A Daily Life with the Chin Family

Arpy Gavlakian                                    Daily Life of the Chin family

We woke up to the warm air of Shanghai. Is been months sense its bean this warm. Mother, Father, and Ming are already at the breakfast table waiting for me.  We have grain flakes for breakfast then it`s off to work for Mom and Dad and off to school for me and Ming.

It`s just another regular day at school but teacher lingpo was out and that’s not like her. I`m sure she just got a cold or something and didn’t want to spread it to us kids so she stayed home for the sake of our health. After school I picked up Ming from the downstairs part of school were the younger kids classes are. We were walking home when we saw a skinny tall man wearing a tight green uniform and holding a red book in his hands and Teacher Lingpo. The man was yelling at her about filling student`s minds with information going against Chairman Mao. Teacher Lingpo wasn’t the only one there other people were there too I’m guessing more teachers because they were all being criticized by people about illegal education. I didn`t know what was going on so I just walked home with Ming. I didn’t want to interfere with something and then get in trouble.

At home I made Ming and I some snacks. We ate and played and did our homework while waiting for our parents to get home from work. When Mom and Dad came home we prepared a nice shrimp, chicken and rice dinner. We sat and prayed to Buddha before we ate then talked about our day and when I mentioned to them about what Ming and I had seen while walking home from school, everything went silent and Mom and Dad looked at each other quietly.

I don’t know what that was all about but today we are going to the park for a picnic at the park as we usually do. This time Mom and Dad seemed very jumpy and on the lookout for something and I was eager to find out. I often heard the word “landlord” come up in their conversations.

I started snooping on them and though I didn’t quite understand this but they were talking about the governments rules and Chairman Mao`s rules and the consequences of being a landlord. That was weird because there is one thing I know and it is that my grandfathers are landlords.

Time past and things got worse. Our family was in some kind of “Black Category” list or something. The kids at school who were in a Red category would tease us and take our stuff! Soon going out in public was a problem. Eventually we stopped going to the park because of this situation. Our family had been searched by the Red Guards for any fourolds. I don’t know how this will end!