Remembrance of My Aunt Yin Lin
- by Yihui Lin

Background: As soon as the establishment of the communist government of China was formally declared in 1949, all privately owned lands were taken from their owners and given to their peasant tenants. The previous landowners were denounced as bloodsucking parasites and people's enemy being subject to be persecuted. Then shortly afterward the government announced that all lands were belonged to the government. This campaign is historically known as Transformation of Landownership. As for the "Culture Revolution", in 1966 a supreme leader singlehandedly launched the nationwide cataclysm to destroy his political rivals and any threats to his ruling policy. Since he had established him an absolutely righteous leader, mass of people led by radical students, the "Red Guard", vowed to die of defending him and his ideology, and annihilate all threats to him. The "Red Guards" took the role of deciding who and what were dangerous to the great leader. Millions of people from all walks of life, particularly of elite social classes, such as governors, doctors, teachers, authors, or actors lost their lives by execution or suicide. Some survived by being in jails or labor camps. It is an atrocity lasting for ten years in China. My mother, Yin Lin served as a medical official for the Army of National Party during World War II. My father, Yixian Lin was a physician served in a field hospital for US Air Force in the war. At the end of WW II, he was briefly a governmental official of National Party as the director of Shangtou Regional Bureau of Aid Relief of Postwar. People with such backgrounds were inevitably suspected of the remaining enemy against communist government. This article was translated by Baixi Lin. Based on the translator's memory, some more details for certain family events have been added to the original content in order to help readers to understand the contexts. ----Baixi Lin
Through all the years since I could remember, the most frightening and dreadful years for my family were those during the so called "Transformation of Landownership" in 1952. Only because of the crucial helps from my Aunt Yin, my family was able to manage to get through the despaired situations of those years. Aunt Yin was my father's younger sister. Since she passed away in 2015, I have determined to write about my memory of my Aunt Yin, so my aunt would always live among us, in our hearts. Years ago, my mother told me stories about Aunt Yin. After my mother got married she moved and lived with my father in Lin's family house in Jieyang County. Then Aunt Yin was only a fifteen years old. My grandparents and teenager uncles all lived in the same house. Newly joining the large family, my mother had troubles to adapt the new environment. She felt terribly alone. Upon seeing this, the teenager Yin came forward to cheer her up. My aunt would have nice conversations with my mom, and always sided with her if any complaints about mom arose. My grandma had quite an extensive social network in the area. It was a frequent daily ordeal that village women dropped by the Lin's family house. Every time there was a visitor, my grandma would ask my mother to prepare snacks, noodle soups, or sweat egg soup for her visiting friends. My grandma would be chatting with her visitors. My mother did not have any interest in participation of their conversations, so she would hide herself at her room after the offerings. My grandma was unhappy about my mother's doing at all. Each time after her guests left, grandma would complain: "Without saying a hello, hiding yourself from our guests is not a good virtue. It seems you are not aware of this ---". One day Aunt Yin happened to be present when Grandma started chattering her complain, the teenage aunt rebuked to defend my mother: "Grandma, It is nonsense that you want my sister-in-law to rush out to entertain your boring friends as soon as they showed up!" . From then on, grandma stopped insisting in having my mother to serve her visitors.
When my elder sister Gu-Hui was born, the teenage aunt came to help my mother as much as possible. She loved holding the baby. For a few months the swaddled newborn did not have any baby clothes. When the teenage aunt was holding the baby, she kept imploring:" it is time that we need to make clothes for the bay, please." The heartfelt warmth from my aunt's genuine care carried my mother away. Soon after the birth of my elder sister, my father suffered hematemesis which was a severe condition of vomiting gastric blood. So he went to another town, Jieshi, for the recovery in a hospital. My teenager aunt took charge of caring my father. Uncle Chan went together as well. After my father's discharge from the hospital, my aunt quietly told my mother that she had spent all her savings for foods. She bragged about that the three were able to swiftly finish a huge bucket of boiled peanut. In August of 1938, after her graduation from Jieguang High School, Aunt Yin traveled to Shanghai for her medical school in Zhiguang University. On her way she spent a few days in Guangzhou to see her eldest brother, Uncle Chao. Uncle Chao was a professor of Zhongshang University in Guangzhou. He took his sister to tour department stores. Aunt Yin, a girl from a small village town, had never been in a metropolitan city like Guangzhou before and she was overwhelmed. Uncle Chao asked his sister if there was something she loved to have for school. Aunt Yin recalled in many years later "I was very silly". She chose nothing else but a glamorous lady hat. Her brother smiled and made no comments, and he bought her the hat. This was the first time in her life that Aunt Yin could ever choose a gift for herself. This had been one of the happiest moments in my aunt's life. In 1939, the colonial zone of Shanghai along with the city was seized by Japanese army amid the Sino-Japan War, Zhiguang University was evacuated to inland area. Aunt Yin transferred to the medical school of Zhongshan University. Aunt Yin's third brother, Uncle Chan, who was also a college student of Zhongshan University, asked his friend to take care of Aunt Yin. The name of his friend was YI-Xian Lin, a senior medical student of the same school. Yixian Lin married Aunt Yin later in 1946, thus would be my Uncle Yixian. In one summer break of her medical school years, Aunt Yin returned to her parent's home in Jieyang. There was a conservative advocacy in the society, appealing young people to resist the influence of liberal culture from western countries. One of the conservative calls was that girls should not be in skirts above knee-height. Arriving at home, Aunt Yin showed up proudly in a skirt with her uncovered knee. Seeing her daughter in such a dress, her father roared in his rage. He demanded Aunt Yin change her skirt at once. But he was defied. His daughter loved her short skirt very much, and wanted to be in it. She took no orders from anyone for this matter. Powerlessly, He yelled "Daughter, you will be damned!". This evoked her mother's protest:" my daughter will never be damned! My daughter is destined to have a long and happy life!". Grandpa was abruptly shut into his silence. Grandma had never failed being the reliable defender of her children. With her mother always sided with her, the young aunt behaved at home as a unscrupulous girl, having no regards of the authority from her father. She spoke and laughed aloud with little restrain, paying no attention to the clichés of Chinese traditional virtues. In 1940, Aunt Yin followed her medical school to evacuate to the mountainous area of Lechang in the north of Guangdong province. It was the war time when Aunt Yin completed her medical school. According the war-time policy of the National Republican government, all college graduates were required to serve the government in the frontline for one year. Aunt Yin served as a medical official in a battle field hospital located in Fujing-Hunan bordering area. It was a severely cold winter, a strategic battle was fiercely fought between Japanese and Chinese armies in Henyang. Hospital was lack of medicines and supplies. Large numbers of wounded from battle fields were treated under poor conditions. Aunt Yin, a physician official, spent her stipend helping her patients for direly needed clothes. She was well aware that her offering were merely a drop of an ocean, but she had to do her best to help.. Meanwhile, Aunt's fiancée, Yixian Lin was also a physician serving in a different battle field hospital in Hunan. There he contracted tuberculosis and his conditions deteriorated rapidly. His younger brother, Yi-De Lin, who was a pre-medical student then, came to see him. My future uncle was bedridden, clinging to the string of his life. However, His brother claimed his condition was nothing serious. Yi-De helped his frail brother sit up and bathed him, massaging him with a warm towel. My future uncle had not bathed for many months prior to this day. It was a magical bath. He had a very good sleep at the night after the bath. His brother continued attending him with nutritious foods collected by all means in a meager market. Then he got better and survived. Aunt Yin recalled, he was so thin that his legs looked like two pieces of corn stems. People advised Aunt Yin giving up the relationship with the ailment-stricken Yixian Lin, as this man would die very soon. This advice was shrugged off by Aunt Yin. Japanese surrendered in September 1945. People were looking forwards to starting a better life. Aunt Lin came home in Jieyang, together with her husband-to-be,Yixian Lin. One day, my mother recalled, the young couple cheerfully volunteered to prepare a good meal for the family. Their cooking, however, turned out to be a disaster. The dish of lemon chicken, as Aunt Yin called it, tasted so bitter that no one wanted to touch it. After their wedding, Uncle Yixian teased my aunt " I sympathize you very mucAunt Yin's father, who was my grandpa of course, had vigorously opposed the marriage of his daughter and Yixian Lin. He reasoned "This feeble young man, Yixian, Lin , take a look at him, was not going to live long", grandpa concluded, "In addition, he had the same last name of ours". People had the same family names should not marry each other, "this tradition had to be respected", grandpa stressed. Grandma stood up, again, defending her daughter. She counteracted grandpa:" your original last name is not "Lin", If you fuss about the last name for Yin's marriage, it could be resolved easily. My daughter could replace the "Lin" with my last name." Grandma had learnt from her mother-in-law that grandpa had a last name of Huang prior to his adaption to Lin's family (from Yen-De Master, Huang's clan to Jin Master, Lin's clan). Grandma had her family name as "Huang" also. Therefore, strictly speaking, my grandpa and grandma used to have the same last name "Huang". " You and me both had the same last name. You have married me, haven't you?", my grandma rebuked. Grandpa's opposition of the marriage was in vain. (Making no mistake, although grandpa seemed having always been a loser in disputing family matters, he was a respectable church preacher, a founder and principle master of a middle school and triumphed in public causes. In fact, Aunt Yin and all her brothers had tremendous respects for their father. This was particularly clear when they told stories about their father to the younger generations many years later. Because of her father, the Lin's family thrived. All sons and the daughter had been nourished with the good perspectives of life value. All received high education and had great careers, except that the eldest daughter devoted herself to Christian religion. This success was rare in that era. Aunt Yin might be reckless in some trivia matters, but if she had not taken her father's words seriously she would had only been a life-long village woman. ---Bai-Xi Lin) Japanese surrendered in September 1945. People were looking forwards to starting a better life. Aunt Lin came home in Jieyang, together with her husband-to-be,Yixiang Lin. One day, my mother recalled, the young couple cheerfully volunteered to prepare a good meal for the family. Their cooking, however, turned out to be a disaster. The dish of lemon chicken, as Aunt Yin called it, tasted so bitter that no one wanted to touch it. After their wedding, Uncle Yixiang teased my aunt " I sympathize you very much, darling, that from now on, you need to be submissive to your husband after you married me. " Aunt Yin fought back:" It is on contrary. You have married me rather than I married you, I will be the real boss." Listening to the conversation, my mother could not help laughing. My mother was a devote follower of the traditions for Lady Elegance which was composed of Three Submissions and Four Virtues. (Three submissions require women to do: submission to father before marriage, submission to husband after marriage and submission to son if husband is dead. Four virtues are the essential characters for a woman: Moral Integrity, Communication skills, Elegant Appearance and House-chore management.) My mother envied my aunt's intrepid personality. Wouldn't it be more funs in our life if we could yell back when our husbands yell at us?, she thought. In September of 1947, Aunt Yin and Uncle Yi-Xian accepted a job offer from the Anglican Diocese of Victoria in Hong Kong Christian Missionary Society. Aunt Yin would be a physician and Uncle Yixian the executive director and surgeon of Pak HoI Benevolent Hospital. This was the very first hospital of western medicine in the area. The civil war between armies of National Republic government and the Communist government was on going. The previous two physicians of the hospital had left, their replacement was critically needed to resume the normal operation. The benefit of job offer package for my aunt and uncle was quite generous In addition to good salary, it included a financial sponsorship for them to study in England after fulfilling their two year commitment. In 1949, the army of National party was defeated and fled to Taiwan. In the battle of Beihai ( Pok Hoi), more than three hundred of wounded soldiers were treated by Aunt Yin and Uncle Yixian in their hospital. In 1952, the hospital was taken over by the new communist government, Pok Hoi Benevolent hospital was renamed as Beihai People's Hospital, where my aunt continued working as a physician, Uncle Yixian was a physician and the director second in charge until they retired. Their dream of studying in England was indeed, just a dream. The campaign of Transformation of Landownership began in Jieyang, 1952. An anonymous letter reached Aunt Yin from Shangtou which is a city near her parents' home in Jieyang. The letter was written by a person naming her or himself as "Lin lin". The letter described the situation of the ongoing "Transformation of Landownership" in jieyang. Her mother and brother Yue ( who is my father) had been detained by local peasants. They would not be released until they would have returned all rents back to the previous peasant tenants. Aunt Yin was devastated. Without helps, her mother in such an old age and her brother still fighting his illness of gastric bleeding would surely die in their detention. Wiping off tears, Aunt Yin acted immediately on the urgent rescuing mission, and she was prepared for the accusation of being an accomplice of her landlord mother and brother. She withdrew money from her savings. She also asked for her and her husband's salary of two months paid in advance. Aunt Yin sent the money to bail out her mother and brother. My father was very grateful. Several times he had mentioned to us this vital help from my aunt and uncle. After my grandma and my father were out of detention, my aunt continued sending them money of five Yuan monthly for their living expense (back then, five Yuan was called fifty thousand Yuan) for four years until my grandma passed away in 1955. Also in 1955 my second brother, Shuohui, was accepted to the prestigious Shangtou Jingshang High School, which is another important family event in that year. During ten years of so called "Culture Revolution", instructed by my father, I had managed to communicate with Aunt Yin by letters. We had to be very careful in writings as our letters were subject to be under surveillance. My aunt's three children took a refuge in Yangchung Citrus Farm in Buoluo, where I lived and worked with my parents for more than 10 years. We spent about two months together. Through my cousins I learnt that my aunt and uncle had been suffering since the beginning of the "Culture Revolution". I met Aunt Yin first time in the winter of 1971 when she made a trip to see my father. It took two days of bus ride from Beihai to Buoluo. I remembered vividly the day when I met Aunt Yin and Cousin Cici in the Headquarter Farm in Yangchun. My aunt looked much older than I thought. She was nine years younger than my father. Not long ago Aunt Yin was released from her labor under surveillance and allowed to practice medicine. Aunt Yin was chocked when she arrived at the tiny farm settlement called Fong-Meng where my parents and me had been sent to live (To reach the settlement from a main bus-rout, there was a dirt trail only for walk or bicycles and It required a two or three hour bumpy bicycle ride). The inhabitant activities such as shopping necessities or seeking medical care were not available in the settlement. On the way to the settlement, Aunt Yin was on the rear seat of a bicycle peddled by Cici. She screamed out "stop! Stop!" time after time as the bumpy road was about to throw her out of her jumping carrier. Upon seeing her brother, my aunt was struggling to control her emotions. To her pleasant surprise, Aunt Yin found her brother's health conditions better than she had anticipated. My aunt had thought that she would have to come to bid a deathbed adieu when she read my letter. In the letter, I passed the message from my father: "It is better to see me now while I am still alive. It would be no use to come after I die ". Aunt Yin did not waste a moment to set on the trip as soon as she read this message. My aunt was in a relief, and she chuckled with me" Yi, your pen was like a magic wand. Didn't you draw a picture of my presence using your magic wand?' Aunt Yin brought a silk winter coat and some expensive Chinese medicines with her for my father. I remembered, among those Chinese medicines, there were some strange dry dead lizards which I had never seen before. Aunt Yin explained, buying those expensive Chinese medicines would be the proof that her brother had been critically ill, so it helped her to get the approval from the administration for this trip. Aunt Yin stayed with us in the farm settlement of Feng-Meng for 10 days. Prior to the day of her departure, she gave all the money she had with her to her brother for nutrition improvement. Quickly, Aunt Yin realized that she still needed some money kept on hand as she had to stay at her friend's house in Guangzhou on her returning trip. She said:' sorry, I need some money back ." My aunt was obviously embarrassed. Yet, such embarrassment highlighted a sublime human quality, the selflessness. My father wrote a poem for my aunt as follow: Ten years of plowing and sowing the barren land of Mountain Luofu, deprived my spirit, wrecked my body. Without anchoring roots, bonding clusters of water lotus are scattered by waves, drifted far apart by currents, may the fate lend a reunion through converging rivers. Lingering in the nightmare of the Death Valley, awaked by the light of dawn, I was revived by a resuscitating remedy, the sister's companion. A winter coat fends off the brutal cold, a pray ascends for a eternal sibling bond. This poem displayed a clear glimpse of the profound cares of my aunt and her brother for each other. In this poem, my father also revealed his frustration in dealing with the harsh persecution and privation coerced upon his family. He moaned silently. Reading this poem had brought me into tears.. Shortly after my aunt returned to Beihai, she sent me a travel expense and asked me to go to Beihai for a hemorrhoid surgery. My aunt wanted me to make a stop in Henyang to visit Uncle Qi, her younger brother. Uncle Qi was also exiled to a labor farm at that time. Aunt Yin's daughter Meixi, my Cousin Duoduo sent me a letter of the instruction, helping me to reach their house in Beihai. The letter said:" Off the bus station, you will see a junction of three streets. There is an old man sitting at the street corner, repairing shoes. The old man will guild you to our house." This puzzled me: a street shoe repairman of Beihai City knew how to find Aunt Yin's house? I wondered how well known my aunt was among the local people. Following the instruction, I arrived at my aunt's house without any trouble. Next day of my arrival, I went to a neighborhood water supplier to fetch water. An old lady who was in charge saw me new in this neighborhood, she stopped dispensing and questioned me. She asked how I was related to Dr.Lin. She said, Dr. Lin was a very kind physician. There had been many people from other areas coming to seek her medical treatment. Sometimes some of them stayed in Dr. Lin's house. Her husband also was recently released from a labor farm of surveillance. He was placed t in the hospital clinic. In the conversations over our dining table, I heard many stories about my uncle and aunt's daily work. After my uncle started seeing patients, the number of people suddenly increased in the clinic. Each day patients were in line waiting their turns to see my uncle. Some people came, having no health issues of any sort, but simply wanting to check on this busted, ex-chief director, Dr. Lin, to say a cheerful hello. How did this Dr. Lin look like now after years of herding cattles, dragging carriages and digging irrigation trenches? , the locals wondered. There was a typical story of this phenomenon. An old woman came and sat in the patient's chair, smiling and looking at my uncle, not giving a word. My uncle asked:" do you have any health problems bothering you?", "No, I don't", she answered. "Why are you here?', "I came here to see how you are doing!" she chuckled. Then she left, seemingly happy with her assurance that her Dr. Lin was still in one piece, unbroken. The darken skin from the sun? it would do no harm, she might have thought. My cousin Duoduo told me about how my aunt had been criminalized in the past few years. Like her husband, my aunt was labeled in the social class of Evil-devil Enemy of Anticommunists of Historic Background, because she used to serve the outcast army of National Republican Government two decades ago and her Christian background. She had been demanded to kneel, with others accused of various political crimes, at the stage in public, with hands tied up behind her back, facing a crowd of hundreds. Her accusers yelled out the list of her evil-devil past against communist people and government, slapping, spitting at her face or forcing her face down to the ground, while the crowd would be chanting "destroy the evil enemy Lin Yin!",or "defend our great leader, send Lin YIn to hell!", of this sort. She was demanded to walk around, in bare feet, in the heat-melted asphalt roads under the scorching sun, a heavy wood board usually with the wording of her designated crime "Historically convicted Anticommunist", beating a big gong and cried out " I am the Historically Convicted Anticommunist Lin Yin!" along with other unfortunates. At nights, my aunt would ask her husband to use a sewing needle to break the blisters on her feet burnt by the heat-melted asphalt road, her son Cici recalled. Compared to my aunt, my uncle was treated even worse. In a time like this, sympathy still existed. When my aunt was not allowed seeing patients as a physician, she worked as a janitor in the hospital. Some people quietly comforted her if there was an opportunity. In the cafeteria of the hospital, cafeteria staffs always dispensed meals in larger quantity with more meat for my aunt than others, or set aside a good dish of the day for her. They murmured to my aunt:" you must eat well, so you can be strong. This nonsense will be over one day!". Some years later, Aunt Yin was sent to a country clinic in a remote village area called Longtan. The whole tribal population of the village area had the same family name of Lin. The tribal people enlisted Aunt Yin as a member of their own. After about two years of treating illness of the villagers, Aunt Yin was transferred to another country clinic in a different area. On the day of her departure, a large crowd showed up for her farewell. Women tearfully hold her hands, demanding her soon return. The next clinic called Xitang Clinic was actually located at the outskirt of the city, therefore my aunt could go home daily after work. The clinic became very busy as patients learnt my aunt working there. Patients talked to each other:" I have just switched to this clinic from another one. Other temples do not have this Goddess. I guess you come for the same reason, no?" I came to Beihai at the time while Aunt Yin worked in the Xitang Clinic. One day before starting our dinner, my aunt made a meal preparation by dividing the serving dishes on the table. She asked her son, who is my cousin Zhi-Xi, to give her a bike ride. My aunt needed to deliver the meal to a hospitalized patient from a poor villager. After they left, I asked Duoduo if this happened often, Duoduo told me what I had just seen was normal and often. Duoduo said:" Sometimes, she took a whole dish away despite our protest. She said that we had been fed well enough." I found that Aunt Yin behaved just like her mother (my grandma). I told Duoduo a story about my grandma. In a winter when my elder sister and brother were still toddlers, my mother sewed a cotton winter vest for each of them. One day my grandma saw two child-baggers trembling in the cold in the street, she turned to my sister and brother, asking them to take off their vests right away. Grandma gave the little baggers the vests and said to my sister and brother:" You have nothing to worry about. Your mom will make you another one". People of my generation behaving like my grandma and aunt are rarely come across nowadays. What is the resource of their compassion? And why have we so often found ourselves deficit of it? Could the resource be from their Christian faith? I pondered. I was arranged by my aunt to have the hemorrhoid surgery in Beihai Hospital of Chinese Traditional Medicine. Before I moved to the hospital, my aunt introduced me to the chief nurse of the department, asking her to take good care of me. My aunt bought me a few undergarments. She explained, worn underwear would disgust these nurses. On the day after hemorrhoid surgery, my aunt wrapped me with a large blanket. Later, my aunt wrote to my father that she was literally frightened when she found out my severe health conditions. I had been anemic due to the untreated hemorrhoid. The day after surgery was the day before the Lunar New Year, Duoduo and Zhixi came to hospital and carried me home by pushing a bicycle. The first day of lunar year is the Spring Festival. This is an important holiday for the family union in Chinese tradition. On that day, concerning that I might be home sicken, Uncle Yixan took me to a local park. I was not able to walk after the surgery. A bicycle was the only local transportation in those years. I was mounted at the back of the bicycle, than the bicycle was pushed forward rather than rode as a carrier. There were monkeys in the park. Having not seen monkeys, not even an image of them, for many years, I was fascinated by the monkeys' expression and gestures. I couldn't help laughing:" look, those monkeys are so much like us human!" My uncle corrected me promptly:"The fact is that we, human, are like those monkeys. Watching these monkeys would help people probably understand their own doings." I was dazed at the first second by my uncle's comment, then immediately the reflection of the metaphor enlightened me a new perspective of human behaviors. In this ongoing fervent "Culture Revolution", wives spied husbands, students executed their teachers, neighbors looted their friends' house, and teenagers painted their vows on street walls with their own blood --- all under the name of "Defending our great leader, and his genius thoughts". It is a bloody joke that now we all know. It is a drama of anti-humanity without any entertaining values. Would have those people still foolishly conducted their heinous behaviors if there was a way that they were able to be their own audience while they were playing their bestial roles? Questions swirled through my mind as we were watching the monkeys jumping up and down. In my later life, a mere mentioning of monkeys would conjure me this tour, and resonate with this memorable conversation in Beihai Park. It was a holiday. My aunt took us to a photograph shop for a family picture. Then on the way home my uncle suggested going to a movie. However the movie theater did not have vacant seats left since we were late. After saying "No wary, Dr. Lin", a theater usher brought chairs from the theater office. It was really a fantastic holiday. My uncle took the whole family to a restaurant, a waitress set up a dining table by the entry of kitchen for us. My uncle went inside the kitchen, chatting with chefs. While we were waiting the dish servings, someone approached and sat by my aunt, starting questions about issues of his health. It seemed to me that everybody in this town knew about my aunt and uncle. It was amazing to see my aunt and uncle had such immense popularity in Beihai. One day, my uncle went grocery shopping with me. It was a large wet market. Stalls of various vegetables, meats and sea foods were lined up by rows. We strolled around and my uncle introduced me to some stall-vendors. After that, I went to the market alone for a few times. The stall-vendors chose the best that they had for me, such as the freshest greens, and tender parts of meats. The payments would be taken care of later by my uncle, I needed no worry, stall-vendors told me. Another day, my aunt took me to a beverage café, acquainting its waitress with me:" This is my niece, the most beautiful one of all!". After this introduction, I went the café and had a glass of milk every day. The waitress would sit and chat with me as their friend, telling me how wonderful Dr. Lin had been. Listening, I felt nothing but proud. My uncle was a fairly good cook. Every other day he made me my favorite dish "Fish with Sour Muster Greens". My uncle sometimes chatted with me about how people tortured him and my aunt in the first few years of "Culture Revolution". When he was ordered to be a labor worker around the hospital, people passing by would be encouraged to spit, slap or batter him liberally. So often, after a raid of stones were thrown at him, he would be dutifully picking the stones and cleaning the area, while blood dripping from his head. The Red Guards of the hospital issued a order to all the "Cow and Snake Evil-Devils of anti-revolutionists" that they needed to make their own clown hats for humiliating street parades. My uncle made himself a tall one. That clown hat was a piece of artwork, my uncle said proudly. A snake made of a metal spring was affixed at the top of the hat. The snake would move while he walked. I said, if my father needed to make his own clown hat, I would make him a hat with fortification for head protection. I would make sure that the hat could bounce off the flying stones. My uncle chuckled at my idea. He might be thinking:" It doesn't matter, mine was the best." He talked amusingly about stories of his horrific experiences as if he had talked about somebody's funny adventure. It was obvious to me that my uncle had a very different perspectives of the personal suffers from the maelstrom of "Culture Revolution" from my father's. Vulnerably and voicelessly, my father was deeply wounded by the cruel persecutions time after times. My aunt gave me a big comb as a present. But she wanted it back next day. My aunt explained, it was because "Shu" was a pronunciation for both "comb" and "distance" in Chinese language. The ominous comb should not be the present, my aunt stated. In that year I reached the age of twenty eight. My aunt was concerned about my marriage. Earlier when she stayed in the Farm settlement of Feng-meng, my aunt learned from my mother about that I once had a boyfriend who we grew together. But this relation was not continued. In Beihai, my aunt said to me sympathetically:" This is a very precious friendship from childhood. Can the relation be restored?" I responded by chuckling. Then my aunt wanted an opinion from my uncle about match-making a bachelor physician of their hospital for me. After just a second of pondering, my uncle rejected this idea. There were two basics for looking for a spouse candidate. The candidate must not have erratic life style, or weird appearance. This Dr. Wong's dwelling was so messy and dirty. When he was in the food market, he would place jumping fish in his jacket pockets. "Nobody wants to live with him," my uncle concluded. My cousin Duoduo later recalled:" I knew the physician Wong well. He was an excellent ear-nose-throat surgeon, but absolutely no one can tolerate his life style. My mother (Aunt Yin) must have been panicky to find you a husband!". My elder sister told my aunt in a letter that she would be match-making a bachelor engineer for me. My aunt also learnt that the engineer worked in an oil field in the Far Northwest. The Far Northwest of China was considered by people a vast, cold and barren plain not suitable for human inhabitation. My aunt signed with concerns:" Yi, it looks like that you would be the Lady Wong Zhaojun". Historically, Lady Wong Zhaojun was a beauty of ancient China. The emperor had her married to a king of nomadic kingdom in the Far Northwest to maintain peace and power. Two years after my marriage with the engineer named Xiu-Guang Zhao, both my husband and I were transferred from the Far Northwest to the inland province, Guangdong. Upon learning this news, my aunt was relieved. My parents had never talked about matters of marriage of their children in front of us. Discussing the serious subject of such a multitude was absolutely not a causal undertaking, which might be my parents' belief. However, in my aunt's family, interestingly, talking about marriages of the family was natural conversations over the dining table. My aunt lectured me how to identify a spouse candidate. "When you go to a market to shop, you would compare the price and quality before making a purchase, wouldn't you? We would compare the merchandises from at least three shops. This is the same for you to find your husband." My eyes were wild open in astonishment. I had never heard of such an extreme simplification for the important matter of marriage before. My aunt took me and my cousin Duoduo to a cloth shop. I was dazzled by the cloths of various colors. It was my first time in my life in a cloth shop. My aunt bought me and my cousin each a piece of cloth which had a beautiful pattern of purple ipomoea flowers in a white background, also a deep blue thick cotton cloth for winter dress. She asked a tailor friend come to our house to make measure of us. When the new clothes were ready, my aunt asked me to put them on. In a scanning look at me, my aunt was apparently satisfied. However, my uncle shook his head:"something is missing". My aunt turned to my uncle, anxiously questioned him: "what is missing?", "An adornment of red plumeria flowers in the hair." he chuckled. My aunt burst out laughing with relief. My aunt gave me a present of a silk scarf. The scarf had a pattern of colorful balloons in a blue sky. A year later the scarf was stolen in a public bathing house when I was in the Far Northwest oil field. But the sentimental attachment of this scarf from my aunt has never waned off. After more than 40 years in 2012, one year after my aunt returned from United States, I visited her in Baihai. I couldn't help mentioning this scarf to my aunt. There are so many pieces of silk scarf in my possession now, but none can replace this one. This scarf of balloons in a blue sky was latent with sweet blessings from my aunt. It is the most beautiful scarf in the world. After struck by a series of strokes, my aunt was feeble, paralyzed, but she started talking loudly about our past, how she was recklessly bothered because I still had not had a husband at age of twenty eight. I was deeply touched, humbled by my aunt's immense care and love. This was my last time being with my aunt. In 1971, I stayed with Aunt Yin in Beihai for more than two months. By the time for me to leave, I felt like a well-fed goose. I was fully recovered from all my previous health issues. It was my perception that my aunt had her affection for me more than others. In times I learnt that my aunt had sheltered and cared others of our extended Lin family. Uncle Chao, Cousin Yun-Hui, and Uncle Qi had been in Beihai, cared by Aunt Yin for their health. I was the first visitor after the political atmosphere showed signs of ebbing. My aunt and my uncle were freed from their probed laboring, back to their medical practice. They also had their own house built this year. I was fortunate to be the first one to share the laughs with my aunt and uncle in celebrating their survival from the worst phase of "Culture Revolution". My aunt seemed determined to have her house functioning as a shelter of health recovery for Lin's family. After I married Xiu-Guang and moved to the Far Northwest Oil Field, my aunt had my parents and my niece Xiu-Xiu come to stay in her house in Beihai for more than a month. My niece Xiu-Xiu was even arranged by my aunt to go an elementary school. My father once described my aunt as a mother goose, stretching her wings, trying to provide warmth for everyone in her Lin family.