Amy reminds us that she reconnected with some childhood friends over Fathers Day and many of them reached out to ask her to tell their fathers stories. Amy begins the story of one of her labor camp friends whose father died when she was 4 years old.
Her father had worked for a CCP propaganda newspaper. In 1957, during the “Rightist” movement, people were encouraged to express opinions and suggestions to the CCP. Mao had suggested that the CCP welcomed all kinds of voices. After intellectuals made various statements, Mao labeled them “snakes” and they were rounded up and sent to labor camps.
Nan mentions that the officials sent to find “Rightists” had quotas they had to meet. So, people were accused of being “Rightists” under extraordinarily thin justifications.
Amy recalls that her friends family was kicked out of their house when her father was arrested for being a “Rightist”. About 8 months later, the mother received a letter saying that her husband was dead. She was told she could not retrieve the body or the ashes.
For a long time, Amy’s friend’s mother could not afford to take care of her and wanted to give her away, but a friend intervened and offered to take her. Some time later, Amy’s friends brothers put together some money to give their father a burial. Having nothing else, they buried some of his clothes.
In 2005, Amy’s friend went searching for the labor camp in the region they suspected her father was held in a labor camp. After searching for several months, she had found a map suggesting there was a labor camp. A local official told her there was no labor camp. Some old ladies seemed they might know something, but were too scared to tell her. She paid one of them and got a lead. Then paid some more people, but received no meaningful information.
She explained to Amy that a schoolmate of hers had found her father, but discovered that the CCP had changed him into a completely different person. When she found her father still alive, the father did not want to know her. He said, “I wish you had not found me.”