The Private Life of Chairman Mao by Li Zhi-Sui

Author:Li Zhi-Sui [Zhisui, Li]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-79139-9
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2011-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

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Lillian met me at the airport, together with Shi Shuhan and Ji Suhua. Lillian and I visited my mother briefly before I checked into the hospital.

As the economic crisis deepened, my family’s situation had continued to deteriorate. My mother’s health was declining. Her hypertension had not improved, and she developed a heart condition, too. She often ate only one meal a day—not just because food was so scarce but because she had no appetite. And with me so often out of Beijing and my wife working from early morning to late at night, she still had primary responsibility for our two sons.

She was distressed to see me. I was her only son. She loved me very much and worried about me constantly. Seeing me sick and thin only worried her further. Not wanting to upset her already precarious health, I left for Beijing Hospital after only a few minutes.

My ulcer was not serious, and Wu Jie, the head of internal medicine and my former professor, now in charge of my case, assured me that if I followed his regimen of medicine and diet I would recover quickly without surgery. Indeed, after three days, I began to improve. The bleeding stopped, and I felt much better. My major irritation was the woman in the room next door, the wife of one of the vice-ministers of health. She knew I worked for Mao and was mustering all her persuasive powers to learn what she could about the relationship between Mao and Jiang Qing. So irritating and incessant were her overtures that Ji Suhua, the hospital’s president, helped me change rooms.

Just as I was beginning to recover, my mother was rushed to the emergency room of nearby Tongren Hospital with a heart attack. The attack was not severe, and she was soon out of danger. But she needed weeks of convalescence in the hospital. An aunt began caring for our two sons as Lillian plied back and forth between Tongren and Beijing hospitals. I was well enough to leave the hospital for occasional visits and sometimes joined her to see my mother.

The hospital became my sanctuary. The new campaign against “right opportunism” was heating up, and I wanted to stay out of the fray. Beijing mayor Peng Zhen, an enthusiastic supporter of the new campaign, had the streets festooned with huge red banners calling out the new political slogans. “Long Live Chairman Mao!” “Long Live the General Line!” “Long Live the People’s Communes!” “Long Live the Great Leap Forward!”

My elder brother, by my father’s first marriage, still working with the Ministry of Public Health, was implicated in the movement. He had been demoted after the “three-anti” campaign in the early 1950s, but he was still director of the institute testing drug safety and efficacy. He was a loyal party member but still came under suspicion in every campaign. I was not in contact with him then, and Lillian wanted me to make inquiries within the ministry, but there was nothing I could do to help.

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