Mom's Fairy Tales - Memories of the Past - Preface

 'Mom's Fairy Tales - Memories of the Past' is a collection of memoirs I have written over the past decade. It contains stories of my growth from kindergarten to high school and the world as I saw it through innocent eyes. Most of these stories were previously published in the 'New Jersey Weekly' and other Chinese newspapers, and all of them have been shared on my blog.

These articles use a realistic approach to record the people and events that have moved me. My childhood and adolescence spanned from the Anti-Rightist Movement to the end of the Cultural Revolution, which was the most tumultuous period in modern Chinese history. In the year the Cultural Revolution began, I was nine years old. Although I was too young to become a Red Guard, I was at an age where I could read and understand. As a third-party observer, I witnessed many events during that unique period. Unlike the Red Guards, who were either consciously, forcibly, or ignorantly involved, I did not carry the burden of having done things that weighed heavily on my conscience. For the majority of them, it is highly unlikely that they would publicly disavow their pasts, so they remain silent. Those a few years younger than me were still in a state of chaotic ignorance and had no understanding of the outside world.

My experiences allow me to write objectively about what I saw and heard back then. I feel that people of my age have a responsibility to present the world we saw during that time to posterity, to provide an objective and truthful portrayal of that era. Although each person can only reflect a portion of what happened back then from their own perspective and experiences, when many people write, we can have multiple perspectives and even a comprehensive view.

Because my purpose in writing is to provide posterity with a factual history of that era, I continue to write, even though my literary skills may be lacking. Readers should not approach this book as a work of literature, as you may be disappointed. Instead, read it as stories—these stories are all real, not fabricated, and they will help you understand the world of that time.

The people in my stories are all ordinary individuals, and the stories I write are all peaceful; that's what I saw in the world at that time. I only write small stories and do not engage in grand-scale analysis or cause-and-effect analysis. I provide true stories, and readers can engage in their own thinking and analysis.

Lewei Shang (商乐维)

December 22, 2021