Socialism in America scares Sasha Gong, and she has earned the right to say so. Born in Beijing in 1956, she grew up inside Mao's Cultural Revolution: parents sent to a labor camp, a grandfather jailed for 20 years as an accused "culture spy," schools closed, executions at the village market every ten days. At 12 she read a banned Soviet novel, and one footnote connected every misery she had seen to the system itself. As a teenager she joined an underground dissident group and hand-copied Hayek. At 20 she was jailed for eleven months under seven guards, and her interrogators' first question was whether she listened to enemy radio. She did. It was Voice of America, which decades later hired her to direct its China branch. Jenny Beth Martin walks through the whole arc: how a dictatorship separates "true" from "truth," how Xi Jinping's father freed her group in 1978 and she asked him only for college, and why she left UCLA in 1998 as the most unfree environment she had ever seen. Then Gong turns to the socialism rising here. It is, she says, the worst combination of smart people who think they can run everyone's life and lazy people who want something without working for it. False hope is no hope. Sasha Gong holds a PhD in sociology from Harvard, taught at UCLA, worked for Radio Free Asia and the AFL-CIO, and directed the China branch of Voice of America. Learn more at teapartypatriots.org and jennybethshow.com.
Guest
Sasha Gong was born in Beijing in 1956 and raised in Canton, the daughter of two college professors. She was sent to the countryside at nine, to a candy factory at 16, and to a communist jail at 20 for her part in an underground dissident group. Released in 1978, she placed first in her province on the college entrance exam, studied history at Peking University, and earned a PhD in sociology from Harvard. She taught at UCLA, worked for Radio Free Asia and the AFL-CIO, and directed the China branch of Voice of America. This is her second solo interview on The Jenny Beth Show; she also appeared on the Surviving Communism panels.
Key topics
• Growing up inside Mao's Cultural Revolution: labor camps, the Red Guard, and executions at the village market
• How a dictatorship separates "true" from "truth," and why the left in America does the same
• The banned Solzhenitsyn novel and the footnote that connected every misery to the system
• Hand-copying Hayek's Road to Serfdom in 1975 and reading Marx to find the evidence against him
• Eleven months in jail at 20, and the interrogators' first question: did you listen to Voice of America?
• Xi Jinping's father, fresh from a communist jail himself, frees her group; she asks for college
• First in her province, Peking University, Harvard, Tiananmen, and barred from China in 1991
• Why she left UCLA in 1998: the most unfree environment she had ever seen
• Socialism in America as the worst combination of smart people and stupid people
• False hope is no hope; think with logic; what liberty actually means
Timestamps
00:18 — Welcome: a survivor of communism who prefers to think of herself as thriving
01:04 — Born in 1956 Beijing, raised in Canton; railway-worker ancestors; a grandfather jailed 20 years as a "culture spy"
06:27 — Sent to the countryside at nine; the Red Guard sign hung on her great-aunt; street fighting with weapons meant for Vietnam
10:39 — Parents in a labor camp; the meat soup she carried to her father, and the slap
13:07 — "Let kids be kids": why she will not call her childhood miserable
18:02 — True versus truth: how a dictatorship separates the two
19:22 — Memorizing every book she could get, because she would not have it later
20:39 — One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich: the footnote that connected every misery to the system
25:21 — Why no one criticized Stalin or Mao: the parades, the red cross through a name, the student with his tongue cut
28:57 — "Capitalist" meant people with money; hand-copying Hayek's Road to Serfdom in 1975
31:24 — The factory at 16, the wall poster on socialist democracy, and the youngest member of a dissident group
35:17 — Reading Marx, Adam Smith, and Stalin's own textbook to find the evidence against it
38:11 — "Before I get to Harvard, I have to get to jail first": eleven months, seven guards
40:15 — The interrogators' first question: did you listen to enemy radio? Voice of America
41:07 — What Voice of America was: 55 to 60 languages into countries with zero information
44:30 — Jazz, Russian music, Shostakovich, and the Director of the China branch
46:52 — A hunger strike for books; Marx and Engels's footnotes as a history course
49:18 — 1977: tutoring a guard for the college exam; the head of her interrogation team jailed
51:14 — Xi Jinping's father, fresh from 16 years in a communist jail, frees the group: "I want to go to college"
54:31 — First in her province; Peking University; Harvard and a PhD in a field China had banned
57:38 — Tiananmen protests from America; detained in Canton and barred from China in 1991
01:00:33 — Leaving UCLA in 1998: "the most unfree environment I have ever seen"
01:02:02 — The Gold Mountain: what her grandmother told her about America
01:05:44 — Third day in America: a bicycle ride down a highway to Lexington
01:07:27 — The rise of socialism in America: the worst combination of smart people and stupid people
01:09:49 — "The problem is they're lazy": intellectual laziness and physical laziness
01:11:19 — "False hope is no hope"; think with logic; schools that teach students not to think
01:13:55 — Charlie Kirk, arguing with yourself, and a generation that does not appreciate freedom
01:16:15 — Why she voted for the First Amendment
01:17:24 — What liberty means: do what you want and take responsibility for it
01:19:30 — Closing
Links mentioned
jennybethshow.com
teapartypatriots.org