Life and Death in Shanghai

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(12 of 29)

In the late afternoon of Sept. 27, I was taken to the same school building I had gone to in July. This time I was the object of the ''struggle'' meeting, attended not only by the Red Guards and the Revolutionaries who had come to my house but also by the former staff of Shell. The man with the tinted spectacles was in charge. He was quite a fluent speaker. He started with the Opium War of 1840, giving a vivid description of how the invading fleet of Britain bombarded the Chinese coast. He spoke as if it were I who had led the British fleet up the Pearl River. He described Shell as a multinational firm and said that Lenin had stated that such companies were the worst enemies of socialism. He turned to my family background, telling the audience that I was the descendant of a big landlord family, that my father was a senior official of the pre-Kuomintang government. He said that I went to England and was trained by the British to be ''a faithful running dog'' in one of their universities. My late husband was described as a ''residue of the decadent Kuomintang regime'' who was fortunate to have died and escaped judgment by the Revolutionaries. Throughout his speech, the audience shouted slogans; a number accused me of being a ''spy.'' When he had finished speaking, the Red Guard who had led the others into my home described its ''luxury.'' Another Red Guard told how I had tried to ''undermine'' their ''revolutionary activities'' by fighting with them to preserve ''old culture.'' A Revolutionary spoke of my stubborn arrogance and accused me of deliberately keeping a ''wild animal'' in the house to attack the Revolutionaries. Former employees of Shell were called upon to give evidence against me. I could see how frightened they all were, and I wondered what they must have gone through. The men who got up to speak were white, and their hands holding the prepared statements shook. None looked in my direction. The man with the tinted spectacles said, ''You have listened to the mountain of evidence against you. Your crime against the Chinese people is extremely serious. You can only be reformed by giving a full confession telling us how you conspired with the British imperialists in their scheme to undermine the People's Government. Are you going to confess?'' ''I have never done anything against the Chinese people and government. The Shell office was here because the Chinese government wanted it to be here.'' Everything I said was drowned by angry shouts and screams of ''Confess! Confess!'' and ''We will not allow a class enemy to argue!'' The Red Guards and Revolutionaries crowded around me, shook their fists in my face, pulled at my clothes and spat on my jacket while yelling, ''Dirty spy!'' ''Dirty running dog!'' ''We will kill you!'' They pushed me very hard. When the noise died down a little, the man in spectacles said, ''Our patience is exhausted. You are guilty. We could give you the death penalty. But we want to give you a chance to reform yourself. Are you going to confess?'' Everybody stared at me expectantly. I said nothing. The man beckoned to a youth at the back of the mob, who came forward with a pair of shiny metal handcuffs, then asked, ''Are you going to confess?'' I answered in a calm voice, ''I've never done anything against the People's Government. I have no connection with any foreign government.'' ''Come along!'' the young man with the handcuffs said. Parked in front of the school was a black Jeep. ''Are you going to

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