Roz Returns to Unrecognizable China

Roz Koo grew up in Shanghai in a house of such luxury she was at a loss when she was sent to college in the U.S. on her own in 1947. She soon discovered that she could not only navigate her daily existence, but she enjoyed being in control of her decisions. She decided she'd rather stay in California than return to Taiwan to live with her parents. She decided to transfer to U.C. Berkeley where she could get the education she wanted. And she decided to marry a man she had chosen. She had found her own feet in America and was doing just fine.
In 1977, though, Roz received an unexpected chance to return to China for the first time in thirty years. A friend from the Peninsula Symphony called, saying they had an extra vacancy on their upcoming tour as one of the members had cancelled last-minute. Did Roz want to go? She did. She had aunts and uncles and cousins still in China, and she wanted to re-connect with her roots.

In hindsight, she said it was dumb to think it would be so easy. In 1977, China was just emerging from the Cultural Revolution. “I never paid attention to the Chinese Cultural Revolution. I thought it was just one of those movements. I didn’t know it was so fierce.” 

When Roz arrived in Beijing, the tour guide said, “Wait a minute. Who are you?“
She said, “I’m an American citizen.”
He said, “No. You’re Chinese.”
Soon everyone in the rest of her group was sequestered and questioned about her: How do you know her? What is she doing here? What does she do in the U.S.? By the time Roz reached Shanghai, they had attached a “personal guide” to help her.
“He said, ‘Mrs. Koo, you have not been here for a long time. Let me help you. What would you like?’ I thought, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
Instinctively, Roz knew better then to ask after any of her relatives. The only one she could think to ask about was her high school principal, a woman that she had never really liked. In fact Principal Zheng had always threatened to expel Roz.
Roz’s guide promised he would arrange a meeting. “We were in Shanghai for three days and there was no word. Two hours before we were to fly to Canton to leave, he said, ‘You may go see her.’
Roz went to her old campus. The place was barely recognizable—it was overcrowded with girls---and now-- boys, too. The trees were all dying. The students just shuffled about. And a house, which used to belong to Roz’s schoolmate, was now filled with families, including that of Principal Zheng.
“She looked so bad. She was so old. Her hair was uncombed. Her eyes were blank.”
Roz said there was a strange woman sitting in the corner of the room listening to their conversation. “Of course it was a spy.”
At one point Roz and Principal Zheng walked alone down to look at the campus. “I screamed, ‘How could you let this school fall into such a state?’ The school had been the crème of the crème in China. “She said, ‘Will you be quiet?’”

Roz had no idea that her principal had been demoted and abused. “Students and teachers pushed her down, and broke her leg, and said, ‘Kill yourself. You don’t deserve to live.’” Roz had no idea that two of her relatives had committed suicide after being persecuted. “Our people are Christians, so they were really persecuted. That first trip back, none of my relatives dared to come out. Nobody dared to speak.” Roz had no idea just how miserable the Cultural Revolution had been. (She would find all this out later.) Despite her lack of knowledge, though, Roz left so disgusted with the direction of the country that she swore she would never ever return to China. She ended up returning over thirty times and raising over 1.8 million dollars to support various philanthropic projects.
(...to be continued. Next: Roz Becomes Bridge to the West)