Yesterday, Netflix officially premiered "The Three-Body Problem," a new drama carefully produced by the original team of "Game of Thrones." The drama is adapted from the long science fiction novel "The Three-Body" written by Chinese author Liu Cixin.
The opening scene of the first episode describes a scene during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which has caused widespread heated discussions on social media (excluding viewers in China, because the drama has been banned by the Chinese government due to the censorship system). Many people commented that it was too violent and bloody, while others, particularly those who experienced the Cultural Revolution firsthand, argued that due to Netflix's rating system, it was impossible to fully capture the brutal reality of the era on screen.
Indeed, my grandfather was one of those cruelty abused and maltreatment to death through struggle sessions. My mother was the daughter forced to witness her father's gruesome death. What was even more horrifying than depicted in the video was the public torture and abuse my grandfather endured day after day, beaten until unconsciousness, only to be dragged away and repeated the next morning. After each session, the Red Guards would force my grandmother, along with my mother and her siblings, to kneel on stage and clean up my grandfather's blood.
My mother rarely recalled that period of her life. But one evening on the anniversary of my grandfather's death, when I was 16 years old, after drinking some glasses of wine, she began to recount those cruel memories to me. My mother who always proud and elegant broken down that night as if sulfuric acid had been poured onto a gypsum statue. She cried out like a child, tears streaming down her face, shouting for“Baba(father)”. I held her tightly, fearing she would shatter into sand and I would never be able to put her back together. She completely collapsed in my arms, crying out, "Those demons who killed my father! Not a single one was punished! Those executioners! Never apologized! They live among us, as if nothing ever happened, as if they were human!"
That night, she cried herself to sleep in my embrace, while I stayed awake, fearing that the black hole of memory would consume her. Thankfully, the next day, my mother woke up and resumed her usual demeanor.
For many years, she never mentioned it again until her passing, and I realized it was the cruelest pain and hatred she could never resolve in her life. Her elegance was her armor, her shield, and her spear. She made those demons see that even though they could destroy lives, they could never destroy spirits. There were things she wouldn't allow them to shatter!
While people watch this TV series as entertainment but for me that feels like watching a documentary of my family's history. As I write these words today, my heart still bleeds. I feel I have to record that real history. Because those who lived through it are passing away, yet, the justice has not been arrived!
