I previously read 《The New Tune of Slave Hands—Selected Family Histories of Shanghai Workers (Part One)》 and 《The Party Gave Her a New Life—Selected Family Histories of Shanghai Workers (Part Two)》。
The contents include the personal experiences of some workers in today’s socialist New China. This book vividly and powerfully exposes the suffering of the people in old society—unemployment, poverty, hunger, insults, and slavery—and contrasts it with how well the laboring masses can live in New China, providing ideological and political education.
However, I think this book can also help workers after liberation understand through learning theory that the suffering in the old society was due to class oppression, which can be analyzed and explained specifically. For example, because fishing workers catch natural fish from the sea, capitalists seeking profit demand workers to increase labor intensity, allowing them to enjoy the benefits with minimal effort. We need to connect the social suffering and exploitation with the essence of the ruling class, while also exposing their hypocritical disguises. Today, they operate in more covert and more hypocritical ways, and analyzing current news requires breaking their false pretenses and revealing their shameless nature.
Below are some events from the book that moved me deeply. In “Spring and Autumn of the Fishery Sea,” Zhuang Shaoren, a poor family member, borrowed 30 yuan to marry the “Little Fish Head” (the foreman on the fishing boat who oppresses workers; he demands to remove 70% of the fish caught by workers, leaving only rotten fish and small fish, earning hatred as “Little Fish Head”). Later, Zhuang Shaoren received a broken table and two broken stools from him, not realizing they were part of his trap. “Little Fish Head” kept demanding him to go fishing at sea to repay the debt, forcing him to fish in dangerous reefs and whirlpools where others couldn’t reach, while Zhuang ate dried yam, working himself to death, his health deteriorating day by day. Zhuang Shaoren, simple-minded, thought that once he paid off the debt, life would be better, so he worked for ten years to finally pay back the “30 yuan” on the unbalanced scale of capitalism. Coincidentally, a drought occurred, and he fell ill. “Little Fish Head” then claimed that his broken table and stools were ancestral heirlooms and forced him to go to sea again to repay the 30 yuan. He was forced to go to sea while ill, and in order to catch more fish, the crew was only allowed one bowl of water per day, which is essential for life, but this was not realized. The ship encountered danger at sea, and he returned home nearly dead. I immediately thought of Xiao Lin’s “Crab Boat,” which also describes the hardships and inhumane treatment of fishing workers. Fishing workers rely on supplies on the boat, which are severely deducted, effectively reducing their lifespan to enrich the boss. On the boat where worker Ah Liang worked, the captain, an old worker, sympathized with the people. When the Japanese invaders forced them to transport grain (demanding that a small boat carrying 3 tons carry 4 or 5 tons), they united and shared the grain with farmers along the way. After learning this, the Japanese buried these dozen or so captains alive! In the old society, traps and nets were everywhere; even one step further for survival could lead to brutal suppression. Seeing these examples, I better understand why the proletariat is the most revolutionary. They are the most destitute, with no guarantee of survival, and are willing to sacrifice everything to overthrow this thoroughly torturous old society. It also makes me feel more strongly that what I am doing is necessary, and I must not give up the revolution. In socialist New Society, this fishing worker, through learning and effort, works diligently on a safe fishing boat, and by studying theory, opposes those who trust only experts and distrust the masses—“authority,” and opposes Liu Shaoqi’s revisionism. Persisting with experiments like the lamp-guided fishing, they caught 280,000 jin of fish in one net.
In “The Party Gave Her a New Life,” Qian Ruifang was deceived twice into becoming a bonded worker. When she contracted smallpox, capitalists refused her water, treating her as dead and dumping her into a mass grave morgue. In old society, they threw living people into morgues; in new society, they rescue “the dead” from morgues. After liberation, this girl who crawled out of the gates of hell, through her own efforts to learn medical knowledge, made many contributions to saving people. When I think of so many still struggling to survive, I feel I have done too little and am more determined to dedicate everything to a better new life and a society where the people are the masters. If one only thinks of personal gains and pleasures, one cannot fight for others’ happiness. On the contrary, such behavior harms others’ happiness. When one desires to enjoy a paradise-like life, one must reflect on where such a paradise comes from. In capitalist society, it only comes from parasitic exploitation, and many still live in hardship, far from paradise.
Wang Songlin is a top master in the jade carving industry, but his products are used by bosses to compete and collude. To monopolize his high-quality products, bosses refuse to let him produce anymore, deciding to join hands to ruin him, even refusing the demand of “working for free, just for food.” This further proves that the old society was merely the end of the people’s geniuses. Just like now, in the characteristic society, if you produce something valuable, you will face the situation where they barbarically seize and punish it using their civilized patent system. For example, the invention of the automatic windshield wiper brought huge profits, so it was monopolized and seized by large companies. The original inventor spent decades trying to get a tiny reward, while those monopolistic companies made huge profits.
In “The New Path of the Coachman,” his father, a rickshaw puller, worked tirelessly day and night, falling seriously ill and coughing up blood, trying to hide it from his mother to keep them at ease. His last wish was not to let his son pull rickshaws. With no other choice, he secretly pulled wild chicken carts (drivers without business licenses, especially powerless and subjected to insults and brutal law enforcement). It mentions that one day they finally got some bean dregs, and suddenly the father groaned for water. Seeing his younger brother’s rice bowl with a white piece, he asked what it was. The younger brother said it was rice. The father said he wanted to eat rice, and the younger brother admitted it was tofu dregs. The father looked at the rice bowl and said nothing. When the mother returned, she was both happy and anxious—happy because the father’s condition improved, anxious because there was no rice at home. She finally borrowed half a bowl of rice in the evening. “The younger brother happily jumped to the father’s bed, shouting for him to come eat.” The child called several times but got no response; when the mother touched him, his forehead was already cold. I felt speechless and very sad. In old society, people had no way out; they never had good days.
These books are mainly physical copies, and you can find them online.
