We Americans were given special privileges in China. We even had heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer. The population was not allowed these conveniences south of the Yangtze. Our city, Nantong was just north of the river but no heat was allowed. The largest light bulb allowed was 60 watts. One per room. That is why the hard working population and students have poor eyesight. We had one unrestricted channel on our TV sets, CNN International. CNN was careful not to offend the communist Party. They used only secular talk. Citizens and peasants could not see even this this. Chinese TV that we also got showed trials for people accused of crimes. Every person accused was found guilty. On the roads, police would collect fines and give the driver a receipt as their ticket. A policeman would determine guilt by reading facial expressions of drivers. All books written by Chinese who got out of China were disallowed in China. A live cartridge could get you the death penalty. Not to mention a gun. Executions for big crimes were held in stadiums or at a large intersection of streets to show everybody what could happen if you broke certain laws. The next of kin of the criminal had to pay the government for the cartridge after the death penalty was carried out. There is not a screen door in that part of China. The windows have no panes! The bicycle sheds were decorated with ceramic tiles. The homes were drab stucco. Most homes had one or two rooms. The building were gigantic and well decorated. Toilets in the edge of the city were a lean to with no front or side doors. inside was a bamboo pole that people sat on over a hole less than 6 inches deep! As soon as a few turds arrived, a peasant would scoop it up for his garden. Our guidebook told us that there was no word for privacy in their language. I know there was none other than a curtain in each room. Police can open any door anytime they wish.

  • jilgangga [doe/deer]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Police can open any door anytime they wish.

    If you watch Chinese true crime (like the one they air on CCTV 1 every week day at 12:40 PM), you'd know this has not been true for decades. It's literally a recurrent trope on that show that the cops are like "we couldn't actually arrest anyone at that point cuz we didn't have enough evidence" "we had to contact the cops in that other province cuz we don't have jurisdiction" "we can't restrict their freedom cuz they technically aren't committing any crime" (I'm pulling these from my memory from recently watching many episodes related to MLM schemes, lol). Also Chinese cops are like freaking meek sheep compared to their US counterparts, with none of that toxic tough-guy bs. From what I know (friends whose parents are cops), the bulk of their work often involves bureaucracy, population registries, and economic crimes.

    Executions for big crimes were held in stadiums or at a large intersection of streets to show everybody what could happen if you broke certain laws.

    To be fair, the 80s and 90s were indeed the "tough on crime" decades (严打) in China, and I think this is what your grandfather is describing (though I think executions were never public; the pronouncement of sentences often were the ones held at stadiums etc.). Nonetheless, recently, a number of prominent cases from the "tough on crime" period have been overturned, with officials responsible punished and government paying hefty compensations to the families (though of course you can't compensate for loss of innocent lives, e.g. ). But we can save that for a struggle session on Dengism ;-).