Moses Lake woman to speak about book

MOSES LAKE - Emily Wu becomes quiet when she talks about her childhood.

"I was born on June 3, 1958, seven weeks after my father was sent to prison," she said. "The first time I met him was on my third birthday. His only crime was because he was educated in the United States that makes him a U.S. spy. My mother's crime was being a Catholic and refusing to divorce my father. The children, our crime is being their children."

Wu's book, "Feather in the Storm," was published in 2006, and has been translated into 10 different languages, including French, German, Chinese, Thai, Danish and Finnish. She will be speaking at the Moses Lake Public Library Wednesday at 6 p.m.

The book details her childhood in China shortly before and during the cultural revolution starting in 1966 and lasting until 1976.

Wu's story is about coming through persecution and still being able to enjoy life, she said, adding people ask her how she can smile after her experiences.

"Of course I can smile because I survived it all," she said. "We were sent down to the countryside for many, many years and lived in utter poverty and people treated us like dirt. The village we lived in, the village chief, who doesn't even know how to write his own name, and my father is (a) university professor, but is under his control."

The village chief told Wu's father he was a piece of meat on his chopping block, she said, adding the family of five survived on her mother's income. She made the equivalent of $25 a month. 

"We had no shoes, never spent any money, just barely surviving," she said. "So many times, I got so sick I almost died. The doctors said, 'Get ready for the funeral.' Then, somehow, I survived."

Not only was the poverty difficult to deal with, but the family needed to contend with political persecution, Wu said. She explained people were divided into two groups - red and black. The people believing in the values of the Communist party were classified as red. 

"Within the black, there are nine categories," she said. "The nine categories are landlord, rich people, anti-revolutionary, bad element, rightist, traitor, spy and capitalist and the ninth category, which is the worst is intellectual."

The categories were dependent on circumstances, Wu said, using intellectual as an example she pointed out if someone had a third-grade education compared to someone with no education, the person with the third-grade education could be considered an intellectual.

"Of course both of my parents are college educated. Intellectual by any definition," she said. 

Her family fell into five of the categories, Wu said. Her grandmother was a landlord. They could be considered rich compared to other families in the village.

"My father is not only a rightist, he's an ultra-rightist," she said.

Wu described her experiences as a child as horrible, saying she was always afraid, but she was resilient.

"You know things are not good. You're hungry. You're in pain. You're dying," she said. "Before we went to the countryside, we lived in a fairly big city. I was born in Beijing, and then the family moved around a lot. My mother used to say we're a family of rats."

When she was young, Wu spent a lot of time in hospitals, she said, describing one experience when she was about 6 or 7 years old, she said people would give her an IV, but nobody would be around.

"The nurses, you don't know where they are," she said. "I would just pull the needles out myself. I could give myself a shot. Then one time I was taking (my) temperature and ... I broke it."

She doesn't know how her family survived, Wu said. Adding, when she looks back, she believes God helped them survive.

"It is my mother's belief in God that kept our family together to begin with because, when my father was arrested, she was given two choices," she said. "Divorce your husband, draw a clear line between the right and the wrong and come back to the revolutionary side or resign."

Wu said resigning in China wasn't the same as losing work in the U.S. Without a job in China, it meant the person would be out on the street.

"She was pregnant with me and my brother was 2 years old," she said. "They were ready to force her, 'Do you want to be a beggar with two little ones, or do you want to be a revolutionary?' and my mother said, 'You persecuting my husband is just like those who put Jesus Christ on the cross. He is not guilty. You are.'"

Wu continued, pointing out her admiration for her mother's courage, since mentioning Jesus Christ was a crime. She said someone showed sympathy for her mother by allowing her to be exiled to a remote village rather than resigning.

"You don't understand," she said. "You're just a kid, and, for my parents, they can't explain anything. My father, he can't tell me what it is really like in America; what the world is outside because U.S. imperialists are our enemy, and you can't say anything good about it."