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My Tryst with Fake News
On a rainy day in April 2023, I grabbed major headlines in a highly circulated media outlet in the U.S. Chinese community.
The article title proudly blared in Chinese:
The Second Generation: “I Stand On the Shoulders of My Predecessors.”
The article accurately depicted a momentous day. My father, who escaped China to Hong Kong and eventually immigrated to the United States, successfully organized and fundraised for the construction of a monument to honor those who lost their lives while fleeing China during the 1960s and 70s.
These individuals, known as “sent-down youth,” were mostly high school and college students, sent to rural areas to be re-educated during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). Chairman Mao implemented this policy to foster communist ideological purity. These sent-down youth were forced to halt their education and move to rural areas to perform manual labor in farms and factories.
Many of them, like my parents, tried to escape their dystopian reality by fleeing China. Unfortunately, many tragically perished trying to cross the water from Guangdong to Macao.
My parents, both whom were sent-down youth, were fortunate to have reached the shores of freedom…
