I took a bit of a break from blogging the last month or so while I concentrated on research and teaching. It’s the way it’s gotta be: blogging is fun but it doesn’t pay the bills.
Following another wacky semester, I flew back to my home state of NH last week only to land a few days after the worst ice storm in many years. The whole state was blacked out and today, one week later, many homes are still without power as the weight of the ice snapped electrical poles like twigs and blew out transformers across the region. I was at my Mom’s house last week and we didn’t get full electricity/telephone/cable/internet until Thursday. It was…rustic. I live in a pingfang with a bathroom across the courtyard, occasional hot water, limited television, spotty internet, and a couple of overmatched space heaters for warmth, but last week in NH we were busted back to Scrabble by candelight and heating with wood. In the last three days we’ve also had something like 20″ of snow which has hampered repair efforts.
Ah well, that’s what I get for leaving the hyper modernity of the Chinese capital for the backwoods of Kingston, NH…*
On a semi-related note, today is the 40th anniversary of the “Sending Down” of young people during the Cultural Revolution. On December 22, 1968, The People’s Daily published an article in which Mao Zedong wrote it was necessary for young intellectuals and students to go up to the mountains and down to the countryside to “learn from poor and middle peasants.”
Short form: The kids were not alright, had gotten out of hand, and needed something else to do other than form rival, armed, Red Guard brigades in the cities. The solution: Ship them off to the countryside. Many went voluntarily brimming with revolutionary fervor, others…not so much, and in quite a few cases it would be a decade or more before the students were allowed to return to their urban homes.
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* Yes, I’m being sarcastic, it’s nice to be home.
Always enjoy your posts, but this one is especially good as you’ve found me some historical trivia for my birthday! Wonder if there’s any significance to doing that on the solstice…
My father in law told me one of the educated youth sent to their village is still there, 4o years later.
Graham,
Happy Birthday!
Chris,
Not unusual at all. What’s interesting is the number who chose to remain, having gotten married and started families while in the countryside.