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The China Group
by Joan Berman
(We have photos of the China trip in our Gallery
Section)
The inspiration for the China Group was Ann Tompkins' visit to Chicago
in 1971 during which she showed slides from the time she lived in the
Peoples' Republic of China, (1966-1970?), during the Cultural Revolution.
I had already been to Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade in 1970 and was
eager to travel to other countries to see socialism/communism in action.
I had thought to travel to Chile after the election of Salvador Allende
as President, but friends said it was still too early to see the accomplishments;
wait a while. So after seeing Ann's slides, I got excited about a trip
to China.
Although
it was still before the U.S. had diplomatic relations with the Peoples'
Republic of China, I knew a a couple companeros from the Venceremos
Brigade, who arranged their own trip through the Chinese Consulate
in Ottawa. So I started talking up the idea of a women's trip to China
to my friends and put a notice of a planning meeting in the CWLU newsletter,
and, as they say, the rest is history. Some of the women who eventually
joined our group had not previously been members of CWLU but were interested
in the project. We started to meet to write a proposal for our group
trip.
The
members of the group had varying levels of knowledge, we also made
a plan to study together, a reading list on China's history, political
theory and social change and focusing on the role of women. We
also worked on improving communication and relationship process within
our group. Ann Tompkins, who had been a social worker in California
before going to China, had written a small book on criticism and
self-criticism, a process used by the Chinese to solve problems.
We invited her to come to Chicago and work with us on this technique
in a weekend retreat (one of many among the CWLU group).
After
we submitted out proposal to the Chinese Consulate in Ottawa,
we waited and continued our study group. It was during this time that
President Richard Nixon made his first trip to China, paving
the way for diplomatic relations. The group gathered around the television
set at my house, sprawled in the bed, watching every move of
his arrival and ceremonial visit. We waited so long for word on our
proposal that some women in the group became discouraged and
dropped out. When we finally got an approval from the Chinese, it was
for a different time than requested, and with some changes in our itinerary,
but we immediately accepted their term and made preparations
for travel. We designated some members of the group as official photographers
and others as official note takers, so we would have documentation
of our visit.
We
were the first Women's Liberation group to visit PRC, and,
to our surprise, they were interested in learning from us. We made
several presentations on our organization and its projects
to delegates from the All China Women's Federation. On long train
rides from city to city we had lengthy face to face and heart
to heart chats with the two women, Lin and Tsing, who served
as our guides and translators throughout the 3-week trip. The
topics we discussed included the meaning and practice of lesbianism.
We visited factories of various kinds, several small scale
neighborhood manufacturing enterprises started by women in the community,
hospitals and clinics, schools and day care centers. Everywhere
we met with the Revolutionary Committee to hear statistics
about workers and productions, and we asked about conditions of women's
work and life.
We
visited peoples' homes, in cities and in the countryside.
We went to museums of history and art and culture, and historical
sites and theater and acrobatic performances. After 3 weeks,
we returned home and began sorting through hundreds of slides
and hundreds of words, organizing them into a meaningful
form. We showed slides to various groups and organizations, reliving
our experience and interpreting it to others. We thought
about writing a book, but didn't get any positive response from publishers.
We developed a course curriculum which we first taught in
the Liberation School, and later in a progressive program at De
Paul University. Some of us also became active participants
in the USCPFA. With these activities, we increased the knowledge
and awareness of people about what was going on in the PRC
and some of the amazing strides toward equality of women
that had taken place in a country bound be traditions thousands
of years old.
Where
are we now? Many members of our group have moved away from
Chicago. One of them continued her work and learning about
China by working for China Books, first in Chicago and
then moving to China Books's headquarters in San Francisco and
has made several more trips to China. Although we had one
MD in the group when we went, two others have since acquired
an MD degree, including our youngest member, who was 11
years old at the time. The others went on from there to become
a D.O.M. and uses acupuncture and other Chinese traditional
treatments.
I've
been to China with other women's groups two other times
subsequently. During my 1985 trip I encountered our former
translator Lin in her position as director for North
America for the All China Women's Federation. Most recently, in
1995 I attended the NGO Forum in connection with the
UN 4th World Conference on Women, this time with a group representing
the Association for Women in Psychology.
Joan Berman is active in the CWLU Herstory Website
Committee. She is a former China Group member now working
as a psychotherapist and professional photographer.
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