When A Man Gets Power,

When I Was In China, Mao Was Chairman, And Parents Were Terrified To Tell Their Children Anything That Differed From The Party Line In Case The Children Repeated It And Endangered The Whole Family.

I No Longer Have The Terrible Nightmares That I Used To Have. Mao Had Just Died In 1976, And China Began To Open Up. For The First Time Scholarships To Go To The West To Study Were Awarded On Academic Merit.

In Spring 1989...i Saw The Buildup Of Demonstrations From Chengdu To Tiananmen Square. It Struck Me That Fear Had Been Forgotten To Such An Extent That Few Of The Millions Of Demonstrators Perceived Danger. Most Seemed To Be Taken By Surprise When The Army Opened Fire.

If Children Were Brought Up To Become Non-conformists It Would Only Ruin Their Lives. So Parents All Over China Who Loved Their Children Told Them To Do As Chairman Mao Said. It Was Not Possible To Tell Them Anything Else.

My Father Said He Was Going To Write To The Jinzhou City Party Committee Asking For Permission To 'talk About Love'...my Mother Supposed It Was A Bit Like Asking Permission From The Head Of The Family...the Communist Party Was The New Patriarch.