Schoolgirl from Xi'an, sent down to a mountain village in Shaanxi at eighteen
Official Sent-down Youth Certificate (下乡证) issued to a young schoolgirl, with portrait and Chairman Mao quotations.
he was eighteen and alone in a mountain village. The village accountant tried to break down her door.1
Wu Xiaoping was a schoolgirl in Xi'an. When Mao sent the students to the villages, she did not want to go.
Neighbours asked why she was still at home. People came to the house to persuade and to threaten.
In January 1969 she left quietly for Qinyangou, a mountain village no bus could reach.
She lived in a cow shed with no window. A good day's work earned her six points out of ten.
One by one her companions used their parents' connections to get out. For two years she was alone.
Village men abused sent-down girls. The village accountant tried to break down her door.
In 1973 she passed the university exam and left for an agricultural college.
“Over four years of my youth, the finest time in one's life, were a complete waste for me.”
Fourteen million young people were sent down. Wu Xiaoping was one of them.