Author Zhao Given Right to Schooling

Like Min Luo in Interview One, author Margaret Zhao is a member of the intellectual crème of the crop. Although not a government-sponsored student from China, she represents the top one percent of the Chinese population able to grab one of the coveted spots at university in 1979. She migrated to the U.S. in the 80s, is a poet, teacher, and the author of Really Enough: A True Story of Tyranny, Courage, and Comedy. She now devotes her life to sharing the message of peace.
Margaret originally came from Hubei Province in south central China. Hubei lies along the Yangtze River and is surrounded by mountains on three sides. It is historically a farming province, and is famous for its oranges.

She was born “maybe in 1956.” People didn’t keep clear records in her village back then, she explained. Her Chinese name was not Margaret, but what translated to Enough Complete Happiness. When Margaret was born as the youngest of five--her older siblings being named Double Happiness, Repeat Happiness, Little Ox, and Complete Happiness--her mother wanted to repeat to the Gods that the family was overloaded with happiness. This was Enough Complete Happiness--really--for, by this time, Margaret’s family was enduring more than just the struggles of a large family.

“When the Communists took over China in 1949,” said Margaret. “The rich people, educated people, successful people were labeled enemies of the state. My mother was particularly educated. And my family had a factory and had a department store and land and was considered to be successful.

“How could they be successful without exploiting people and hiring people to work for them? That’s why they were considered the enemy. So we didn’t have rights. We needed to be reformed and punished. So many people were shot. My parents were lucky.”
Margaret and her family had all of their family treasures confiscated (hand-sewn silk bed coverings, a rosewood dining set, a finely carved dragon clock, an intricately-carved chest, ceramic stools, a portrait of great grandfather, a library of books, etc.) They were kicked out of their house, and reduced to finding odd jobs/scavenging to stay alive. Margaret, who had just finished second grade, was pulled from school, as those who were enemies of the state were not allowed to attend grade school/ high school. At this time, all colleges were shut down.
Margaret laid bricks in a factory, planted rice in the fields, and cooked in kitchens (although she knew nothing about cooking.) She risked her life stealing food from the fields. At the same time, she studied old test papers from the school where her sister worked. (She then used those papers as toilet paper.) She secretly read “yellow books” from “Ocean Devils” like poet Robert Burns that her brother-in-law—who was of an approved class-- owned.
In 1979—after Chairman Mao had already died--Deng XiaoPing instituted a reform that opened the colleges and allowed even enemies of the state to attend. “I had the right to go to school.”
Despite the right, Margaret received pressure from all around. At age 23, she was told she was, “too old , too uneducated, too far behind to ever catch up.
“The Chinese have a saying: ‘a lazy toad wants to have the pleasure of tasting swan,’ meaning something is impossible.”
That’s what people thought of Margaret attempting, along with the other 5.7 million people, to compete for one of the coveted 230,000 spots in university.
(...to be continued. Next: A Toad Attempts to Taste Swan.)