Daily Life

    I went to visit the Chang family in Shanghai, China. They are a working class family with a landlord background. This means that somebody in their family line was a landlord. Landlords are considered even worse people then criminals. Unfortunately, the families are who take the blame instead of the landlord himself. They lived in fear of being tortured by the ideas of the Cultural Revolution and their family’s past. Their house was searched very often by the red guards and many of their belongings were taken from them, only because they had a black background. Their lives were based around work, school, family, and most importantly Chairman Mao. The parents worked during the day. The mom worked at the local theatre, and the dad was a fourth grade teacher. The grandmother stayed at home and did housework while the children were at school.

The family prayed to Allah, but the main person that they publicly worshiped was Chairmen Mao. Of course this was during the Cultural Revolution, so everyone was required to love and worship Mao. Some of the things that the family did for fun was playing in the alley and going to the park. For meals, we mainly ate rice and meat. The government had many rules and were very strict. They were almost always searching houses and criticizing people’s daily lives. They were trying to eliminate the four olds. This was the most difficult part for the family because they were constantly being watched, especially because they were a landlords family.

    In the beginning of the day, the girls went to the market to get fresh food. We had breakfast as a family and then all dispersed to our normal days. The parents went to work and the kids went off to school while Grandmother stayed at home. In the middle of the day the kids got home from school and worked on their homework. The girls then did some sewing while the boys finished their chores. Then all of the children went off to play outside with their friends. At the end of the day we had a dinner of  rice and meat. Finally, we all relaxed together and then went to bed.
    For the most part, this is what the family does everyday. The main difference between their lives and our lives is that they constantly lived in worry and fear. They were constantly worried that their house would be searched again, or that they would be made fun of because of their background. Other than that, I enjoyed visiting them and getting to know how they live. Even though we think as these people as completely different people, we have very similar goals and lives. I enjoyed visiting the Chang family in Shanghai, China.