One more step back in time

I am now in Guangzhou, China... made it here for May Day. One of my mom's best friends from middle school, Zhang JunHe, showed me these photos of my mom from the early part of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), before both of them were "sent down" to the countryside.

Zhang JunHe has shared with me fascinating stories about those times and their classmates, and stories about my mom I had no idea about. The stories themselves are so long, so epic, and so full of heroes and villains (guess who the heroes are) that I'm not going to share them here, at least for now.

I really like the photo of my mom and Zhang JunHe, both smiling with their hands on their hips. I am often surprised when I realize that my mom was just a teenager, younger than me.

The photo in front of Tiananmen square, in the upper left, is also striking to me. Perhaps its that for Chinese, having your photo taken in Tiananmen is like a pilgrimage to Mecca. Everyone has one. And that particular time, during the Cultural Revolution, when everyone was wearing the same clothes and holding Mao's little red book. It's strange to actually see my mom in that historical context -- looking stonefaced at the camera -- in contrast to every other photo, where she's smiling.