Liang Heng, the author of “Son of the Revolution”, spent almost his whole life under the Communist Party of China, and he was able to share all the details of his difficult life with the world through writing with the help of his wife, and co author, Judith Shapiro. Liang Heng’s life was filled with suffering from sacrifices he and his family made to please the Party. After making it through life with the cap of being the son of a rightist and having a father accused of having capitalist thoughts, Liang Heng married Judith Shapiro, and became a teacher at a middle school. While teaching, Liang Heng realized that the children he was teaching, and many others, were not given the opportunity to think for themselves, and in turn did not know
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After hearing the story of an ordinary man, I would like to hear the side of a party member, whose life most likely still revolved around Chairman Mao, but was also easier. Liang Heng went through many struggles in his life, and from a young age his life only got worse. First his mother was given a rightist cap, which made school and being treated fairly harder. Then his father was accused of using his writing against Chairman Mao, which left Liang Heng alone for awhile. After being left alone he then moved to the country where he had to live as a peasant until he luckily picked up basketball. But even after all the terrible things growing up in China had caused Liang Heng said, “my fortunes had changed so radically, so often, yet in the end fate had been extraordinarily kind to me” (291). The fact the Liang Heng had dealt with so much unfairness in his life but still was grateful for what happened made me appreciate what I have been given even more. Another fact that showed just how terrible life was during the cultural revolution was that multiple times Liang Heng considered committing suicide. Life was bad enough for him that he did not see the need to live anymore. Luckily, his life ended happily, he has a wife and is able to travel and learn, but if he had not found Judith Shapiro I wonder if he would have ended his suffering under the Party. The suffering that Liang Heng went through showed me a unique perspective on how terrible growing up when and where he did was, and it gave me a better understanding on how the Cultural Revolution progressed and what happened during
After hearing the story of an ordinary man, I would like to hear the side of a party member, whose life most likely still revolved around Chairman Mao, but was also easier. Liang Heng went through many struggles in his life, and from a young age his life only got worse. First his mother was given a rightist cap, which made school and being treated fairly harder. Then his father was accused of using his writing against Chairman Mao, which left Liang Heng alone for awhile. After being left alone he then moved to the country where he had to live as a peasant until he luckily picked up basketball. But even after all the terrible things growing up in China had caused Liang Heng said, “my fortunes had changed so radically, so often, yet in the end fate had been extraordinarily kind to me” (291). The fact the Liang Heng had dealt with so much unfairness in his life but still was grateful for what happened made me appreciate what I have been given even more. Another fact that showed just how terrible life was during the cultural revolution was that multiple times Liang Heng considered committing suicide. Life was bad enough for him that he did not see the need to live anymore. Luckily, his life ended happily, he has a wife and is able to travel and learn, but if he had not found Judith Shapiro I wonder if he would have ended his suffering under the Party. The suffering that Liang Heng went through showed me a unique perspective on how terrible growing up when and where he did was, and it gave me a better understanding on how the Cultural Revolution progressed and what happened during