One day, outside the door of the west teaching building, I was surprised to see a new Poster which was written on white paper instead of old newspapers, and wi-th fine print on two long sheets. The contents were directed against the leader-ship of the Medical College, the Par Committee accusing them of following an educational line of "feudalism, capitalism, and revisionism" instead of "Chairman
Mao's proletarian revolutionary line" over the years. Signatures were the protagonists of the College: persons in charge of various Party branches or department-s. "Hey, the flood rushed into the Dragon King’s Temple, how do you fight against yourselves?" I was astonished but also felt odd, and maybe carelessly pursed my lips a bit. At that time I certainly didn't know the mystery about Mao Zedon-g launching Cultural Revolution to eradicate his political opponents Liu Shaoji and Deng Xiaoping, but felt vaguely that someone who dared to write such a Big Character Poster must have a strong backing. Unexpectedly the very next day, ri-ght next to the long poster, a new poster painted with a big writing brush in f-reakish style on an old newspaper appeared: "Zeng Qing Si, what are you laughin-g at? Look out for smashing your dog’s head!" It sent shivers down my spine! I immediately understood that my every act and even every expression were closely monitored. I was once again stimulated: If I wanted to have any hope in the fut-ure, the only way was to escape! Following the "having strong backing” poster, the common Party members and the "revolutionary masses" also went into action w-ithout delay. They condemned the leadership and the Party Committee who suddenl-y became the target of all attacks. Then the Provincial Party Committee sent a Working Team to the College and set up the "Cultural Revolution Committee" said to be at the instruction of Liu Shaoqi who was the national chairman in Beijing at that time. Soon Mao returned to Beijing and personally wrote the Poster "Bom-bard the Headquarters.” which I learned only later was his blowing a trumpet t-o eradicate political opponents Liu Shaoqi and his faction. The students of colleges and high schools in Beijing rushed to form the Red Guard organizations and they were received in audience repeatedly by the "Supreme Commander" Mao in Tia-nanmen Square. In cooperation with Mao, newspaper editorials strongly supported the Red Guard movement. As this hurricane swept the whole nation, Kunming stude-nts also took immediate action. They set up the Red Guard fighting squads to fe-rret out "the persons in power taking capitalist road" and denounced and strugg-led against them. Soon the fire was burning at the provincial and municipal lev-els, and the Working Team accredited by the provincial Party Committee was with-drawn from the Medical College. The Red Guard fighting squads jointly seized po-wer and formed a new "Revolutionary Committee”. It combined with the Red Guard-s of factories and enterprises outside the school to form the "Headquarters" to
 denounce and struggle against the provincial and municipal bigwigs. Everywhere were the posters exposing and attacking the persons in power, or posters transc-ribed outside attacking persons of even higher ranks. The smell of gunpowder go-t more and more thick. From the provincial and municipal level to the central l-evel, every day there were new targets thrown down, just like a revolving horse lantern in which the figures went up and down and made people dazzled. All the officials of high rank were alleged to be luxury-loving and corrupt, or greedy and bending the law. After a time, the glittery "revolutionary" halo over the s-uperior VIPs’ heads completely disappeared. The grass roots were stunned and t-heir vision was totally transformed. In the fall, the Red Guards traveled natio-nwide for “Revolutionary linkups” (nominally to link the Red Guard nationwide to engage in the Cultural Revolution). Their transportation and lodging were fr-ee. Not only the schools were closed, the factories were also shut down, the fa-rmers stopped work, and the whole country was devoted to the "unprecedented gre-at revolution”. Writing Big Character Posters, distributing leaflets, rallies, impacting the government organizations, denouncing and struggling "the persons in power taking capitalist road”, the whole country descended into complete
chaos. In the Medical College, the political studying of the each group continue-d, the denouncing and struggling assemblies went on, but the targets of attack were shifted to those in power. We the "cow demons and snake spirits" were grad-ually set aside with "cold treatment”. We were deemed not qualified to participate with the general assembly for denouncing and struggling against those in po-wer.We had nothing to do, just looked at Big Character Posters every day, first on the campus, and then in the street. No one paid attention to us. Despite thi-s, my mind was troubled. The bad luck of those in power did not mean that the d-anger to us cow demons had eased. Currently no one cared about us, but once new persons in power emerged, we were sure to be among their targets of persecutio-n. As I had already determined to flee, this was now the opportunity for me to r-eturn to Guangzhou, and hopefully find a way to escape my predicament. True or False Sickness As a medical professional I instinctively thought of a feigned i-llness as the first step to extricate myself. When I was in Beijing Medical Col-lege, because my blood pressure was always up and down the borderline (At that time the standard was 130/90 mm Hg), the doctor of the college infirmary prescr-ibed herbal medicine. Now that I was in a state of anxiety and frequent insomni-a, my blood pressure was often above the normal range. The doctor usually presc-ribed tranquilizers and sometimes a certificate of one-week sick leave.
If I could somehow obtain consecutive sick leaves, that might be an excuse to re-turn home to Guangzhou for recuperation. I visited a doctor several times, but my blood pressure always fluctuated near the borderline. So sometimes I got sic-k leave, sometimes not. I considered different strategies to bring my blood pre-ssure above the upper range each time I visited the doctor, such as stopping th-etranquilizers for a few days or taking a small dose of ephedrine. But the resu-lts were not certain and there were side effects. I remembered that some patien-ts’ blood pressure would be higher when measured by the doctor because of psychological stress, so I tried to make myself nervous during the measurement by
imagining events which made me angry or anxious, plus stopping the tranquilizer for the previous two days. In such case the blood pressure might be higher. However, it was not easy to imagine different scenarios of stress for each time, an-d the effect was not certain. Then it came to mind that if there were higher bl-ood pressure with a trace of protein in the urine, it would indicate hypertensi-on with kidney damage. That would make it more likely for the doctor to prescri-be a sick leave certificate. Because it is impossible to change the body condit-ion to produce proteinuria, I could only think of introducing protein from outs-ide the body. Would it work if I had added egg white to the urine to be tested? The protein normally appearing in urine is albumin, similar to chicken egg whit-e. So I might try to add the dried chicken egg white into the urine. How much s-hould be added? Adding too much, the test result would indicate a strong positi-ve, such as (++) or (+++), an unreasonable amount. Adding too little, the resul-t would show "negative" (-), and be in vain. But just a (+) trace protein would be an indicator of early hypertension. So I consulted the lab books to find out the albumin concentration in urine with protein (+), and calculated how much pr-otein should be added if 100 ml of urine was sent for testing, then consulted t-he nutrition books to find out the albumin content of an average egg white, to figure out what percent of the dry egg white powder should be added. After repe-ated calculation, I decided to proceed with my plan. Where was I to get an egg? It seems absurd today, but was indeed a big problem at that time. Because of th-e food shortage, eggs in the market were obtained by coupon. Food ration coupon-s of single employees were transferred to the college cafeteria, so the individ-ual did not have coupons for food, oil, egg, etc. Could I ask someone to give m-e an egg? That was something nobody would do even for a close relative. As I wa-s a “cow demon,” who would dare to honor my request for an egg? I hesitated a-nd finally thought of Professor Zhu Xihou. Professor Zhu was labeled “rightis-t” in the anti-rightist campaign and did penal labor under surveillance, such a-s to feed the experimental animals and do odd jobs. When I was assigned to Kunm-ing Medical College in 1960, I respected and sympathized with him, although I d-ared not reveal it openly. But I kept a good personal relationship with him. Af-ter he had been removed from the “cap” of rightist, I had borrowed his typewr-iter to practice English typing, and he also taught me how to type. During one Spring Festival, another young teacher and I were invited to eat meat buns at h-is home, but afterwards we were warned unnamed in the Department political stud-ying session: Be careful not to be bribed by the bourgeoisie with little favor to bestow. Although Professor Zhu’s family also bought food from the College c-afeteria, they might retain some coupons for themselves. In addition, many fami-lies raised chickens, so they might have some eggs. I thought only he could hel-p me, so once before the Department political studying session, I whispered to Professor Zhu: "Can you give me an egg?" Zhu was puzzled but without asking me anything said, "Yes, I'll give it to you tomorrow." The next day, a few minutes before the session, Professor Zhu slipped two eggs to me, and I immediately put them in my pocket. Back to the dorm (usually only me in the dorm room, another roommate had family and always lived outside), I began my experiment: opened an egg and dumped the egg white into a dish to dry; the yolk was cooked with an al-cohol lamp and eaten. After a day or two the egg white was dried intopowder. Ac-cording to previous calculation I divided it into several portions. To make a t-est first by myself, I collected about 100 ml of urine voiding in the middle of urination, added a portion of dry egg white powder and shook it well, then transferred two or three ml of urine into a test tube, and carefully heated the urin-e in the upper tube with an alcohol lamp. Really a slight turbidity appeared wh-ich was equivalent to (+). So my plan seemed feasible.The next day I went to se-e a doctor: Blood pressure 134 / 90; urinary protein (+). I showed this certificate of one week sick leave and the lab report to the Department head (also the Party branch leader of the political studying session). I couldn’t tell if he was suspicious but he didn't say anything. It is really sad to recall: In those days, many people, including doctors, in order to escape persecution, and later the youthful "zhiqing"* to evade forced labor in the countryside, tried every m-eans to malinger. But verbally complaining of headache, stomachache, lower back pain or joint pain did not work; there had to be objective signs. However, even a doctor could not easily falsify signs. In fact, malingering cannot withstand serious examination and tests. But there were still many people trying their be-st to slip by, faking fever, inducing vomiting and diarrhea, making their skin slightly yellow-stained, causing a mildly abnormal electrocardiogram, or even  retending to have a psychiatric condition. Some medical professionals substitut-ed patients’ blood or urine specimens as their own for laboratory tests. It wa-s really a strange phenomenon probably never before seen at any time in any cou-ntry!
--------------------------------------------------------
* ”zhiqing” - Mao Zedong launched the Culture Revolution and utilized the Red Guards to rebel against the political opponents Liu Shaoqi, etc.. In the later period of the Cultural Revolution, he called “the young people of knowledge go to the countryside to accept the re-education of the poor and lower middle peas-ants”; “the countryside is a vast world, and there is much to be done ther--e.” Therefore, the young people of the whole country were rushed to the countr side as farmers. These young people were called zhiqing, literally means “knowledge youth”. There are several translations such as “educated youth”, “scho-ol graduate” or “school leaver”, but none of them can exactly reflect the tr-ue meaning, so here a word zhiqing of Chinese phonetic alphabet was used instea-d.
---------------------------