleeping.
This would be prolonged for 3
10, 20 days, Or a whole month
Under this cruel and exhaustinp
form of punishment, a person
would completely lose control of
MS own mind and eventually con-
fess to his many crimes"
AT the end of this series of
movements one-third of the stu
dents in our school had been
"tldled-up." They had all met
with the cruelest tortures: Some
forced to suicide, others simply
worn down to die of utter exhaus-
tlon, and some of the girl COM
rades were victims of sadistic in
dignities.
Took Over School i'm I943.
In the other party cadre schools
IN Yenan. in the party headquar-
ters. in the various official organs
and army regiments, the "tidying-
up movement" was spreading like
mad in the same narrowing detail.
1t was not known how many lives
were cut down in what amounted
to a most tragic massacre.
In 1943. Lin Wen tmy husband)
and were assigned to take over a
school at Ansai, north of Yenan.
Upon arrival we found it nothing
but broken-down village with
only handful of students. We
realized that before us was a huge
task; nevertheless we were de-
lighted with the opportunity to
test ourselves.
We formulated a policy to link
up learning and production by
encouraging cooperative group
effort. Our enrolment began in
creasing Immediately and before
long an air of liveliness pervaded
the school.