THE NEIGHBORHOOD COMMITTEE DIRECTOR

Since 1954, the government has set up a system of neighborhood committees on a nationwide basis to extend security and control beyond what could be provided by the police. Each committee usually consists of between three and seven full-time cadres, augmented by unpaid local residents, such as housewives and retirees. Over the past fifty years, neighborhood committees have served as a primary means for disseminating propaganda, mediating disputes, controlling troublemakers, and spying on any possible violations of the government's one-child policies.

I spent my teenage years in Jinguang District, which is one of the oldest slums in Chengdu. Located in a remote corner of the city, the area has been overlooked by developers. Old rundown apartment buildings are still squatting there, like ugly Dumpsters. The seventy-nine-year-old Mi Daxi was my neighborhood committee director for many years. He was quite an idol of mine in my childhood days.

LIAO YIWU: I'm looking for Director Mi of the neighborhood committee.

MI DAXI: That's me. By the way, I'm no longer the director. I'm retired. I'm here today to help out my daughter. She is out running some errands. What's your name? Do you have an ID card or a recommendation letter from your company?

LIAO: Do you recognize me? I used to live on the second floor. I'm the son of Teacher Liao.

MI: You have changed a lot. I can hardly recognize you. Where are you making the big bucks nowadays?

LIAO: It's very refreshing to hear a diehard Communist like you talk about money.

MI: Times have changed. Everyone talks about money and nobody cares about Communism anymore.

LIAO: I guess so. In the old days, I remember, your office used to be located in a beautiful building on the main street here. This current office looks kind of shabby, doesn't it? Anyway, which year did you join the neighborhood committee?

MI: It was about forty years ago. When I first started at the neighborhood committee, I was not even forty yet. I had suffered injuries on my right hand while working at the local machinery factory. They put me on disability leave and assigned me a part-time job at this neighborhood committee. At the beginning, I was pretty depressed because working at a factory was a very popular profession in the 1960s. Mao called workers “the pioneers of the Communist revolution.” I couldn't see myself working with a bunch of gossipy mothers and grandmothers who staffed the neighborhood committees here. The local officials offered me encouragement and support. They told me that controlling every household in the neighborhood was an important task. We had to watch out for bad elements that could pose a threat to our Communist rule. They even honored me by electing me to be a delegate to the District People's Congress, the local legislative body. So, after a while, I began to like it.

The old neighborhood committee building belonged to a rich capitalist. He had owned a textile factory before the revolution in 1949. All of his children had escaped overseas. He and his wife were left behind because they didn't want to live in a foreign country. In the early 1950s, the government took over his factory and converted it into a state asset. The capitalist lost his job and simply stayed home, idling around all day long. At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, the passion of the Red Guards was almost palpable. They were ready to kill or beat up any counterrevolutionaries. That capitalist knew very well that he could be the next target. So, one day, when Mr. Wang, the local police chief, and I walked into his house, that guy immediately offered to move out of his house. He said he had committed crimes by exploiting workers in his factory. After years of receiving Communist education, he had reformed himself and wanted to start a new chapter in life. He called the house a symbol of his family's shameful past. His only request was for a smaller apartment so he and his wife could have a place to sleep. Mr. Wang was a no-nonsense guy. He took out his pen and wrote a letter, ordering the local housing authority to arrange a small run-down apartment for the capitalist. So the neighborhood committee moved into the big house.

LIAO: How could you take over other people's property like that?

MI: In that era, Chairman Mao's words were the supreme law. To tell you the truth, after we converted his living quarters into an office, his old neighbors applauded the decision unanimously. That capitalist and his wife used to live in that huge courtyard house with over ten rooms while his neighbors were crammed inside tiny run-down apartments. We kept asking ourselves: What was so special about him? Anyway, his decision to move out had also saved the house from being burned down by the young Red Guard rebels.

LIAO: What happened to the house later on?

MI: During the Cultural Revolution, people in the neighborhood were all divided into different factions. Each faction believed that they were more revolutionary than the others. There were gunfights every night. The neighborhood committee office served temporarily as the headquarters for one of the powerful factions. A couple of years later, the provincial Communist Party dissolved the warring factions. The house was then occupied by a local government agency. It wasn't until the mid-1970s that the neighborhood committee was allowed to move back in again.

LIAO: Is the neighborhood committee part of the city government?

MI: It's a pseudo-government organization. I will say it's at the bottom level on the city government organizational chart. The local public security bureau is a bona fide government agency. Right now, only one policeman has been assigned to our neighborhood. So the committee ends up being the eyes and ears of the police.

LIAO: Did you get a regular salary when you were the director?

MI: I got a monthly stipend. Do you consider that salary? Let me tell you, that menial job was the hardest thing in the world. We made sure all the Party policies were being communicated to every household, and we were obligated to report to authorities what people were doing. If a woman violated the one-child policy and became pregnant with her second child, we had to talk with her and persuade her to have an abortion. If she refused, we would have to report her to her work unit. She could end up losing her job. If a couple got into a fight or a young person didn't want to pay money to support his ailing parents, we would be called on to mediate and resolve the family crisis. Of course, priorities shifted all the time. For example, thieves and gang members are now as rampant as rats. Without the help of the neighborhood committee, the public security bureau would have a hard time cracking down on them.

LIAO: I see. Could you tell me how the neighborhood committee ended up in this shabby office here?

MI: In the late 1970s and 1980s, China started the “open door” policy. Overnight, having a relative overseas became a fashionable thing. The government rolled out its red carpet for overseas Chinese, hoping that they would invest in China. That capitalist I mentioned earlier had two sons who returned from America in 1985. They were very shrewd people. When they first walked into the courtyard, they bowed to us three times, expressing their gratitude to the Chinese government, the Communist Party, and the neighbors for “taking care” of their house. They even presented a banner to show their gratitude.

LIAO: You and the local Communist Party took their house illegally. Were they really serious about “thanking” you?

MI: That was American capitalistic bullshit. It was a diplomatic way to kick us out of the house. We had no other alternatives but to get out. The minute we moved out, the two guys put the house up for sale. It was the eighties. China's economy was not as developed as it is today. The majority of the people here lived on meager salaries and there weren't any rich people around. So the house ended up on the market for a long time. Then those two bastards contacted the city, offering to sell the house to the government at a hefty price of 300,000 yuan [US$36,000]. That was so evil. If it had been in Mao's era, the revolutionary neighbors would have stepped out and slapped them in the face. Oh well, times had changed. The government showed lots of mercy toward those two American bastards and decided to buy it. They hoped the kind gesture could help heal the wounds of the capitalist who had been traumatized during the Cultural Revolution and help lure his children back from the U.S. You know what? Those two bastards had already been brainwashed by the U.S. imperialists. They took the money and left. They even complained that we had trashed their home.

LIAO: But I think buying the house might be a good deal for the government. Considering the real estate market here, don't you think that house is worth at least two million yuan [US$240,000] now?

MI: The house was demolished. It was really a shame. I'm not wasting any regrets over the house. I just hated the fact that the money had gone into the pockets of those two bastards. In the 1980s, 300,000 yuan was worth a lot. We could have used that money to build ten elementary schools for children in poor regions. The street where the house used to be was close to the main thoroughfare. The whole block was demolished to give way to a new shopping mall. Those who lived in that area were lucky because they were able to relocate to new houses in nicer areas.

But this area here is on an isolated corner. It's a ghetto. Several developers have come, but have not seen any potential for development. Those who get stuck here will be stuck here forever. Some older folks still come to the committee out of habit, thinking that we could somehow help them relocate to a new area. This is not the Mao era. What do they expect us to do?

LIAO: People like you are still considered the backbone of the government.

MI: But who is my backbone?

LIAO: Don't be so pessimistic. Nowadays, people are no longer enthused about Communist revolutions the way they used to be in the 1960s and 1970s. But your services are still needed. In this area, there are all kinds of migrants floating around. If anything happens, such as robberies or gang fights, the public security officers wouldn't even know where to start their investigation without your help. From your little shabby office here, you can see clearly which family is playing mah-jongg and engaged in gambling, which apartment has been rented out, who the visitors are, and which young couples are moving in together before they get married, etc. As a kid, I remember gang members were afraid of you because you were connected with the local public security bureau. Before police decided to send anyone to the reeducation camp, they would consult with you first.

MI: They still consult with me now. But under most circumstances, the public security bureau no longer sends kids to reeducation camps. They simply levy a heavy fine. Not long ago, my daughter led the public security officers to search an apartment building, and they found ten guys who had migrated here from the rural areas. None of them had any city resident permits. Some were caught gambling. Others were found watching porno tapes together. The officers rounded them up and put them in a suburban detention center. Several days later, they paid a fine and were released.

LIAO: I don't think you can arrest or detain people simply because they don't have a resident permit, or simply because they watch porn.

MI: You have the wrong ideas in your brain. To me, it is a crime to watch pornography because it leads to sex crimes. In the old days, people were jailed for reading a handwritten manuscript of a love story. Remember the kid who lived next door to you? He was circulating the handwritten book The Yearning Heart of a Young Woman, which was a very popular love story published underground in the 1970s. One of his classmates reported him to the police. I led the police to his room and we found the evidence. The police hung a black cardboard sign around his neck and paraded him around the neighborhood for circulating lurid materials to young people. He spent three years in a reeducation camp.

LIAO: That was during the Mao era. Just think about it: those kids were your neighbors. Why would you want to ruin their future simply because they were reading a love story? If you go to the shopping malls nowadays, you can get all sorts of magazines and books on love and sex at the newsstands.

MI: You can have too much sympathy for bad people. I can tell who is a good person and who is a bad person by simply looking at him. In the old days, there was a North Korean movie called The Invisible Battlefield. The movie told a story about how counterrevolutionaries were trying to overthrow the Communist government in North Korea. I was very touched by the movie. I proposed that all neighborhood committee members should see the movie, and become vigilant. The movie was a good education for us. We decided to mobilize all the people in the neighborhood, so they could report to us any suspicious activities. Before the 1980s, each time we received a tip, we would conduct large-scale searches of individual homes.

LIAO: I remember that. In 1975, my uncle was released from prison. He was among the last batch of POWs to receive amnesty from the government. After he got home, you led the police to our apartment. My uncle was taken away and detained overnight.

MI: Well, your uncle fought on the side of the Nationalists during the civil war. He was categorized as a class enemy. It was our job to be vigilant. Oh well, I had to apologize for the detention. He turned out to be a nice man. Over the past forty years, that was probably the only mistake I ever made. At present, the government has beefed up its crackdown on crime. Since last year, there have been several large-scale police roundups. But the neighborhood committees are no longer playing a critical role as they used to.

LIAO: Is it good or bad?

MI: Well, what do you think? We have been treated as a symbol of the past. My feelings are hurt.

LIAO: I personally think that the neighborhood committee was given too much power in the Mao era. Nowadays, we need to rule society with law. You guys cannot just search people's homes at random. Like everyone else in China, people at the neighborhood committee should find something else to keep them busy.

MI: We are trying to reinvent ourselves. Last summer, the government provided funding and authorized the neighborhood committee to open a teahouse, which turned out to be a very successful venture. My original idea was to make the teahouse a venue to publicize government policies. In the old days, all the neighbors gathered together every Wednesday afternoon to sit in the open air to study Mao's works and read Party newspapers. I figured the old mandatory study sessions no longer worked. But we could use the teahouse to get folks in the neighborhood to come in and sip tea while reading the Party papers. It was like killing two birds with one stone. Also, the teahouse could create a couple of jobs for those unemployed youth. But this teahouse venture turned into a monster. Nobody wanted to hear me read the newspapers. Not only that, they even booed me off the podium several times. So my daughter told me to be more flexible and stop preaching Communism. We then invited some Sichuan opera singers to perform at the teahouse. Old folks loved it, but young people hated it. They used all sorts of means to sabotage it. One evening, soon after the operas started, a young guy called the local TV station to come investigate noise pollution in the teahouse. The journalist filed a news report that totally distorted the truth about us. It was just so hard to please everyone. In the end, our customers decided to take matters into their own hands. They converted the teahouse into a mah-jongg parlor. Soon it became so popular that we ran out of mah-jongg tables. People simply brought tables from their own homes, and installed a couple more lightbulbs in the teahouse. It was really shameful. They turned the teahouse into a gambling parlor. They recommended that I charge a fee per table.

LIAO: You must have made lots of money from it. As the Chinese saying goes, “When the fortune of God wants to come in, you cannot stop it!”

MI: I'm an old-time Communist who has received years of orthodox education from the Party. How can I lead my people astray to something evil?

LIAO: Don't you think it's an overreaction on your part? Playing mahjongg is a popular pastime for people in China. You cannot call mahjongg players evildoers, can you? Besides, all the teahouses in this city run mah-jongg games.

MI: Many folks spent all night here playing mah-jongg. If they won, they would go piss away the money in expensive restaurants and whorehouses. When they lost, they started stealing. I really regretted what I had created, but it was too late to close down. Even my daughter dissuaded me from complaining. One time, the old hunchback who lives on the fifth floor of that building gambled away ten thousand yuan [US$1,220] just in one night. He became so crazy. He went home and drank some DDT to commit suicide. Luckily, his wife found out and sent him to the hospital. Otherwise, he would be dead by now. After this incident, I went to the police and reported the gambling activities at my teahouse. They eventually raided the place. Many people swore at me behind my back. As a result, I resigned from the neighborhood committee. Right now, the government has appointed my daughter to be in charge.

LIAO: But I get the impression that you are still in charge.

MI: No, not really. My daughter is the real boss. She is in her fifties now. She loves to practice tai chi, do folk dancing with other retired women in the neighborhood, and hang out with people. Her temperament is more suitable for this job.

LIAO: Now that the teahouse has been closed down by police, what are you going to do next?

MI: I had an electrician install a loudspeaker on the rooftop of this office building and set up a mini radio station so I can broadcast news three times a day. Actually, the neighborhood committee ran the radio station for over ten years. Before the 1980s, most residents didn't have TV at home and they couldn't afford to subscribe to newspapers. Therefore, that radio station was very popular. I even hired a professional radio announcer, who would read excerpts from the newspapers or party documents. We also aired revolutionary music, such as “East Is Red.” Our radio program was quite professional and could compete with the big radio station in Beijing. When TV reached the homes of everyone here, nobody cared about radio anymore. But now, I have started again.

LIAO: Let me take a look at your mini radio station. The whole wall is filled with portraits and flags. I can see you still keep the big pictures of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong—the world's well-known Communist leaders. I remember seeing them on this wall when I was a kid. They do look like antiques to me.

MI: I have had them for over thirty years.

LIAO: They are quite authentic then. This room is too small for these “great men.” You make it seem as though you worship these famous Communists every day.

MI: Well, I can't do that. If we want to set up an altar for them, there are specific rules. You cannot treat the pictures of these great men the same way you do pictures of movie stars. You cannot tilt them, or put them in separate places. There are five equally great men, and they have to line up on the same wall. Otherwise it would be a political mistake.

LIAO: Director Mi, your office looks like a museum of the Mao era. Time seems to have stopped here. I will try to find another time to read every one of those flags and see what is written on them.

MI: Those flags were awarded to me for my contributions to the revolution. Chairman Mao used to teach us: “Don't sit on your accolades. One needs to continue with the good revolutionary work.” It's too bad nobody will continue with the Communist revolutionary work today. The work of the neighborhood committee is getting harder and harder. Look, since I relaunched this radio broadcast early this year, I couldn't find any young person to commit to this community radio station. Several old folks in the neighborhood are now taking turns doing the broadcasting. Since we are old and can't see properly, we constantly make mistakes. We have to shorten the radio broadcast time. We read newspaper excerpts and the weather forecast, play music, and air some personal commentaries.

LIAO: What kind of personal commentaries?

MI: For example, in the morning, after we finish the opening music, someone will go on the air to remind folks about morning rush hour traffic and ask residents to take care when they cross the street. He will then talk about the importance of eating breakfast and on how to prevent low blood sugar. He also urges those young people who have been laid off to cheer up and not give up on life. In the evenings, another guy will go on the air, telling residents to close their windows and lock their doors before going to bed. He will offer tips on how to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning, and give the phone numbers for the fire or police department.

LIAO: This is truly like a big Communist family.

MI: Each time I enter this room and become surrounded by these past accolades, my youthful energy comes back.

LIAO: You are still young at heart, but your mind is living in the old days.