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New Womem1tl

New China

FOREIGN LANGUAGESPEKING 1972

PRESS

Printed in the People's Republic oJ Ch.ina

Wei Fcng-ying (second right), model industrial worker, has been electedto the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist party, and asa vice-chairman of the Liaoning Provincial Revolutionary Committee.

Wu Kuei-hsien shows young textile workers how to join brokenends. She is a member of the C.P.C. Central Committee anda deputy-secretary of the C.P.C. Shensi Provincial Committee.

Communist Party member Chang Pao-feng (secondright) of the Peking Chemical Works No. 3 stud-ies a work problem wlth women on the iob.

Women of 'Iungling Red Star Iron Mine, Anhwei Province,consult a technician on new ways to exploit the minc.

An "Iron Girls" team at the Yehniuyen water conser-vancy worksite in Lingling County, Hunan Province.

Getting in a goodharvcst of cottonat the YangliuhsuehProduction Brigade,Pinhsicn County,Shantung Province.

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People's Likreration Armywomen devclop sk:II inthe field. They belong tothe first company, thirdsquad, of a uDit underthe Tsinan command-

China's women table-tennis playcrs constant-ly improve thcir game.

Hung Hsien Nu, noted Kwangtung opera actress, singsfor the dockers at Whampoa Harbour, Kwangchow.

P.L.A. women medical workers on Hainan Island prevcnt andcure diseases for Miao and Li poor and lower-middle peasants.

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I\I,]W WOMEN IN NEW CHINAForeword

A LIBERATED WOMAN SPEAKSLu Yu-lan

A SLAVE BEFORE, I NOW HELP RULE MY COUNTRYFasan g

THE PARTY KEEPS ME YOUNGLin Chiao-ch.ih

T}IE "MARCH 8TH" FISHING BOATSHuang Hat

WOMEN FLIERSHsin Ku'ng-guan

WOMEN OIL EXTRACTORS OF TACHINGHsin Hua

HOUSEWIVES CAN MAKE ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENTKung Yeh

IRON GIRLS TEAM OF TACHAIHung Nung

WOIVIEN WORK ON LIVE ULTRA_HIGH-TENSIONI'OWDIT I,INES1l sirt. l)ing

WOMEN BRIDGE BUILDERS IN FOREST AREASLung Chiang

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New Women

-lioteword

Ln New China

f N China, men and women are equal. The broad massesI of working women are politically emancipated andeconomically independent. There is scarcely a field ofwork frorn which women are barred, the only exceptionsbeing those that might injure their health. There arewomen machine-tool operators, geological prospectors,pilots, navigators, spray-painters, engineers and scientificresearchers. Women are playing increasingly importantroles in China's socialist revolution and socialist con-struction.

Women also take direct part in managing state affairs.Communist Party and revolutionary committees at alllevels, from the people's commune to the provincial andnational bodies, aII have women members. Women areelected to the National People's Congress and to mem-bership on the Central Committee of the Chinese Com-munist Party.

In New China, equal pay is given for equal work, as

well as special protection for women workers. Womenworkers receive pre- and post-nataI care free, and a 56-day maternity leave with fuII pay. Medical treatment isfree of charge for both men and women workers, whiletheir dependents pay half the regular fee. Many women

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workers have been sent to schools at various levels forsystematic education. The retirement age for womenindustrial workers is 50, from which time they draw from50 to 70 per cent of their wages as pension.

None of this would have been conceivable beforeChina's liberation in 1949. The o1d society gave womenthe lowest status. In addition to being exploited and op-pressed by imperialism and bureaucrat-capitalism, theywere subjected to the domination of the feudal systemsof political authority, clan authority, religious authorityand the authority of the husloand.

The establishment of the People's Republic of Chinain 1949 opened broad prospects for China's women toachieve emancipation.

During the long years of armed struggle for nation-wide liberation, Chinese women of all nationalities inthe revolutionary bases did their share. Some took adirect part in the fighting, others served in the army ascouriers or medical workers. Those staying in the rearareas joined the men in production in support of thefront, stood sentry, maintained public order, made cloth-ing and shoes for armymen, and sent their sons or hus-bands to join the army. Many women gave their livesfor the revolutionary cause. Among these was the 14-year-old martyr Liu Ifu-Ian, who was beheaded lcy theKuomintang reactionaries.

The nation-wide land reform which followed the libera-tion was the first step in bringing about economic equalitybetween men and women. Each got a share of the 1and,irrespective of sex or age, freeing the hundreds of mil-lions of landless and land-poor peasants from feudallandlord oppression. For the first time in history the

women in China's villages had their own names on landtille dccds.

Al'lt'r' [,hc land reform, the peasants actively responded1,o Clririrnran Mao's caltr to organize mutual-aid teams and,Iirllowing that, agricultural producer co-operatives. Pro-rlrrllion lose steadily. More and more women partici-1.urlt,rl in farm work, in some places half of the women.joirring in collective labour. This raised their socialsliLtus considerably.

The adoption of the Marriage La',v in 1950 emancipatedwornen from a centuries-oId feudal system of bondage.The new law stipulated free choice of partner, monog-amy, equal rights for both sexes and protection of thelegitimate interests of women and children. It has donem,uch to foster the building of a new society in whichwomen are the equal partners of men.

'Women's emancipation entered a new historical stagein China during the Great Leap Forward of 1958, 'uvhenthe country's agricultural and industrial production roseto new heights. Tens of millions of housewives steppedout of their homes to join in socialist construction. Theforming of rural people's communes with a diversifiedeconomy, extensive irrigation projects and industryopened to women much wider fields of work. Womenwere trained to operate modern farm tooIs, machines andtractors, and served as technicians in water conservancy,forestry, fishing and meteorology.

In the cities, housewives set up and worked in smallI'actories that were mushrooming everywhere. This waslollowed by the establishment of public dining-rooms,nurseries, kindergartens and other services by thefactories and enterprises or neighbourhood committeesto relieve working women of household chores. Children

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can sta-y in the nurseries or kindergnriens by the day,or Live there throughout the week and be fetched homeon Saturday afternoon to spend the weekend with theirparents. Many neighbourhood committees run servicecentres where laundry, tailoring, mending and manyother jobs are done for working women.

Engels said: "The emancipation of women and theirequality with men are impossible and must rerrain so as

long as women are excluded from socially productivework and restricted to housework, which is private. Theemancipation of women trecomes possible only whenwomen are enabled to take part in production on a large,social scale, and when domestic duties require their at-tention only to a minor degree." The experience ofChinese women in 1958 began their understanding ofhow to emancipate themselves completely.

Chinese women now work, study, rest and take partin political and cultural activities along with the men.Many women have emerged as socialist-minded and pro-fessionally expert cadres. Instead of having their visionconfined within the four wal1s of their homes as in thepast, they now concern themselves with affairs of stateand of the world. Enthusiastic, bold and devoted to thepeople, they are accomplishing feats China's women couldnot dream of before.

Chairman Mao says: "Tirnes have changed, and todaymen and women are equal. Whatever men comrades canaccomplish, wornen comrades ean too."

In Kwangchow, a group of young women electricianswho had previously worked only on the ground are nowdoing maintenance work on 220,000-vo1t ultra-high-tension transmission lines without interruption of power,

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nimbly clinrbing the S0-metre pylons to change porcelaininsulal rlrs.

'l'hc Wcst District No.1 Transistor Equipment Factoryin I'r'l<ing is one of the neighbourhood factories. Itsprr,rlr,<:ossor was a small workshop for repairing scales,I'orrrrt'rl in 1958 by rnerging several handicraft co-opera-Livt's. Eighty of its 100 workers were housewives. ItIurtl no technicians and was set up with only two oIdrrruchine tools and a table drilling machine. Now, with;J00 workers, the factory produces various types ofclcctronic equipment.

A Taching oil extracting team of young women in-telIectua1s, helped by veteran workers, is doing a goodjob of oilfield management after two years, practice. InIleilungkiang Province, a women's bridge-building team,after a short period of training, completed in 70 days a110-metre five-arch highway bridge in the depths of theGreater Khingan Mountains forest. Along with the mencommune members, the "Iron Girls" team of Tachai pro-duction Brigade in Shansi Province is building a pros-perous socialist countryside by transforming a barrenhilly region into fertile fields. Under the care of the-Farty, rvaifs who in the otd society roamed the streetsare among China's first generation of women pilots.Former Tibetan slaves have become good women cadres.

AII of this reflects the great political and economicchange in the status of China's women today.

During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution,China's women played a militant role together with themen, and this has brought about a still greater changein their outlook.

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Lu Yu-lanx

A Liberated Woman Speaks

FrTUNGLIUSHANI(U Village in Linhsi County, HopeiI Province, whele I was born, was liberated in 1945

when I was a child of five, so I have grown up in thenew society. I was able, Iike the boys of the village,to go to school, and completed the sixth grade. Then,resolved that a new, socialist countryside should be builtin China, I worked in the farm collective and took partin revolutionary work.

But I am far from being the only ordinary workingwoman of Linhsi County who has matured and becomea ieading cadre. Thirty per cent of the county Fartyand government cadres today are women, many of whom

* Lu Yu-lan has served as chairman of an agricultural pro-ducers' co-operative and as Party branch secretary of a people'scommune production brigade. She attended the Ninth NationalCongress of the Chinese Communist Party in 1969, where she waselected a Party Central Committee member. Now, at the age of32, Comrade Lu is Secretary of the Linhsi Countv Party Com-mittee and Deputy Secretary of the Hopei Provincial Part3'Committee.

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hold leading positionsof lcsponsibility atvarious levels. Oursit.tr;rlion is indicativcol' lhc sLalus of womenirr soc.ialisl., new China.\,lorrrcn manage stateiillrrirs along with therrrcn; they have beenlrced politically.

Changing Societyand the Family

Women's emancipa-tion is not easy. Acurrent, wrong ideawas that women wintheir freedom simplyby seizing control inthe family, and thiswrong idea led to alot of fruitless quarrelling among husband, wife and in-laws. Lack of understanding on the relationship betweenraising women's position in the family and taking partin class struggle in society at large disrupted familyharmony and failed to win public sympathy and achieveits aim.

Then the Party organized the women to study whatChairman Mao says about women,s emancipation: "Gen-uine equality between man and wornan can be realizedonly in the process of socialist transformation of society

Lu Yu-lon out wfth poor ondlower-middle peosonts to hoe thef ields. They go forword olongthe brood poth of sociolism,

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as a whole." Women began taking a broader view, to un-derstand that to achieve their own emancipation theymust look at things in terms of the entire society, to seethe family as a basic social unit, as changing with thetransformation of society as a whole. It was reaiizedthat after worrren take their position in society, changesin family relations follow, and men and women can beequaI.

I was already active in women's work in 1955, whenI was 15. Chairman Mao called on China's peasants toorganize co-ops, and I went to the poor and lower-middlepeasants' homes to discuss the question. Soon we set upour agricultural producers' co-operative. I also encour-aged women to take part in collective productive labouroutside the household, and opposed the old idea sti1l heldby a few that "men go to the county town, but women'splace is in the home." These few people with old think-ing did not want women to take their place in society, andthey forbade the women in their families to do collectivework.

One instance was that of a bride whose parents-in-Iawinsisted on the old ways, and wouldn't allow her out ofthe yard. I used to take my sewing basket and visit thisyoung woman in the evenings. While learning needle-work from her, I would talk about women's emancipa-tion. Once I said, "Won't it be fine when women go outand work, when both men and women are co-op mem-bers!" The young woman agreed, and before long shewas working along with the others. She worked welI,and at the same time had her income in the family. Soonshe had won over her husband and his parents, whileother young women followed her, also finding their wayout of the four walls of their homes.

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We women went from there into wider fields. A dozenor so oI us organized a "March Bth"'k tree-planting team.Wc hrr<l no saplings, as we had not yet a tree nursery, sowc would walk for miles in a day collecting tree seeds.Irr lhlr:c years we had over 110,000 trees planted on r-irorel,hirn 20 hectares of sandy wasteland. By L971, we women,wlrosc labour force was augmented by that of the poorirrrd Lrwer-middle peasants of our village, had plantedrrr<ri'e than a million timber and fruit trees, covering 220hcclares of sandy land with green. This checked windand shifting sand, and we began to have good harvestsevery year. Our grain yields increased in some cases byas much as 650 per cent. The old view of women's"pIace" underwent a change, and people were saying,"The women are really doing their share of the collec-tive work!"

Changing Economic Status

Women with young children used to be tied to the homeby household chores. Agricultural collectivization changedthese old relations of production. With the consolidationand development of the people's communes, more welfareand maternal and child health facilities were set up, andthese were better run. Busy-season kindergartens, mater-nal and child health centres, mechanized flour and rice-husking mills, and sewing groups to make clothing forcommune members have socialized many householdtasks, creating conditions for women to jo,in in collectiveproduction.

* International Working Women's Day, established in 1910

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Women receive the same pay for their work as themen. With their own incomes, women's economic statusis changed, bringing about a change in family relations.The Lin family of Sunchuang Brigade in Lipochai Com-mune has 13 members of {ou.r generations. T'hree womenin the family contribute substanbially to the family labourforce and income and have thus gained a voice in familyaffairs. Women no longer have to ask their menfolk forthe spending money they need, and they have their sayin deciding on major family expenditures. The family'sdaily food and clothing have improved over the past sev-eral years. Tr,vo young women in the family suggestedenlarging the house, and eight new rooms of brick wereadded when all the members agreed. The farnily respecttheir otrd people, treas-ure the young, showconcern for eachother, and so live aharmonious ancl satis-fying life.

Women have learn-ed production skillsand become a sLrongforce on the agricul-tural front. Not onlyare they driving trac-tors and operatingflour mills, crushersand pumps, they alsomake their contribu-tion in agriculturalscientific experiment.Fifteen won'ren of

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A merry chot with other educot-ed young women who hove set-tled down in the countryside.

one brigadc formed a scientific experiment group, witha Pur'1,y blanch deputy secretary and a poor peasant'sdaughlcr as leaders. Both these young women, still inl.lrlir lat,c teens, started out with only primary schoolt'rlrrr:irt,i<iir, but they have the spirit of the Foolish OldlVlrrrr who removed the mountains, and with this theyIr;rvt'cducated themselves and learned while doing.Sint:t: they started work in 1967 they have developedrnole than 30 improved seed strains. Their work hascontributed to the state and collective wealth. and wonpcople's respect and support.

Maturing in Struggle

The key to -*,inning women's emancipation is for womento concern themselves with the country's affairs and joinin political struggles. Owing to the influence and restrjc-tion of old ideas and old traditions, not many women tookpart in political activities or were firm in waging strug-gles. Plunging into political struggle to brave stormsand face the world, women have acquired a better under-standing of revolutionary principles, raised their politicalconsciousness and gained experience in class struggle.Many women activists and cadres have matured ih thecourse of political struggle. On ou-r county Farty com-mittee are five women. There is Hei Yueh-ching, 37, ofHui nationality, who encouraged Hui poor and lourer-rnidcile peasants to set up people's corrmunes in enthu-siaslic rcsponse to Chairman Mao's call in 1958. Thearca's farming, forestry, animal husbandry and side oc-cupations ali took a big spurt forward, and Hei Yueh-ching has matured into a competenl. woman cadre. HsiaHsiu-mei, Yang Ai-lien and Yang Hsiu-chih are just over

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20, but in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution aIIhave records of staunch stru-ggle in defence of ChairmanMao's revolutionary line. They fought manifestations ofLiu Shao-chi's counter-revolutionary line and exposedand repudiated the criminal efforts of Liu's agents andother bad pel'sons to restore capitalism in the countryside.

In the past ten-some years I too have had some ex-perience of political struggle. In 1959 a former richpeasant, hand in glove with IocaI capitalist-roaders in theParty, felled and sold more than 100,000 young treeswhich our "March Bth" team had planted. They alsoslaughtered pigs and sheep that belonged to the collective.I joined the poor and lower-middle peasants in wagingsharp class struggle against this serious undermining ofthe collective economy.

When the brigade Party branch committee was re-organized and I was elected secretary, these class enemiesspread rumours and superstition about me. "With awoman at the head the trees won't grow," they said. And,"A woman in the leadership will bring bad Iuck." Theyreinforced their rumours by compiling a list of "crimes"I was supposed to have committed, in order to disqualifyme from the post.

"What is work? Work is struggle," says Chairman Mao.These words took on a deeper significance for me. AIIthe rumours, slanders and mistrust spread by these classenemies were aimed not only at me personally, but atthe path of socialism I was following together with thepoor and lower-middle peasants. V/e stood steadfast andstruggled against the rumonr-mongers and won.

Facing turbulence has strengthened us. Wework in the brigade is done better, and I feelbeen helped in the course of the struggle.

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find thethat I've

Pasarugx

A Slave Before, I Now HelpRule My Country

f was born in a slave's family in Konka County, Tibet.I Under reactionary feudal serfdom, I was a slave andiived like a beast of burden for nine years. ChairmanMao and the Communist Party saved rne from slaveryand brought me up as a Communist and responsible cadre.

Liuing Hell

For generations my forefathers were slaves ruled bymanorial lords - the reactionary Tibetan locaI govern-ments, the nobility and the monasteries. We had mouthsbut no right to speak. We had legs but no freedom ofmovement. \,Vhen my mother and younger brother diedof hunger, tlr.e manorial lord took my elder sister awayas payment of "death tax" and forced me to become

* Vice-Chairman of the Revolutionary Committee of the TibetAutonomous Region and Secretary of the Ti'bet Autonomous Re-gion Committee of the Chinese Communist partv.

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his slave. His agentthreatened my father:"Pasang is born ourslave. If you dare toresist, we'11 clap youinto prison ancl dragher away tied to ahorsetail."

I was nine when Iwas taken to themanorial lord's estate.T'uvo years Iater, theytook me to Lhasa, andI became house-slaveof his wife Chomaand her daughter. Iwas treated inhuman-Iy, had to perform themost demeaning serv-

estate to another at the

Posong ond other Tibeton womencodres voicing sotisfoction with theresults they hove got by leorning fromthe odvonced experience of Tochoi.

ices, and was driven from onewill of the manorial lord.

They beat and abused me every day. If the butter-teaI served was too hot the vicious Choma would throw itin my face. If it was cold, she used her whip on me. Iwas always black and blue, so that I hurt all over whenI 1ay down and tried to sleep. I had only one badly wornTibetan robe for winter; the rags I used to mop the floorwere my only bedding. In winter I shivered all nightwith the cold.

Choma and her daughter called me "ape" as though Ihad no name, to debase my personality. When they cal1edme that, I had to answer immediately or they would beatme. Every night while Choma chanted her sutras before

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she went 1.o bed, I had to kneel behind her and massageher bacl<. It l didn't do it right, or dozed off, Choma wouldtake ht.r' brooch and poke it into my head. Blood wouldstrelrm driwn, and my head would swim. Nine years ofthis cnsliivement had been almost the death of me.

()nc clay in July 1956 - I rvas 1g years o1d - Choma,srlrrrrghl,cr beat me unconscious because there was no mut-lon in the market and I couldn't buy her. any. Coveredwilh loruises and blood, I groped in the dark. . Whot'orrld save me? I thought of my People's Liberation ArmybLothers and sisters. Tibet had been liberated peacefuilyin 1951, but before Democratic Reform was carried outthe manorial lords continued their rule over the serfs. Atthe thought of the P.L.A. I forgot my pain and looked upat the sl<y. It was pitch dark, but the sky seemed filledwith stars. I made up my mind. That night the masterswere having a party and I took advantage of their drink-ing and carousing to run away. Finally I found the P.L.A.I had longed for day and night.

1 Grow Up with Mao Tsetung Thou,ght

, My life reached a turning point. I began to see thesunshine and live like a human being. The Armymentreated me as their own sister. At first I became a worker,later I was sent to study in a medical training class, thenin a Tibetan cadres school. In the autumn of 1957, I wasgiven the oppcrtunity to study at an inland institute forTibetans. I studied politics and learned to read and write.I began to understand many things about revolution, andmy class consciousness gradually rose. I used to thinkthat it was fate that the manorial lords should crx,-n largeherds of cattle and sheep, and we slaves nothing. In the

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Tibetan institute I studied Chairman Mao's theories on

classes and class struggle and understood why we were

Communist and dedicate my Iife to the struggle for com-

munism.In May 1959 I had the honour of being admitted into

the Communist Party of China. For several days I was

so excited I could hardly sleep. I thought of my past

life and realized I owed my new-found happiness to

Chairman Mao and the Party. I reminded myself that Iwas no longer an ordinary emancipated slave, but a van-guard fighter of the proletariat. From now on I must

redouble my effort to study Marxism-Leninism-MaoTsetung Thought in the course of struggle, and make rev-olution all my life by closely following Chairman Mao's

proletarian revolutionarY line.I returned to Tibet in summer 1959 to take part in the

rebellion bY Tibet's reactionarYled by the Dalai Lama, and inMovement to overthrow the

reactionary system of serfdom. The sharp struggle

educated and tempered me as nothing else could'I became chairman of the Langhsien County women's

association and later deputy head of the county' It was

not easy for me to step from thralldom into the position

of leading cadre, but I studied and acted according to Mao

Tsetung Thought and resolved to overcome difficulties'In autumn 1965, I was asked by the county Party com-

mittee to direct the work of 1,500 people in building a

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highway. Il was shock work. As we neared the laststretch oI the highway we hit a precipice. We blastedfor two wcchs, but progress was s1ow. It looked like we'dIag bchind schedule. I organized the road builders in con-scit'nt,it.rus study of Chairman Mao's brilliant article Th,e

I,'txtl,is/r. Old llIan W'h.o Remoued the Mountains, and thebuildcls were encouraged. They said that in the mannerol' Lhc Foolish OId Man who removed the mountains,lht'v, the emancipated serfs, could trample down thel,housands of miles of plateau if need be. We organized ashock brigade. With the concerted efforts of the masses,combining muscle with brain, we removed the precipicein four days.

In the rush work of building the highway, we ngt onlysuccessfully fulfilled the task the state had entrusted tous, but also there emerged a good many Tibetan activistsin the study of Mao Tsetung Thought, and the study ofChairman Mao's works became a county-wide mass move-ment. I always try to keep in mind Chairman Mao'steachings, persistently disseminate Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought among the erlancipated serfs, andpatiently help them, looking forward to the day whenthey mature.

Paimachiatso was also born into a slave family, suf-fered as I did in the o1d society and has a deep classhatred. I met him in 1962 when I was working in Teng-mu, and we became fast friends. We studied ChairmanMao's writings together and recalled our past sufferingsin contrast with our present happiness. Discussing howto wield power well for the Tibetan people, we talkedover a plan for changing Tengmu's backwardness. NowPaimachiatso has become one of the most competenttownship Party branch secretaries in the county, and

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Tengmu is an advanced township. To help in the studyof Mao Tsetung Thought, I used my own money to buyChairman Mao's works and other political books andperiodicals, and gave them to the cadres and communemembers. Emancipated and educated by Mao TsetungThought, I want to propagate Mao Tsetung Thought. TheParty has brought me up. I want to tell my own ex-perience to encourage my class brothers and sisters toadvance together along the revolutionary road pointedout by Chairman Mao. This is my thinking and what Ihave tried to do since I became a cadre.

Leadership in the Interestof All of Tibet's Nationalities

In 1968, when the Revolutionary Committee was setup for the Tibet Autonomous Region, I was electedvice-chairman. I became concurrently chairman of theLanghsien County Revolutionary Committee when it wasorganized in 1970. I often remind myself : Though myposition has changed, I must not lose the fine qualitiesof the working people; I must never wavelr in my deter-mination to make revolution aI1 my life. Nor must Iwithdraw from the masses, but act in accordance withwhat Chairman Mao teaches us: "Direct reliance on therevolutionary masses is a basic princitrlle of the CommunistParty," and always keep close ties with the people.

Aunty Chihliehpaichen of Chienhsien People's Com-mune, Chintung District, was well known in LanghsienCounty. Over 60, she is an active propagandist of MaoTsetung Thought. During the Great Proletarian CulturalRevolution, Aunty Chihliehpaichen was elected vice-chairman of the Chienhsien People's Commune Revolu-

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tionary Cor-nmittee. I used to stay at her home when Iwur; in Ohintung, and we studied Chairman Mao's worksIogt,llrcr'. We talked about our misery in the old societyitrrrl llrt'happiness of the new. Once she said to me withIt'lrls in hcr eyes, "Pasang, it would be so nice if you wererrry rl;rughter!"

I rrriswered immediately, "Aunty, I am more than yourrlrrrrlhterl" and Chihliehpaichen smiled. I explained Partypolicies to her, and together we criticized and denouncedllrc r"enegade, hidden traitor and scab Liu Shao-chi andhis agents in Tibet for their crimes. She kept me in-lormed on the situation in the village and made revolu-tionary suggestions. When she had news or wanted toset me riglrt on something, she would walk miles to see

Posong discusses with other codres ond commune members newthings they hove leorned from their study of Choirmon Moo's works.

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me in the county town, or send the message to me inLhasa. I learned much from this revolutionary auntyand she always encouraged me forward.

In August 1971, at Tibet's First Party Congress, I waselected secretary of the Chinese Communist Party TibetAutonomous Region Committee. This Party committeewielded power on behalf of the million Tibetan emanci-pated serfs and broad masses of people. For a formerslave, and a woman, to hold such a post was a first everon the Tibetan plateau!

My 72-year-old father used to say to me earnestly:"Daughter, Chairman Mao is the great emancipator ofus Tibetan people, and he is your personal benefactorlYou must be 1oya1 to the Party and people whateverhappens, and wield power well for the emancipatedserfs of Tibet." I will always remember the road I havetraveiled - from the edge of the grave to a second life,from slave to a master of my country - and never forgetChairman Mao and the Communist Party!

During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution I wasmost happy to see Chajrman Mao five times. He is thegreat leader of all China's nationalities. National Day of1966 is the most unforgettable day of my life, for on thatday, as a representative of China's minority nationalities,I met Chairman Mao on the Tien An Men rostrum. Howhappy I was when I shook hands with Chairman Mao!There were so many things I wanted to say to him, butall I could do was to weep tears of grateful happiness andsay to myself, "Chairman Mao, I'I never forget the miserywe have been delivered from. I must arm myself withyour great thinking, and wield power well for the pro-letariat. I witl live up to your expectation."

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Lin Chiao-chihx

'T-he Party Keeps Me Young

T IVING in the excellent situation of China today, andl-rhaving seen the darkness of the old, thoughts floodmy mind: the many changes in New China, the emancipa-tion of her working women, the rapid progress of ourcountry's medical and health work. . . .

But what impresses me most is that, guided by Chair-man Mao's revolutionary line and tempeled by the GreatProletarian Cultur:al Revolution, the broad masses ofChina's intellectuals have changed in mental outlook pro-foundly, and I myself, at 70, feel younger every day.When I recall the road I have travelled, how can I notbe overwhelmed with emotion!

No "Ideal" Aboue Classes Can Be Realized

In my early days I studied in Engiand and the UnitedStates. Since returning to China I have practised medi-

+ Noted gynecologist and obstetrician, Lin Chiao-chih (Dr. KhatiLim) is currently a member of the Standing Committee of theNational People's Congress, a standing committee member of theChinese Medical Association, and head of the department ofgynecology and obstetrics at Peking's Capital Hospital.

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cine for nearly 50 years. One would think I should havelearned long ago how to be a doctor. However, this is notso easy if one wishes to be a doctor really serving thepeople. It involves a thorough change in thinking, feel-ings, and style of work.

In 1921, when I was 19, I came to Peking from my homein Amov, Fukien Province, to take the entrance examina-tion to the Union Medical CoIIege sponsored by Ameri-cans. (The Peking Union Medical College Hospital is nowthe Capital Hospital.) Why did I choose the medical pro-fession? At that time, our motherland was under semi-feudal, semi-colonial ru1e, the labouring people wereoppressed by imperialism and feudalism and tormentedby natural disasters and diseases. Out of sympathy andpity for my fellow-countrymen, and cherishing the ide-ology of "kindliness and love for all" and "happiness inserving and helping people," which takes no account ofclasses, I was eager to be a "good person" capable ofhelping and saving people, to become a doctor with a

"conscience." Chinese women were especially oppressedand discriminated against, but I cherished this ideal andburied myself in medical studies day and night for years.CooI and aloof, I occupied myself in a lone struggle,closing my eyes and ears both to the jeers and ridiculeI got as a woman breaking into the medical profession,and also to the upheavals and unrest all around me. Myefforts, however, could not alleviate the sufferings andhardships of the labouring people in old China. Not onlywas my ideal of helping and saving people unrealized,but the many horrible, cruel happenings in the hospitaleducated me negatively.

One of the U.S. imperialist elements in the hospital,Department of Neurology head Lyman, experimenting

22

with caldiazol to diff erentiate between genuine andsyrnpl,onriitic cpilepsy, injected the drug into 49 men andw()l)r('n patir:nts in the mental ward. The patients werel,lrlowrr into violent convulsions and suffered agonizingirr.j rrr'.y. Lyman callously filmed these horror scenes andwrol(' his thesis on the subject. In doing research workorr lyphus and relapsing fever, another U.S. imperialistr,lcnrt'nt experimented by fastening boxes of lice on(lhincse children. These pitiful, tricked children weresubiected to the greatest suffering from lice-bite andlcver. And there were many more such experiments withhuman beings. We never knew how many Chinese peopledied miserably of the U.S. imperialists' experiments withdr"ugs and bacteria.

Lin Chioo-chih moking o pre-notol exominotion.

Imperialism got material wealth and scientific knowl-edge out of the Chinese people's sweat, blood and bones.IIow could it claim "civilization" and "humanity" ? Ituses rnedical science as a tool in its policies of war andaggression, and yet it mouths "benevolence" and "friend-ship." Science, which should bring happiness to mankind,is used by imperialism to brutally slaughter people. . .

I began to realize how naive and laughable my "con-science" to help and save people was! In a society whereclasses exist, an ideal which takes no class view is onlya dream. No matter how industrious I was in my ownefforts, how adept I was at my calling, I could only servethe wives and daughters of bureaucrats and overlords,and could do nothing to help or save the labouring peopleflom distress.

One Needs the Spirit of Seruing the People

In 1949 our country was liberated, and the sunlight ofthe Party shone into the hospital. As an old intellectualcoming from the old society, I too gained a new lease oflife. I saw with my own eyes the Chinese people, led bythe Party and Chairman Mao, build a socialist state ofinitial prosperity on the ruins of the old society.

I was excited and enthusiastic. I went on workinghard, thinking I could now contribute my share to China'smedical and health work. But I was still shut up a1I daylong in the small ward of the hospital and, as time wentby, became more and more out of touch with the broadmasses o[ the people. I was still serving the minority inthe city.

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution taught methat this situation was due to the interference of the rene-

24

gadc, hiddcn traitor and scab Liu Shao-chi's counter-rev-olttl,iotrrr'.y i'evisionist line which stresses medical andlrt'irlllr wrlrk for the cities, leaving the vast countrysideirr wlrrrL <.rf doctors and meciicine.

Willr his great concern for the broad masses of thel;rlrr,rrring people, the great leader Chairman Mao, in 1965,issrrcd the great call: "In medical and health worh, putlht: stress on the rural areas." This instruction lightedllrt' broad road for the development of medical and healthwork and pointed out the orientation for China's medicalworkers. It 1ed me to understand why medical scienceshould serve the majority, and how to do this.

In response to Chairman Mao's call, I went to thecountryside for the first time in my life, to do mobilemedical work in Hunan Province. I saw for the first timethe admirable, hard-working and plain qualities of thepoor and lower-middle peasants, and these people beganto have a place in my mind.

After liberation, the orientation of my service changedgreatly, but the stress was still not placed right. I didn'tknow the first thing about the broad masses of the poorand lower-middle 4reasants. When they welcomed us as

"the medical team sent by Chairman Mao to the country-side," I felt enthusiastic, but that it was onJ.y natural thatthey should show this respect. I thought that it wascreditable for a person over 60 to go to the countrysideand said to myself, "I've come to save you from yoursufferings."

Once, I was called to help a woman about to give birth.A local girl, who as medical attendant was learning fromme, went along. Upon examining the woman in her home,however, we found her time had not yet come, and I wasa little impatient. But not the medical attendant. As if

25

in her own home, she treated the patient like one of herfamily. Seeing the water vat empty, she went out tofetch water. Theh she lighted a fire in the stove and setabout washing the woman's c).othes, not sitting idle fora minute.

Her warmth and manner deeply moved me. Why wasshe like this? Why was I so cold towards the poor andlower-middle peasants? Although she was not yet myequal professionally, I being more experienced and herteacher, she was head and shoulders above me in serviceto the people, and a model for me to learn from.

At this point, I thought of Chairman Mao's instruction:"If they do not discard the old and replace it by the pro-letarian world outlook, they will rernain different fromthe workers and peasants in their viewpoint, stand andfeelings, and will be like square pegs in round holes."How far from the poor and lower-middle peasants mythinking and feelings were! How different from me wasthe medical attendant, whose feelings were closely linkedwith those of the poor and lower-middle peasants ! Sheconsidered the patient one of her own, and treated herwith such warmth. She often examined patients on herown bed, and covered them with her quilt. Althoughthese were small things, I was unable to do them.

I made friends with this girl medical attendant andlooked on her as my teacher, and for years now we havekept up correspondence. Her skil1 has improved. Now,when I'm lazy or start thinking of personal gains andlosses, I think of her serving the people unstintingly andI am roused and spurred on, inspired to be a new-stylerevolutionary medical worker.

In the wider scope of the rural areas, I kept broaden-ing my views. I was convinced if one does hot have the

26

spiril. ol' st'r'ving the people and Dr, Bethune's feelingsol' rrllor clcvotion to others without any thought of self,('v('n il' onc possesses most superior medical skill one<:itntrol rriake real use of it.

A L)octor Whom Worhers, Peasants,ttuL Soldiers Lihe

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution has greatlyrtvolutionized China's medical and health work. In theshort span of a few years, wonders have been achieved inthe field of medicine which I had never before seen inall the decades of my medical practice, and my thinkinghas also undergone profound changes which had notoccurred in those yeans.

Guided by Chairman Mao's revolutionary 1ine, thebroad masses of medical workers leave their large hos-pitals and go to mountainous areas and the countryside,to the grassroots levels, and to border areas to serve theworkers, peasants and soldiers unreservedly. Comradeshave a significant saying: "When there is illness we senddoctors and medicine, when there is not we send ourwarmth." Our responsibility as medical workers is torelieve the suffering from disease of the broad masses ofthe people. Above all, we should carry the Party andChairman Mao's concern for them to their very hearts,so as to unite our people to struggle together in the so-cialist revolution and socialist construction. This is whatthe work of a people's doctor means.

One who wants to serve the majority and determinesto be conscientious about remoulding one's own worldoutlook must also take active part in day-to-day struggle.

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I had an experience in 1970 that taught me a valuableIesson. A 70-year-old poor peasant woman suffering froma Jarge tumour in her abdomen was admitted to hospitalfrom the countryside in Shantung Province. She toldof her misery in the o1d society and how she sufferedfrom her disease. She could not lie down because of thetumour, and had to sit ali night with her back to the '*'a11.We received her warmly, giving her treatment and asingle room with spring bed, liquid diet, etc.

But after only a few days she asked to leave the hos-pita1. We were surprised. Were we lacking in warmthor care? I talked with her and learned that she felt lone-ly in her single room, and the spring bed was very un-comfortable. With her big tumour, she could hardlybreathe. And, unused to the liquid diet, she always felthungry. I still lacked real understanding of the poor andlower-middle peasant.

When we better understood her symptoms as well as

her thinking, we learned the fine qualities of this oIdpoor peasant who had gone through long years of suffer-ing. After careful study and detailed analysis, we plannedher operation and finally removed the oppressive tumour.It weighed 25 kilogrammes. I gave constant bedside carefollowing the operation, and the other medical workersand nurses did the same. To tempt her to eat we gave herthe Shantung-sty1e pancakes which she liked. When Imade ward rounds, she always took my hands, warmlycalling me "e1der sister," and I called her "elder sister"too. After she recovered, she said excitedly, "It's Chair-man Mao's good doctor who relieved me of my misery!"In my 50 years of medical work, this was the first timeI was referred to in such glowing terms. It was thehighest honour that the poor and lower-middle peasants

had paicl rnc, and I was greatly encouraged. Before re-I rl'rr irrg hornc she went to Tien An Men to have her photo-glrplr tirl<cn there, to express her gratitude to ChairmanlVIiro Our department arranged a farewell for her, whererilrr, irrrd I shouted together: "Long live Chairman Mao!"I t'irrrrrot forget this.

Al't,ci' she left the hospital and went home, we oftenwrolc to each other and she sent me a parcel of pancakes;rnd peanuts, specialities of her native Shantung. HergiLts conveyed the deep affection and ties of the poor:rnd lower-middle peasants. Only after liberation, withthe education of the Party and Chairman Mao, andthrough the cleansing flames of the Great ProletarianCultural Revolution did I find the real way of servingthe workers, peasants and soldiers, and understand whatit means to be a people's doctor.

I realize that being a doctor welcomed by the workers,peasants and soldiers means first fostering proletarianfeelings and understanding their hopes and needs. Onlywhen we really integrate with and learn from them canwe remould our old ideology. It is better to say that Iam daily receiving education and help from worker, peas-ant and soldier patients than that I am daily diagnosingand curing their diseases. I cure their physical ills whilethey treat my sick thinking.

I Feel Younger Euerg Day

For many years now, especially through the Great Pro-Ietarian Cultural Revolution, I have understood well thecare and concern of Chairman Mao and the Chinese Com-munist Party for the intellectuals, and that they are

29

I

particularly concerned and considerate for intellectualsbrought up and educated as I was. I have done very littIefor the Party and the people, who have nevertheless givenme so much. The people elected me deputy to theNational People's Congress and member of its StandingCommittee. Many times I have mounted the Tien AnMen rostrum on National Day and seen the great leaderChairman Mao. Comrades have repeatedly recommendedme for the post of department head. How could I thinkof this in the old society where women were looked downupon! It was the Party and Chairman Mao who enabledthe broad masses of us women to be emancipated, tobecome masters and to raise our political status.

Although I am 70, I am still ful1 of vigour. I feel thatthe road of serving the people becomes broader as I followit, and that I grow younger every day. It is the Partythat has brought spring to my life, the Great ProletarianCultural Revolution that has invigorated my spirit, andit is from the masses that I have drawn strength andwisdom. I feel that I still have much unfinished workto do, tasks given me by my great motherland and thepeople. I have resolved to study Marxism-Leninism-MaoTsetung Thought, conscientiously to remould my worldoutlook and serve the Chinese and the world's people stillbetter.

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Letting out the net.

The "March 8th" Fishing Boats

Huang Hai

ACH spring, fish-ing boats shuttle

back and forth overthe blue expanse ofthe Pohai and Yellowseas. Among them isa pair of deep-seamotor-driven boatspiloted by sirls. Asidefrom a few veteranfishermen along togive them technicalguidance, the captain,first and second mates,engjneers, winch op-erators, radio opera-tors and political in-structors are women.

3t

These are the "March Bth" fishing boats out of Chang-tzu Is1and in Changhai County, Liaoning Province. Ded-icating all their energy to the revolutionary cause, theircrews have operated for a decade and caught 3,700 tonsof fish for the state. The boats are a red banner uniton China's fishing front.

China's Daughters Aim High

Any fishing community knows that going out to sea hasalways been men's work, while women kept busy athome. In 1958 the Party Central Committee and Chair-man Mao called on the Chinese people to "go all out, aimhigh and achieve greater, faster, better and rnore eco-nomical results in building socialism." Like the rest of thecountry, Changtzu Island also responded.

Wen Shu-chen, an 1B-year-o1d fisherman's daughter,was anxious to start work. She recalled the sufferingof the past: In the oId society her family had wanderedfrom place to place trying to make a living. Her parentsdied of starvation and broken health, leaving her a home-Iess waif. . . . It was the Chinese Communist Party andChairman Mao who saved her from this miserable Iife.She stood up as a master of her own country and had ahappy Iife. Conscious of the change in her life betweenyesterday and today, she made up her mind to break thebonds of tradition and become a fisherwoman sailing theseas for the revolution like the men. She and three ofher girl companions went to the Changtzu CommuneParty committee to make their request. The committeeconsidered their proposal, this new thing which showedthe daring spirit of New China's women to think andto do, and approved it.

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"Morch 8th" women crote prownsthey hove cought, reody for shipping.

When the news got around that women were to.goout fishing at sea, tongues started wagging. One said,"Who ever heard of women going deep-sea fishing. Im-possible!" Another said, "Women want to go to sea toshow their strength, do they? Just like a baby chick try-ing to eat a soybean - it'll choke on it!"

"Don't look down on us!" Wen Shu-chen replied to allthis. "As long as we're led by the Party and ChairmanMao, we're not afraid, and we can do anything men cando! Hasn't Chairman Mao said that 'times have changed,and today rnen and women are equal. Whatever mencornrades can accomplish, women comrades can too'? Wewomen aren't cripples, why can't we go out to sea?"

But the revolutionary course wasn't all plain sailing.Their second day out the four girls ran into a storm. Agale came up, and their boat rolled and pitched on therough sea. In no time all four were seasick, and theywere ordered below. Lying in her bunk, Wen Shu-chenthought how she had expressed her determination to theParty, and what the commune Party committee had toldher before they set out. "Stand against the wind andwaves, break a new path for island women."

Crawling out of her bunk, she encouraged the othergirls. "Seasickness isn't so much. Everything's hard inthe beginning. If the Red Army overcame aII the diffi-culties of the Long March, why can't we get over ourseasickness?" The girls plucked up and went up on deck.They worked the sculls, hauled in the net and sorted fish.Their seasickness didn't bother them much, and theygradually got used to iife on the sea.

Following the example of Wen Shu-chen, another groupof girls soon started deep-sea fishing. Changtzu Com-mune bought a new pair of 60-h.p. motor-driven boatsin 1960. To commend Wen Shu-chen and her women'steam for their daring, the commune Party organizationnamed the boats the "March Sth" unit. The boats alwaysoperate together and Wen Shu-chen became the unit'sfirst captain, to the great joy of the women.

Wen Shu-chen had no formal schooling and did notunderstand the technical work involved in running aboat, but she learned as she worked. Unable to read thecharts, she asked an old seaman to teach her. With warmhelp from her comrades and getting used to the sea, WenShu-chen became the acknowledged leader of the "MarchSth" team. In 1962 they caught over 500 tons of fish, agood record for the year. People who had been doubtlul

34

beforc could not help exclaiming that the women of NewChina irlr: r't:ally capable!

Sin<:t' Wi'n Shu-chen becarne captain of the "MarchBth" lr';rrn, she has always been concerned about the[)r'()lir'(,srsi of other fisherwomen. Whenever newcomersrrrrivr,<l she joined them in studying Chairman Mao'swor ks and talked with them about her experience in;rlrpl.ying Mao Tsetung Thought to fishing. She tel1s themlrow the women before them have fought wind and wavesorr the seas. When she sees the unskilled hands of thencwcomers, she shows them how to manage,

During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, themasses elected Wen Shu-chen to the new leading groups,

The first coptoin, Wen Shu-chen (centre),chotting with some veteron fishermen.

and she became vice-chairman of the Luta City andChanghai County revolutionary committees. In April1969 she attended the Ninth National Congress of theCommunist Party of China and was received by ChairmanMao.

The Mahln1 of a Captain

The "March Bth" unit gains experience, and a genera-tion of new women matures. In early 1968, the 18-year-old daughter of a fisherman, Chang Chien-hua, went tosea. She had been inspired while in primary school byher teacher's moving story of Wen Shu-chen and the"March 8th" unit, and had made up her mind that whenshe grew up she would follow Wen Shu-chen to sea.

Her first day on board, Chang Chien-hua was given alesson on class struggle by the old fisherman Shih Yueh-hsiu, who contrasted the bitter life of the old society withthe good life in the new. Wen Shu-chen gave her a note-book and encouraged her to study Chairman Mao's worksconscientiously. "Fishing for the revolution is what Iwant to do," Chang Chien-hua wrote in the notebook."Fighting wind and waves, I won't fear hardships or dif-ficulties." Er.eryone said that Chang Chien-hua had thevitality, boldness and drive characteristic of the girls ofNew China. After half a year of work on board she wasadmitted to the Communist Party. Before long she be-came the captain of the "March 8th" unit, succeedingWen Shu-chen.

It was quite a responsibility. "I haven't been to seavery long," Chang Chien-hua thought. "Can f lead acrew?" Then she realized that paths are made by peoplewalking, and that someone had to carry the heavy 1oad.

36

One windy day not long after she became captain,Chang (llricn-hua was in the whcelhouse directing thehaulirrpl ol' the net. She 1et lhe helm s1ip, and becausethr. lrrxrl was not in the right position, the net slippedttrrrlclrrt'irt,h. Much was at stake. The boat must beprorrrpl,ly brought around and the net pulled out, or itcorrlrl vcry quickly foul the propeller. The people on deckrlroutcd to her to bring the boat around. Chang Chien-huarrst'd all her strength but the boat did not budge. Whatwas she to do? Fortunately the o1d fisherman Shih Yueh-hsiu saw what the trouble was and told her to put thehelm hard to port.

That night Chang Chien-hua could not sIeep. She wentup on deck and studied Chairman Mao's Serue the People,In Memory oJ Norman Bethune ar,d The Fooltsh ald ManWho Remoued the Mountains under the anchor light. She

was thinking of the day's events and realized that onereason she had been so nervous was that she did not havethe Foolish Old Man's spirit of despising difficulties.Another was her lack of skill at the heIm, which showedthat she was not constantly perfecting her technique as

Dr. Bethune did. She wrote in her notebook what shelearned from that day's incident, and after that shestudied Chairman Mao's works more conscientiously.

To become familiar with the habits of the fish shoals,Chang Chien-hua asked older fishermen to teach her as

thcy worked. She observed and studied the surface ofl"hc sca in different areas, and the movements of otherIishing boats. Whenever an experienced hand was atthe helm, she would watch in the wheelhouse how he heldthe wheel, set the course and told the wind direction. Shestudied the charts and followed the course. Modest and

37

diligent, she made rapid progress, finally becoming acaptain with firm will and technical skill.

One morning as Chang Chien-hua and the others werefishing well out in Pohai Bay, the sky suddenly darkenedand a gale blew up. One giant wave after another rolleddown on the two boats. Chang Chien-hua ordered the nethauled in at once - a dangerous job with the boats rollingand pitching. After a short, tense battle, they got thenet up and headed for the port of Chinwangtao at fullspeed. The wind got stronger and the waves higher. Sud-denly a wave broke right over one of the boats, washingthe hold-cover into the sea. Water filled the hold andthe boat began to sink. Captain and crew started thepumps and began bailing furiously to beat the storm andsave state property. After battling two days and a night,the "March Bth" unit sailed safely into port at Chinwang-tao.

Flshing for the Reyolution

The girls of the "March Bth" unit say, "We fear neitherhardship nor death to fish for the revolution." This col-lective keeps training people with wisdom, strength andcourage.

Chao Shu-ying joined the crew in 1969. When she gotover her first seasickness she was assigned to the engineroom where the smell of oil made hei: sick all over again.But she stuck it out and kept on working. She nevercomplained about getting covered with grease.

Chao Shu-ying was on duty one night after the boatshad dropped anchor. When she went into the engine roomto inspect, she discovered water in the boat, which almost

tcovercd lhc clutch. She must start the engine and pumpthe wll,t'r'out,, or the next day's fishing would not onlybc :il'l't'<'l,r'd but the engine would be damaged. Althoughshr. lrrrtl rrt'ver started the engine by herself, she must try.Wlr,,n lrcr' lirst two attempts failed, she thought of Chair-rrrlrrr lVliro's teaching, "Be brave, firm and cool, and learnirr llrc struggle." She calmly analyzed why she had fail-r,rl, rrnd then started the engine at the third try, and

;rrrrrrpcd out the water.Chi Kuei-ying, a graduate of the Luta City Normal

School, joined the "March Bth" in 1969 with the desireto learn from the fishermen, temper and remould herselfinto a person with the thoughts and feelings of the work-ing people. Hardship and difficulty steeled her into afirm, unyielding young woman.

One day as they were hauling in the net a big windcame up, and the waves started to beat the net back intothe sea. Instantly Chi Kuei-ying jumped onto the netand held on with both hands, until finally she and otherswho came to help her fought the wind and waves andhauled the net up.

With the winter snows of 1969, the fish moved southin the Yellow Sea. According to past practice, the timehad come for the fishermen's winter rest. To keep onfishing would mean going to the distant open seas southof the Shantung peninsula where waters were rough andclangcrous even in calm weather. Only big boats attempt-cd it. The high seas presented many problems for 60-h.p.boats such as those of the "March Bth." But the girlswanted to have a try. "We like the wind and waves,"they said. After they had prepared for sailing in a snow-storm, they set out for the deep seas. They caught over

30 tons of fish in less than a month, establishing a prec-edent for small boats in winter fishing.

With the arrival of the shrimp season in the autumn of1971 the girls of the "March Bth" unit confidentiy sailedout and prepared for big hauls. They got good catches andfulfilled their quota. And they continue making newcontributions to the building of socialism.

40

Wornen Fliers

Hsin Kung-guan

women fliers was formedWomen's Day in 1952 byAn Men Square.

/-:HINA'S first squadron ofLrin tgiO. They celebratedflying in formation over Tien

P.L.A. women oir force pilots exchonging flight experience.

Many women fliers have matured in the 22 years sincethen. Conscientiously studying and applying MaoTsetung Thought, they are developing a proletarian ide-ol.ogy and continuously revolutionizing their thinking.With China and the world at heart, they fIy for the rev-olution and the building of socialism.

One of these women is Chu Hui-fen whose familyslaved for generations for landlords. In 1939, when shewas two years o1d, the Japanese invaders ravaged Chia-ting, her home town near Shanghai. Foreign aggressionon top of class oppression left the family with no way tolive. Carrying their few belongings on his shoulder po1e,

her father took the family and begged their way to Shang-hai. He did back-breaking work for the capitalists butthe family still went hungry. Then, exhausted andstarved, he died, followed very soon by Chu Hui-fen's'younger brother, who died of starvation. Her motherwent to work as a maidservant in a capitalist family tiIlshe too died one ra\^r, snowy day in 1944. Within threeyears, the vicious society had killed three of the family.The orphaned girl roamed the streets of Shanghai alone,keeping herself alive with discarded melon rinds androtten vegetable leaves. Hatred for the exploiting classesand the aggressors of her motherland burned in her likea hot coal.

Then Chairman Mao and the Communist Party led thepeople to freedom. Shanghai was liberated in 1949, andChu Hui-fen was rescued from her misery and sent toschool. In 1956 she came to the air force. She stood be-fore a portrait of Chairman Mao in her new uniform, andtears welled in her eyes. There was so much she wantedto say, but she put it all in the words, "Chairman Mao,I owe everything to you!"

42

Her' f irs1, difficulty in training was not having enoughsttength. Lcarning to fly a twin-engined plane with onlyont'r'nginc running, when she had to put both feet on1,hc lrrrlrlcr', she would perspire profusely and get exhaust-r,rl, lrr,r' lcct aching for a long time after each practice.'l'lrr, srluudron's Party branch helped her compare thelrrr ,rrr,nt, good life of the working people with the exploi-lrrlion and oppression they suffered in the old society.('lrr-r Hui-fen's simple class feeling rose to a higher polit-it'al awareness of class struggle and the struggle betweenlhe two lines. She drew strength from Chairman Mao'stcaching, "trn times of difficulty we must not lose sight ofour achievements, must see the bright future and mustpluck up our courage." She persisted in daily physicaltraining, running and working out on the athletic wheelwith the men fliers. As she developed her strength, sheredoubled her study of Chairman Mao's works and be-came a competent flier. On June 1, 1962, she was admittedto the Chinese Communist Party. Today she is a deputygroup commander.

Chu Hui-fen and her comrades-in-arms were once as-signed the urgent task of rescuing a Red Guard who hadbeen wounded while on duty. They took off that nightin face of a strong wind and after a whole day's workout.

Hui-fen said: "Chairman Mao has taught us: 'Our dutyis to hold ourselves responsible to the people.' The Red(luulds have made great contributions in the CulturalItt'volution. We must discharge our duty without delay."

1l'hcy quickly got their plane ready and, at the order totake olf, soared into the sky. The flight was of several hours'duration. Then they landed, and Chu Hui-fen helpedcarry the Red Guard onto the plane. The attending doctorsand nurses went aboard and they took off again.

43

The flight back was through clouds and it was rough,but Chu Hui-fen kept firm hold on the control lever. Thenshe thought: "Before the liberation, I went about witha begging bowl in my hand. Now I hold the control leverof a plane for my motherland. The Party trusts me. Imust faithfully serve the Party and the peopIe." Withthis thought she climbed higher, out of the clouds, so

the wounded Red Guard would have a smoother journey.The temperature in the plane fell at the high altitude

and the crew again thought of the Red Guard. Was hewarm enough? They offered to cover him with theirclothes, though none of them had worn their heavy suits.Chu Hui-fen and her comrades-in-arms relaxed only aftertheir wounded passenger was safely in hospital.

Communist Party member Yueh Hsi-tsui was alreadya fine flier when she had just turned 20. She constantlykeeps in mind Chairman Mao's injunction to "build apowerful people's air force to defend the motherland."By studying hard she finished the theoretical courses inaeronautics in a short time. But just before she startedftight training, she felt a numbness in her joints. Thedoctor diagnosed it as arthritis and advised against train-ing for a while. Yueh Hsi-tsui was very disturbed. Wouldthis mean that she might never f1y? Urged by the leader-ship and the doctors, however, she finally agreed toundergo treatment.

In the hospital she studied Chairman Mao's teachingon daring to struggle and to win, and felt more confidentthat she could overcome her illness. She kept up herstudy of Chairman Mao's works and spent hours outdoorsevery day doing physical exercises, even in mid-winter.She practised sweeping off the hospital skating rink atrest intervals. When the tleatment and exercise had im-

44

proved hcr condition, she requested to return to ftighttraining.

Bacl< in her unit, having fallen far behind the others,she practised running three kilometres every day.

'l'lrt' lcadership soon decided she could resume her flight(r'lrirrirrg. How happy she was as she climbed into thecor:l<pit! But she had trouble in landing, bringing the;rlrrnc in either too high or too low. Even with her instruc-l,or"s help she faiied to make the grade.

Yueh Hsi-tsui turned to Chairman Mao,s teaching:"Will the Chinese cower before difficulties when theyare not afraid even of death?" She decided she must trainher eyes rigorously, and would do this wherever she was.

On the bus back from the airfield she would fix hereyes on an object ahead and practise estimating distance,

Discussing their study of Choirmon Moo's works.

as she had to when landing the plane. Tired when shegot back to the barracks, she would sti1l practise with thetransparent plastic map case, holding it like a cockpitwindshield in front of her eyes and, taking the floor belowas her runway, running up and down the stairs to trainher eyes. She conquered her difficulty and took to theskies.

Comrnunist Party member Yu Fu-lan is anotherstaunch woman member of the squadron.

Once, when heavy rains and rising waters threatenedto breach a reservoir and sandbags were urgently neededto save nearby factories and towns, the leadership decidedto air-drop them. Yu Fu-lan and her comrades weregiven the task.

Their plane took off in the storm. The reservoir layamong hills 100 metres high and shrouded in low-hangingclouds. Getting below the clouds and into position forthe drop involved the danger of a crash, but Yu Fu-Ianand her comrades did not hesitate to take the plane downto 200, 100, then B0 metres. StiII they saw nothing butclouds. Command then ordered them back to base toconsider another plan.

On the way back, Yu Fu-Ian looked at the pile of gunnybags on the plane and thought of the poor and lower-middle peasants who were waiting for them in their fightagainst the flood. At the base she reported to commandand, backed by the whole crew, asked for permission totry again. "The people are waiting for the bags," she

said. "\Me must deliver them!" After serious considera-tion, the leadership agreed. Yu Fu-lan and her comradessummed up their experience on the first flight and di.s-

cussed how to cope with the problems a second time.Then they took off again.

46

A bold and careful navigator, Yu Fu-lan plotted theplane's cor.lrso. At 80 metres there was still the blanketof densc r:loud. They were already flying lower thansonrt' ol l,ht-' hilltops. "Drop another 20 metres," Yu Fu-lan l,oltl l.he pilot. They broke through the clouds andsrrrlrlcrrl.y saw the reservoir in plain sight. The flood-l'ililrlr,r's were waving their hands. Dodging the hills, thew()nr(,n fliers circled low over the reservoir and droppedllrc bundles of bags precisely on target.

Hsin Hua

Women Oil Extractors of Taching

,.\NE morning in September 1970, as glorious rays of\-/tfru sun reddened the expanFie of sky over TachingOilfield, about a hundred young women oil extractors,led by the political instructor Chao Ching-chih and threeveteran workers, went to the spot where "Iron Man"Wang Chin-hsi dug Taching's first oil well 10 years ago.

They went there to learn the spirit of "Iron Man" Wangand Taching's admirable tradition of the battle for China'soiI production. This was Taching's first all-women oilextr"acting team, formed not long ago. Its members'average age rvas 21. A11 had been brave Red Guards atthe early stage of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolu-tion, and most had been to Peking for review by Chair-man Mao at Tien An Men Square. Acting on ChairmanMao's teachi.ng to become one with the workers and peas-ants, they had come to Taching from various parts ofthe country.

Today, guided by Mao Tsetung Thought and inspiredby the spirit of Wang Chin-hsi, the women oil extractorsare playing their part in the work at the Taching Oi1fie1d.

48

Women oil extroctors of Toching Oilfield.

They have successfully managed dozens of oil wells andare praised as an "Iron Girls" oil extracting team.

Brauing Difflcultles

From the day of its formation, the young women's oilextracting team faced up to difficulties. Just beforeOctober 1 of 1970, China's National Day, the team deter-mined to put a new oil well into production earlier thanplanned, regarding this as a gift at the celebration ofChina's 21st birthday. But the difficulties were many.Electricity was still not laid on, and at night they couldn'tsee their hands before their faces. The water-jacketheater for the oil pipeline needed water, and the water-tank truck had not arrived. The dewaxing equipment

49

weighing several hundred kilogrammes was a mile away.What should they do - wait, or create the conditions?The girls tall<ed this over and decided to be like "IronMan" Wang Chin-hsi. "We'11 beat the difficulties andsee that a new oil well is producing ahead of time!" theysaid.

The struggle for the new oil well began. The girls soonhad the electric line up. In rain and mud they carriedwater, bucket by bucket, from a pond hundreds of metresaway to fill the water-jacket heater, which held a tonof water. After that they moved the heavy dewaxingequipment to the well. The girls were soaked throughwith rain and sweat; their shoulders were swollen fromcarrying loads. Their legs and faces were raw and sore.But no one complained. They said proudly: "We missedthe opportunity to do the pioneerjng work in the hardbattle to open the oilfield. Neither have we experiencedthe test of war flames as our elder comrades did in theearly days of the revolution, when they had only mouth-fuls of parched flour between mouthfuls of snow to eatwhile fighting. Why shouldn't we stand a little hardshiptoday, if it means more oil to support China's socialistconstruction and the world revolution!" After severaldays' intense work, the girls had their first success. Athalf past eleven on the night of September 30, their newoil well went into production. The sound of crude oilgushing forth and streaming into the conveyer pipe wasmusic to the girls' ears, and they were all smiles.

Struggling against the severe cold and blizzards of theirfirst winter, the women's team overcame more difficul-ties and kept the oil flowing.

Chang Tsai-feng, one on the team, was born in a poorpeasant family which suffered bitterly in the o1d society

50

and she had deep class feeling. Her parents died toilingfor a landlord. Chairman Mao had rescued the gir'l fromthe abominable o1d society and trained her as an oilwolkcr. At the oilfield, the team became like her ownfamily. She took pride in doing hard jobs, and did herworl< carefully, devoting her energy to developing China'spcl,r'oleum industry. One day in the winter of 1970, whent,hc temperature suddenly dropped, she noticed a water-jacket heater not working smoothly. There was dangerof the heater freezing, and the oil well to stop functioning.Braving the biting cold, she opened the outlet valve, drewout buckets of water, and returned them into the circula-tion system. But the well cover was crusted with ice,and there was no place to put the bucket. So she heldit in her arms and was splashed all over by the steamand hot water when they spurted out. Her clothes frozestiff in the driving wind. She set her jaw and kept onworking until the heater started functioning properly andthe oil gushing smoothly.

Chiao Ching-iien, another of the women oiI extractors,came to Taching with a strong will to be re-educated bythe working class and to temper herself in difficult cir-cumstances. She displayed the revolutionary spirit offearing neither hardship nor death in whatever she did.Once, on an inspection tour, she noticed burning oilvapours leaking out of a separator valve. They had beenset afire by a gas burner for water-jacket heating. ChiaoChing-lien ran for a fire extinguisher and rushed to thespot to protect the we1Is, disregarding her own safety.IJer eyebrows and hair were singed, but she did not re-treat half a step till she had closed the separator, prevent-ing escape of the oil vapours and saving state property.

Scientific Management

The underground strata of the several dozen oil andwater we11s the team worked on were mostly under lowpressure. The movements of oil, water and pressurebelow the earth's surface were variable and unsteady,and could mean uncertain oi1 production. This was anew problem on their way of continuing the work - howto manage such oil wells so as to produce more and betteroil for the state. One was most difficult to manage. Ithad much wax, and often failed to function. The girlsstudied Chairman Mao's teaching: "Practice, knowledge,again practice, and again knowledge," and first noted andexperimented with the laws of movement of undergroundoil, water and pressure. Then they studied in relation tothe difficult problems that arose in managing the well,while referring to veteran workers' experience in manag-ing unruly oil wells. Thus they worked out methods andsolved the problem of a well with much wax.

The women's team had not repaired oil wells ormeasured well pressure, both jobs being done by specialteams. With improvement of their skil1 in managing oilwells, the girls volunteered for the jobs. To provideequipment for repairing oil wells and measuring pressure,deputy team leaders Liu Kuang-yuan and Li Chi-chihpushed carts to collect discarded used rnaberials from theTaching grassland, from which they ma e a hydraulicapparatus in their spare time and used it for weII repair-ing. Measuring well pressure is hard work and meansgetting up before dawn and going to bed at midnight. Itinvolves lowering a very heavy plressure gauge to thebottom of the weII, several thousand metres. It used tobe done only by men workers. But the "Iron Girls" said,

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"If the men can measure weII pressure, so can wewomen." With the help of veteran workers, and withpracticcr, the girls soon learned how.

Knowing how to measure well pressure helped the girlsundclslarnd better the laws of variation in the under-grrrund oil-bearing strata. They used the apparatus theyhirtl nrade with their own hands and measured the under-ground strata of every oil weII to collect first-hand data,which they then studied and analysed. Now they canmeasure the pressure of all the team's oil and water wellsby themselves. Once a heavy rain came after midnight.It was time to collect the needed data for two of the welIs.Teng Yen-hsia, a Communist Youth League member, saidfirmly: "A delay in measuring the well means less datafrom which to judge the stratum. With Mao TsetungThought as guide and "Iron Man" Wang Chin-hsi as

example, we'11. certainly get the data we want." Bringingwith them the pressure-measuring tools, the girls set outin the storm and succeeded in collecting the data on thetwo wells. The women oil extractors worked in aII kindsof weather and with sustained effort to learn to knowthe oilfield's variation below the earth's surface. Theyhave now measured each of their oil wells 230 times andaccumulated about 10,000 data from them, providing aIarge amount of first-hand information needed for thescientific manag€ment of oil wells.

*

Nurtured by Mao Tsetung Thought and tempered inthe class struggle, struggle for production and scientificexperiment, the women oil extracting team has maturedsteadily in the past year and more. Many of them havebeen admitted to the Chinese Communist Partv or to the

53

Chinese Communist Youth League. Some have becomecadres of the women's team or elected members of theTaching Oilfield Party committee. Known among theteam members as "Little Iron Woman," Chang Tsai-fenghas studied Chairman Mao's works conscientiously sincejoining the team and has been trained into an advancedwoman oi1 worker in a little over a year. By carryingforward the revolutionary spirit of Taching, the youngwomen oil extracting team has made its contribution tothe deve).opment of China's petroleum industry. As teamrepresentative, Lu Tseng:hua has come to Peking andhad the joy of seeing our great leader Chairman Mao,which has greatly inspired the whole team. Now, theseyoung women are determined to live up to ChairmanMao's hopes and make still greater contributions to thedevelopment of China's petroleum industry.

54 55

Kung Yeh

Housewives Can MakeElectronic Equipment

THE West District No. 1 Transistor Equipment FactoryI in Peking used to be a neighbourhood workshop

where steelyards were made and scales repaired. Mostof the workers had been housewives and had little formaleducation, but in just five years they have succeeded inturning out various electronic products which fill needsin hundreds of factories throughout the country. Someof these products have had favourable comments byfriends from abroad at the Chinese Export CommoditiesFair in Kwangchow-.

It may be wondered how these women, who werehousewives, are able now to make this modern equipment.

The Women Dare to Do

In 1965 the workshop was asked to trial-produce adiffusion furnace with automatic temperature controlwhich had been designed hy the revolutionary studentsand teachers of Tsinghua University as a proiect in

their scientific re-search plan. Hearingthat it was an im-portant item for theelectronics industryand had been on thelist of the imperialists'embargo against Chinafor a long tirne, thewomen workers deter-mined to take un thistask for their mother-land, though none ofthem was an electri-cian, let alone a tech-nician or engineer.

When a skepticscoffed that it wasnonsense ,tor house-wives even to think ofmaking a diffusionfurnace, the \\,omen

were adamant "Why can,t we women add a brick tosocialist construction?', they argued back. ,,Men andwomen are equals in the new society.,, And, backedby the Party branch, they decided to try. Li Hua, WangChin-tsai, Sung Chin-Ian and some other women workersand a few newcomers who had just completed secondaryschool were put in charge.

The Party branch secretary, Ti Jung-hsueh, calledthem together to study Chairman Mao,s inspiring essay,The Faolish O\"d Man Who Remoued. the Mountuins."The Foolish OId Man could remove mountains,,, he said.

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Women workers ossembling high-precision outomotic temperoture-

control diffusion furnoces.

"Whal, i[ wc haven't a higher education? We're peopleoI thc n('w cra with the spirit of the Foolish O1d Man."Li Ilrrit, a child bride in the old society, whom the Partylcsr:uccl l'r'om her sadness after the liberation, was im-llrt'sst'rl . She said with conviction, "With Mao Tsetung'l'1ro111,11 ; to guide us, we can overcome our difficultiesirrrrl rrra[<e that furnace!"

llclying on their own efforts, they started out int'r :rnrped quarters-a reed and clay cabin with asphaltIclt roof, ten square metres in area.

The first step in making a diffusion furnace is to soldera device with almost a thousand components. This initialtechnique requires ability to read the circuit diagram. Itlooked to the women that they would not be able to makethe first step. They went to Tsinghua University foradvice. To Li Hua, who had never been to school at all,the diagram was just a :nraze of spider webs. With the

Li Huo (left) ond mony other workers ot the foctory who, like her, werehousewives before, now moke modern electronic industriol equipment.

warm and patient help of the university students, how-ever, they soon learned to read the diagram, and theybegan to work. Soldering is a simple job, but when LiHua took up the small, light soldering iron, her handtrembled, for she was used to handling 20-kilogrammeweights. Following Chairman Mao's teaching: "Whatreally counts in the world is conscientiousness, and theCommunist Party is most particular about being conscien-tious," she practised with great care. She first cut thesoldering metal into very small pjeces and soldered themone by one over the lead holes, finally becoming quiteskilled at it.

Wang Chin-tsai, mother of three children, went to theuniversity to learn soldering in the daytime; then in theevening she returned to the workshop where she practisedwhat she had learned and exchanged. experience withothers. Thus this housewife, who had only two years'schooling, became one of the skilled technicians in thisline.

Learning U)hile Doing

Flaving finished their study at the university in amonth, the women returned to the workshop where theywere warmly welcomed by their fellow-workers. Trial-production of the diffusion furnace was to begin.

Li Hua and the other women workers had learned tomake the furnace controls, but none of them knew howto make the furnace body. They studied the problen-rfand also sent several workers to other plants which wereequipped with diffusion furnaces. They were told thatit was impossible for people who knew nothing aboutthermodynamics to make a diffusion furnace. So they

5B

invited an cxpert from a research institute to teach themaboul, l.hal. The expert was enthusiastic about helpingthem, tclling them many basic principles so that theylcarncrl a lot. But how to apply the principles and makelr I'rr ltrncc?

"Lcl,'s learn while doing," they said. "Chairman Maol,r,ru:lrcs us: 'Our chief method is to learn warfare(hrough warfare."'

"That's it," they agreed. "As the saying goes, 'To seesomething once is better than hearing about it a hundredtimes, but to do a thing once is better than seeing it ahundred tirnes.'"

They tried again and again, and finally worked outmethods and made many parts of the furnace. Still theycouldn't set up a constant-temperature zone without whichthere could be no diffusion furnace. The women worked

on it day and night,but failed to solve theproblem.

They reported thetrouble to the Partybranch comrades, whocalled a meeting of allthe workers to puttheir heads together.Woman worker KuoChing - chih outlinedfor the assembledworkers their progressand their difficulties,and asked for advice.There were many sug-gestions. When some-

Wong Chin-tsoi checking on outo-motic temperoture-control unit,

59

one mentioned the long tube in the furnace and how a

furnace was not like an ordinary cooking stove, Kuo sud-denly got an idea. It was true, the two were differentin structure, but the principles of the furnace and of thecooking stove were the same. It was easier to maintainconstant temperature in the stove because the stove hadno cold air in it, while in the furnace, it was hot in themiddle and cooler at both ends.

Someone added, "If we change the winding of the heat-ing elements so that there're more coils at the end.s andless in the middle, that might stabilize the temperature."

This method was tried and did in fact lessen the dif-ference in temperature inside the furnace. After over30 experiments, they worked out a rational. winding ofthe heating elements and produced a constant tempera-ture zone. Thus, after more than a hundred failures andsetbacks and seven months' hard work, these formerhousewives, who could only make steelyards, made thefirst high-precision automatic temperature-control diffu-sion furnace of advanced type.

On to Further Achievement

After crossing the threshold of the electronics industry,the women did not stop. The furnace they had madeused electronic tubes. During the Great FroletarianCultural Revolution, they proposed to the Party branchand the revolutionary committee that they try to makea transistorized diffusion furnace. The leaders supportedthe proposal.

They studied the diagram carefully in the light of theirexperience, broke through o1d restrictions and introducedbold innovations, overcoming one difficulty after another.

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-lhe lcsLrlL was their first transistorized diffusion furnace,srir.np)c btrL o-[ advanced level and with special features.Al'tcr' tt.sts by various departments, the diagram wassclcr:t,t'd as a standard pattern in China. Tsinghua Uni-vr,r'riil.y included it in its textbooks.

'l'lrt' ncws lhat this small factory has produced modernr Ii l'l rrsir.rn f urnaces, and furthermore that houserviveslr;rvc become electronic technicians, spread throughoutLlrc country. People have come from factories in otherparts of the country to study its experience. Foreignlriends have also been welcome visitors here.

61

Hung Nung

Iron Girls Team of Tachai

ETNERGETIC young women throughout China's coun--L-Llryside have formed shocl< forces which have be-come known among the people as Iron Girls teams.Guided by Mao Tsetung Thought, they take an activepart in class struggle, the struggle for production andscientific experiment. These young women, with theirhearts and minds set on farming for the revolution andnot afraid oI hard work, play an important role in build-ing China's socialist new countryside.

The first Iron Girls team was formed in the TachaiFroduction Brigade of lJsiyang County in Shansi Prov-ince. The county now has 457 of. these groups, with5,200 young women members.

The team was formed in a hard battle against nature.In August 1963, heavy rains fell steadily for a week,raging through Tachai in the middle section of theTaihang Mountain Range. Most of the houses and cave-dwellings collapsed, while field embankments, and evensome stone dams, were s'wept aw-ay. It was the mostserious disaster in a centuly. The poor and lower-middlepeasants of Tachai did not accept the consequences ofthis calamity, however, but rose heroically in the

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emergency. Led by the brigade Party branch, they studiedChairman Mao's teaching: "Of all things in the world,peoplo arc the rnost precious. Under the leadership ofthc Cornmunist Party, as long as there are people, er/eryhind of miracle can be perforrned." They refused therclir:f .l unds, grain and other aid offered by the state,'hlrving lesolved to rely on their own efforts to overcomet,hc destruction caused by the flood - to rebuild theirvillage into a new Tachai.

The task at hand \,vas gigantic. They had to build newhomes, salvage the cr'ops, repair the washed-out terraces

"lron Girls" of Tochoi defy the elements ond every difficulty tocut rocl< ond build new terroced formlond for the revolution.

and rebuild the dams. It was in face of these formidabletasks that 23 young women formed the first shock team.These girls, who ranged in age from 14 to 18, with basicschool education, were led by a poor peasant's daughternamed Chao Su-lan first of all to reset the battered plantson dozens of hectares of muddy fields. Not stoppingeven when the hot August sun was directly overhead atmidday, they raised each plant by hand. Not one of thegirls thought of complaining about her aching back orsore muscles!

The crop was gathered that autumn, but the repair ofthe terraces remained for the winter. These young womenkept up their iron spirit, and they joined the mencommune members working in snow, or at temperaturesas low as 20 degrees below zero centigrade. The partybranch comrades became concerned for these girls andurged them to leave such hard work to the men, but theywould not. "We should learn from our elders. Theolder generation didn't get tired when they built Tachai,and we won't get tired either till we've built it anew.,,The commune members said these girls were made ofiron, and the name stuck.

That was nine years ago. .Since then, the team,sleadership has changed three times and new membershave succeeded the o1d, but these groups have remaineda young and vital force in the continued development ofTachai's agriculture. The girls plunge into any job thatneeds to be done

- sowing, hoeing, harvesting - and also

jobs that were formerly considered as requiring peoplewith special skills.

The Iron Girls tackle the hardest jobs, One year, asidefrom the field work, they went into the mountains to

64

.qather grass for compost. It was hard work, out earlyand back late, and the girls' hands were cut and bleeding;still they never complained. In ten days they cut 55

lons of grass.

Last year, fostering their elders' revolutionary spiritof rself-reliance and hard struggle, the Tachai Iron Girlstcam joined in the work of levelling the land into smoothfields. In order to remove a hi1l, the Party branch de-cided lo break a path on it for bulldozers to get into posi-tion for pushing earth down from the top. Who was todo the job? It was the Iron Girls team that took it on.

Wielding picks amidst flying sand, they went aboutfilling in gullies. Kuo Ai-lien seemed always to be wherethe work was hardest. At the end of a deep gul1y wherea slope was so steep she couldn't even stand there, shethought that as a Communist she must not lose heart.She dug a toe-hold with her pick and steadied herselfagainst a rock, and a dozen girls were able to follow her.Once, they wanted to pull down a dam and move thestone to another place, and the Iong, steep slope wouldnot take wheelbarrows. But they said proudly, "Ifwheelbarrows can't make it, we can carry the stone onour shoulders !" With that, the team of girls with theheavy loads slung from shoulder poles moved all thestone and built the path for the bulldozers.

But to describe these girls only as shock workers inproduction would give a one-sided picture. They arealso a good propaganda team of Mao Tsetung Thought.Taking time to visit the homes of poor and lower-middlepeasants, they hear and popularize accounts of classstruggle. This helped raise their class consciousness andthat of the commune members. At the same time they

65

help oId folks who cannot read to study Chairman Mao,sworhs. They also compose short songs and dances tellingabout outstanding people in the mass movement for thestudy of Mao Tsetung Thought and in the struggle toremake nature, and give performances for the communemembers.

In the storm of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolu-tion, the Iron Gir1s affirm the great victories of ChairmanMao's revolutionary line with their songs and dances,which are also a weapon against the revisionist line ofthe renegade, hidden traitor and scab Liu Shao-chi and hisagents in the brigade, who tried to restore capitalism there.

The Tachai Iron Girls are brought up with Mao TsetungThought. The brigadeParty branch often ex-plains to them the classstruggle and the strug-gIe between the twolines of socialism andcapitalism in their loca1-ity and in the countryas a whole, in the pastas well as at present.The Party branch alsoeducates them in I\{aoTsetung Thought, fos-tering in them a selflessdevotion to the revolu-tion and to the people.In the past few years,four of the team havebecome Party members.

Onc of lhese is Kuo Feng-lien, second in succession aslcader o[ the Iron Gir'ls team and now deputy secretaryoI the brigade Party branch. When she finished schooland went to work in Tachai Brigade in 1962, Partybranch secretary Chen Yung-kuei told her of his ownsuffering in the o1d society and of the struggle that hascontinued since the iiberation between the two lines ofsocialism and capitalism. He gave her a copy of Quota-tions from Cha.irmcln Mao Tsetung and encouraged herto study it, and also Chairman Mao's other works, toovercome bourgeois ideas with Mao Tsetung Thought.Chen Yung-kuei said, "Chairman Mao tells you youngpeople:'The r.vorld is yours, as well as ours, but in thelast analysis, it is yours.' In order to keep firm hold ofthe proletarian power the older generation has seizedback from the class enemy, you young people must armyourselves with Mao Tsetung Thought and be able tostand the test of class struggle." Chen Yung-kuei'swords were a profound education. She has persisted instudying Chairman Mao's works and striven to steel her-self into a successor to the revolutionary cause of theproletariat. When Tachai was flooded again in 1968, KuoFeng-1ien was the first to jump into the rushing floodwater to save livestock that belonged to the collective.She set a good example for others to follow.

Remaining modest, with their feet planted firmly onthe ground, the girls learn from the poor and lower-middlepeasants and from other Iron Girls teams, never wantingto lag behind the most advanced of any of them. Theykeep on raising their level of ideological revolutionizationand continue the victorious advance along Chairman Mao'srevolutionary line.

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IIsin Ping

Women Work on Live Ultra-High-Tension Power Lines

I i'March 8th" team of young women maintains the6.nign-tension electric network in an area of severalhundred square kilometres in the beautiful, fertile PearlRiver delta in south China. Displaying the revolutionaryspirit of daring to think, act and to break through, theywork high in the air on 220,000-vo1t ultra-high-tensiontransmission lines without interrupting the current.

During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, rev-olutionary workers and technicians of the Anshan EIec-tric Power Administration in northeast China set a recordfor free operation on live ultra-high-tension lines. Thenew technique is used by the Kwangchow Electric PowerCompany. The idea of free live-line operation attractedsome of the women workers after they saw the menworkers doing it as an everyday matter. They saw thistechnique as a service to socialist construction, and theydetermined to learn it too.

"Times have changed, and today men and wo(nen are

6B

cqual. Whatever rnencomrldcs can accom-plish, women com-rades can too."

Greatly encouragedby this teaching ofChairman Mao andwarmly supported bythe company revolu-tionary committee,they organized their"March Bth" team inOctober 7970, andstarted to work.

The new techniquecal1s for strict ad-herence to work pro- Women electricions of the Fuhsin

cedures. rhe women F',"#ll:", !;i::. ;J:li?g "#nn:workers, who wereused only to working on the ground, had to overcomedifficulties. But they were confident and said that nomatter how great the problems their determination tomake revolution was greater, that as women of NewChina they would tackle and defeat any difficulty. Theypractised climbing rope ladders, walking on frames hi-gh

above the ground, and scurrying up and down the pylons.At first they had some trouble with dizziness and theirlegs going soft, but they persisted. After two weeks oftraining under experienced workers, they were workingon 30-metre pylons, walking freely on the narrow beams.

Then they began trying live-Iine operation on 110,000-

volt transmission lines at the same potential. When they

69

saw the blue flashes of electric discharges from the con-ducting lines and heard them crackle, they were bothexcited and a little anxious. But the thought that theywere blazing a trail for China's women in the field ofelectrical work gave them courage, and they began vyingwith one another to be the first up the pylon. The womanchosen was Teng Tsui-chiung, who did not hesitatebut, brave and calm, started up the ladder, saying as shewent: "I must be firm, never waver, and make a successof this." She entered the electrical field, heard thecrackle of electricity, then grasped the conducting iinewith both hands. When she was charged with the110,000 volts, the comrades below called out, "How doesit feel?"

They could see her smile as she answered, "Just fine!"She had conquered the 110,000-volt electrical field. Thewomen then tried working on live 220,000-volt transmis-sion lines at the same potential. The electrical field waslarger, and the crackle of the electricity stronger. Butthey persisted as before and won another victory.

After summing up their experience, the women electri-cians practised free operation on 220,000-volt ultra-high-tension transmission lines with the current on. Theteam's Lin Yu-ming was proud to be assigned the firstto try. The line and porcelain insulators swayed in thewind, but Lin Yu-ming was not swayed and was soon upthe pyIon. As she approached the electrical field everystep gave a crackling sound around her legs, but she wentright ahead into the field and changed the porcelain insu-lators. The people below cheered when Lin Yu-mingfixed the "March Bth" red banner on the conducting line.

70

Lung Chiang

Women tsridge Builders in Forest Areas

.fHE Greater Khingan Mountains in northeast ChinaI are a centre of the lumber industry. Extending for

hundreds of kilometres, they are covered with larch,Mongoiian red pine, Asian white birch and other valuabletrees. In the last few years, large numbers of schoolgraduates from all over the country have settled here,enthusiastically contributing to socialist construction.Almost half of these new settlers are girls.

Thinking of their physical limitations, the leadershipat first assigned the girls only to auxiliary jobs. Butthey asked to do more. Then in November 1969, theIeadership set up a bridge-building team of girls fromShanghai, Kiamusze, Harbin and other cities. The leader-ship also sent a'n\rorkers' propaganda team and a P.L.A.propaganda team to teach them politics and skill. Overtwo years of storm and stress in revolutionary struggle,and experience in construction, have given the girls vaI-uable training, and they have developed in ideology,physical fitness and skil1. With the help of veteran

7t

workers, they have built a five-arch reinforced concretebridge 110 metres Iong, for a logging road.

Revolutionary Women Bridge Builders

There are altogether 103 girls between the ages of 17

and 24 in the women's bridge-building team. Most ofthem are graduates of junior or senior middle school.When the team was set up, some of them had misgivings.Born and raised in big cities, they didn't know if theycould get used to life in the frozen mountain forest andwere afraid they couldn't stand such heavy work. Someof them thought that an all-women's team might not beable to build a bridge and people would make fun ofthem.

Acting on Chairman Mao's teaching: "Ideological edu-cation is the key link to be grasped in uniting the wholeParty for great politieal struggles," the workers andP.L.A. men ran a Mao Tsetung Thought study class toresolve the girls' doulots.

The class studied Chairman Mao's works and repeatedlydiscussed the following passage: "[Ve must help all ouryoung people to understand that ours is still a very poorcountry, that we cannot change this situation radicallyin a short time, and that only through the united effortsof our younger generation and all our people, workingwith their own hands, can China tre made strong andprosperous within a period af several decades." They alsoheard veteran workers tel1 about the class and nationaloppression they suffered in the oId society, and visitedan exhibition on class exploitation and oppression. Theyheld a discussion of their reactions to all this.

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These activities raised the girls' class consciousness.They realized that if they were to build a bridge, theyhad to overcome oId superstitions, dare to blaze nerv pathsand be good at struggling against hardships.

Take team leader Tien Li-jung for example. She camefrom Kiamusze with a desire to help develop the forestarea and build up the frontier'. When she saw the seaof trees covering the mountain range, she fel1 in lovewiLh the place.

"Without an understanding of class bitterness," she saidafter the study c1ass, "you can't understand how to makerevolution. What does it matter if life is hard in thisnorthern forest? Chairman Mao teaches us that 'a good

A veteron bridge builder helps the women solve problems thot orise.

comrade is one who is more eager to go where the dif-ficulties are greater.' We are girls of the Mao Tsetungera. We should trample difficulties underfoot and openthe way for women to build bridges."

The girls made up their minds to take root in the fron-tier, be revolutionary bridge builders and devote theiryouth to the socialist construction of the forest area.

Led by the veteran workers, they looked for hard jobs

to build their strength, their will and their ideology. Inwinter the snow on the mountains is knee deep, tempera-tures usually between 40 and 50 degrees below zero andthe wind piercing co1d. Every morning they rose beforedawn and did exercises in the vaIley. Some of thempulled sleds up the mountains to fell trees, others hewedrock. Gradually they mastered skills and built up theirstrength, at the same time tempering their spirit of fear-ing neither hardship nor death.

Oyercoming Obstacles

On April 18, 1970 the girls' team received their firstassignment. It was to build a 110-metre bridge. Theworksite was a steep gorge between high mountains deepin the forest. Building a bridge under these conditionspresented many difficulties to girls fresh from the bigcities. But hardship does not frighten girls armed withMao Tsetung Thought.

In May when it starts to thaw, water rushes down themountains and the rivers and streams swel1 rapidly.When the project reached the stage of pouring concretefor the third pier, the river had covered the foundationpit and dumped a lot of silt into it. Until the water and

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silt were bailed out,the concrete could notbe poured. Was thewhole project to bedelayed?

When the girls werewarned not to wadeinto the icy water,they replied withChairman Mao's teach-ing that "times havechanged, and todaymen and women areequal. Whatever rnencomrades can accom-plish, women com-rades can too." "Chair-man Mao supports us,"they said, "and we wiII be a credit to him!"

Shouldering sandbags, they waded waist-deep into thestinging cold water and built a cofferdam around thethird pit. Then they jumped into it and started to bailout the water with buckets. But water seeped in againso fast that their bailing was for nothing. After studyingthe problem, they swiftly built a wall around the coffer-dam. This stopped the seep,age, but underground waterstill welled up inside. It was impossible to work in thepit.

That night they set up a pump to take care of the water,and the P.L.A. men, workers and girls cleared the siltfrom the pit with buckets. Their hands got numb andtheir legs cramped with the cold, but they just rubbedand massaged their pains away and kept on removing

At the bridge construction site.

silt witl-rout complaining. When the pit was finailycleared, they started pouring the third pier the same

night. By midnight everyone was busy at the worksite,with the mixer going and people hurrying back and forthcarrying concrete. After five days and nights like this,the pier stood firm in the seething water.

Now they faced another challenging task - putting

the fourth span above the main channel of the river. Inorder to place the 100-ton beam over the river, they hadfirst to sink 35 wooden piles in two metres of water.

The pite-driver was in place at midstream. The northwind rvhisked white clouds across the sky as the riverrushed eastward. Liu Wen-chin, an 1B-year-old girl fromShanghai, jumped onto the shaking pile-driver and

climbed up. Perched high on the machine, she workedthe control lever with one hand and held onto a rope withthe other. Every time the 4O0-kilogramme hammerbanged down, the whole frame shook and her heart beat

fast. Looking down at the surging river below was a

little unnerving, but then the thought that she was drivingpiles for the revolution stiffened her, and she broughtthe hammer down hard.

Driving piles is a tough and dangerous job. The coldmorning breeze made her shiver even in her heavy winterclothing. The noonday sun burned her face. In theevening insects bit her hands and face. But none ofthese got her down. "Rain is like sweat," she said

proudly, "and the wind is my fan. Night or day, wemake revolu.tion !"

The battle to build the bridge produced many outstand-ing girls like Liu Wen-chin who learned to fear neither

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hardship nor death for the revolution. The 17-year-oldc'lectric welder Chen Pao-mei is one of them.

In July, the heat at noon was stifling. Chen Pao-meihad the task of welding 72 main reinforcing rods togetherfor each span of the bridge. It would take fast worknot to hold up the project. As soon as she finished lunchshe put on her mask and went back to work. The heatof the electric welding arc made her sweat. Sparks gotinto her shoes and burned her feet. But she went onwelding, finding that working for the revo ution broughtfulfilment and happiness to her life.

Mao Tsetung Thought Mahes New Women

The women's team finished the work on the eve ofNational Day 1970. Standing by their first bridge, thegirls were very moved as they recalled the struggles ofthe past year. Their militant coLlective had made speedyprogress in integrating themselves with the workers andpeasants, as Chairman Mao says one should. In thecourse of socialist revolution and construction, they arerapidly growing into a new generation of women armedwith Mao Tsetung Thought. Five of them have beenaccepted into the Chinese Communist Party and twelvehave joined the Communist Youth League. Five havebecome pace-setters, while 55 are rated as advancedworkers. A group of skilled women workers is takingshape - carpenters, welders, forgers, cement workers,electricians, machine operators. With the guidance ofveteran workers, they can now work from blueprints onlheir own.

From their own experience these girls know that MaoTsetung Thought is the guide directing them forward.It gives them the wisdom, ability and strength to performunprecedented deeds.

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