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Today is June 11th, 2019; 2:08 PM. We’re here in the DMC at Fondren Library at Rice University talking to Nancy Li. I am Steven Loyd.

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And I’m Tiffany Sloan. So, Ms. Li, please just tell us, uh, where and when were you born. Okay, I was born in China in Northeast in this small city, it’s about seven, eight million and uh called

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Qiqihar. And the name is minority, uh, dialect means ‘Windy City.’ So I was born in 1963, so it’s um, it’s um the time that China just pass the Great Leap Forward in following

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of the starvation period. So, um, my family was pretty um poor, uh but my ancestor came from Shandong Province and they were rich. And uh,

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uh we had uh—we had a lot of land properties and then um, uh when the uh the Communist, Com... party came over and they had called the Land Reform, I don’t know if you know that, so it’s about between the

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uh the time that New China was established, a time their first uh political movement was called Land Reform. So, they took over a lot of property, private properties, and uh your wealth, and then uh we

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came—we became poor. Um, it was actually, it was actually um pretty, pretty good when the uh Cultural Revolution came, uh, came later on.

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And then, uh, so after the uh disaster of a starvation and I was born, but the economy was still very, very bad. So, when I was little, you know, it’s because my

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mom’s pregnancy with me was not that good, so I was all the time sick. So among the four kids I was, um, the oldest and I’m the s—the shortest, skinniest, and the weakest. Yes.

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So you mentioned the Cultural Revolution, what, what effect did that have on your family at the time? Uh, because I am the oldest of the four and I have two little sister and one brother later on and so the

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family that time the—I think that when you learn about Cultural Revolution—the college already shut down for ten years and all the graduates from middle and high school and they— you have to um, you

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know, according to uh, Chairman Mao, Mao Tse-tung’s call, you had to go to the remote uh area in the countryside. So, the uh, each household might keep one child only.

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So according to the Chinese tradition, boys always so important in the hou—the youngest uh brother there so I’m, you know, supposed to be ‘go,’ ‘that’s must go’ that—that list.

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So, um… um, my mom and my dad both from a pretty educated even poor uh family background and they, like the uh most of the Chinese uh families, they regard education as

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a priority and respect the education highly. So even though the education the, during that time, was pretty put down and, you know, the school were not education for academic study but more political movement.

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But my mom, because want to keep the weakest and shortest, skinniest uh child, you know, in—at home not, instead of, going to remote area you don’t know what happen, you know, if you let the—let me go.

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So, um, it was a luck that my father’s old colleague’s son and uh like I said many years ago in my, um, commencement speech that we were lucky that—to have that uh, old uh, old… uh intellectual—higher

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intellectual uh official and he was exiled to my small city because my city is close to Siberia. It’s very, we call it very rural area. So he was, uh, exiled there and then uh my fath—uh his son…

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uh became a teacher with uh his—there, there were really talented multi-language speaker. And so, my father by chance met him in the street, you know, 23 years later when I

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was a—in uh in elementary school. So, and then uh came to an idea you need to learn something unique and special that keep you from you know, leaving the

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family go somewhere you don’t know. So, I start a secret because in that time you cannot learn a foreign language. So, I secretly uh… you know, learn uh… English from him. And then uh when the uh Cultural

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Revolution uh finish, I wen—I was already in the middle school; so, the school just started learning English, but it was really basic. I was really ahead of everybody.

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And then surely, you know, the uh going to college in that time is—maybe still now is the only… only bridge that can change your life. And in terms of the Cultural Revolution in that time and we were so young, and uh

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the economy was really really bad, especially in the—in the area like uh, like uh my city. And the most of time, uh, is winter. So it’s, you know, October four o’clock it’s already dark and it was freezing.

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And uh so learning language from a teacher you have to walk forty minutes each way and to, you know, secretly learn from him and then besides that, you know, the uh—the uh family conditions

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were really poor. You cannot afford anything, so um in the coal area we burned the coal for—for heating and my family was not uh, you know rich enough or, you know, can’t afford to buy the coal. So, most of time after the

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school, my job was to go out and, uh, pick up the coal crumbs and so I did that from I was maybe seven, eight years old until I was in high school. So, save the money because the coal—buying the coal

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is the most expen—expensive things in our—in the household expense. So, we in my—in my memory we never buy any like uh, the uh the wood for burning.

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We always pick like, you know, the trash, you know, like the trash picker. So, I did that until I was in high school. And so the—the life that time was really tough

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and uh I don’t think you know that during my childhood the memory is always the uh hunger. Because we were—we were uh given this certain quota for food: for grain, flour, uh…

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vegetable. Even the vegetable there is really limited because most of the time is—is winter and that time transportation was not that easy and very expensive.

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Now you can go anywhere you have the fresh vegetable, but in that time, during the long winter time, the only vegetable we can eat is potato and the, uh, cabbage. So the time was—even that was very limited, we cannot have them all the time.

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So the food is always corn, corn bread, from the morning to—the three meals is very simple. That’s that. So, for me—like I give you the recipe, even if flour—no matter what kind of flour with noodle, bread;

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this was a luxury uh food for us. So that time, uh effect each household very badly. I know that—so, academic—academically uh the school year… we uh, you don’t—you don’t—you

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didn’t spend the time study a lot because the teacher was not supposed to teach. And they, just uh, every day just uh, read a newspaper, read in their Red Book. So, we were lucky still compared to those people

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who had been sent to the remote area. In there—you know, after their graduate. So, before I graduate from high school, the Cultural Revolution already finished.

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So we, in terms of that, we always—I’m always feel um we are uh blessed and, you know, lucky—lucky group that we still have a chance later on to go to the college when the college open—re-open.

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So, when… when did you go to high school? The high school year is uh, uh… I think it’s…1977 to…1979 uh seventy uh to 1981. Because uh

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normally is uh—it’s three years uh high school in China. And because my family were poor so, surely, I was uh a little bit smarter than other people. So, I skipped one year.

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So, I had just uh two year uh high school. So and before, you know, so I was the youngest of the uh high schoolers in my grade uh and that time it’s like uh… um, a baby booming for our—our

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uh, you know, the year like uh in—we were born in 1962, 63, and 64; because right after the uh, you know, the uh starvation it—it really a uh a baby booming. Uh so, each class is about 70 to

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90 students, each class. And our grade always is the—the most crowded group, you know, anywhere you go: high school, middle school, or college. So, the—go to the college is really tough.

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It’s the—we say it’s the hardest year ever because, uh, we have the most students applying for the college and that the acceptance uh… it’s like two percent. And the—and also you have

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to fight against those people who came from the remote area, come back, and then they—the government gave a special policy for these people even they past the year—the age. Because in the time, in China,

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have the limitation of the age you go to the college, that was… 24. If you pass 24 years old, you have no right to go college anymore. So the China government give a special po—policy for those people

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who has been sent to the remote area during the Cultural Revolution and then come back and they compete with you too. So, the acceptance for us, it was really a tough year. And so, the Cultural Revolution ended in…?

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In 1976. But the year uh the college re-opened until 1977. So, yeah 1977 until, you know, the year like ’81 I went to the—the year that I uh

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went to college. You still see a lot of uh, uh we say older—older uh classmate because like my class uh because I went to the foreign language uh, you know uh…the uh department. So we have a group about 50—50 people.

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The uh whole grade is uh 50 but like divided into three uh small class, small group. So my class is about 18 to 19 people and uh, you know, in terms of 50, I’m the still I’m—I’m still the youngest one.

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So um, my oldest, you know, the classmate who is uh oldest is about 10, 12 years older than uh than me. So when we—when I went to there is about 17 years old and then the—the, my classmates say ‘call me

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uh uncle then the—the other ones ‘call me aunt.’ So I call them still uh big uncle or little uncle, you know, when we get reunion . Yeah. But I had a good good time, you know, because learn from this uh… uh

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you know your big brother, big sister and they told you a lot of things you never been through in uh like in a remote area, how they’re struggling to survive and it—it was uh. You know, we came from a—we say it from the

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root you—you know grassroot. Uh it was really uh, I feel like a much much luckier uh than those people who had been, you know, to had—had to suffer a lot more than that. So, you went to college straight out of high school?

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Yes, yes. Where was that? It was uh, uh… it was uh interesting uh question because uh… because of the family uh economy problem. Because my father’s uh father’s father we—because of the

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still we are affected by the family background. So my father was, never been uh promoted during the uh—longer um, you know, his uh professional career.

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And so he was in the bottom even he was very smart. Uh, so until he uh, I think I graduate already from college, his salary is about uh in Chinese it’s uh 40—45.2.

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I remember that—that amount really really well because it had been long time no change. So it’s—it’s about um, maybe eight dollar; five, eight dollar a month.

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So and my—my mom because uh my mom came from a city from called Harbin that was the uh, that’s still the capital of that area. So, um that part, you know, later on affect my uh a lot of uh, um involvement uh into

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the Jewish community but anyway my mom came from another city. So and—if you came from another city in China, you have a residency uh, ship. So, you move not like here, you move everywhere you want, but there no you

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can’t. So, uh shipping your citizen—uh, citizenship it take, it might take years and years and affect you uh, heavily; because if you don’t have a residency of the local city or like local town, you

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don’t have a quota of your food, your job, your—you know, everything. So, she actually have no quota. That just uh totally depends my—on my

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father, so we were pretty uh, you know, economically really tight. So, when I went to the college and even the school where, you know, they college uh examination score was good and I can be—I can—I can surely can go

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a better school, um better college, but uh you had to, you know, the family still have to support you in some—even though the government uh, that time, government give uh no tuition at all.

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But uh, the—the living expenses you had to carry on yourself. So that time, be—because of that consider, you know, became our big issue. So my father uh ask the people who he—he know from the other called the Qiqihar University, and he’s uh

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their really good friend from the middle school and ask him to switch my, you know, my the—the personal file you call it—personal file to this called Qiqihar University.

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That time called Qiqihar Teacher’s College . Because uh teacher’s college have a uh, what do you call it? Uh… not scholarship, but uh every—every month the government give a teacher’s college’s student a money.

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Like uh, that time is uh twenty-three yen. It’s big money for me. Uh, so, during the four years college, I almost uh spend no money from my family at all.

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23 is almost my—a half of my father’s in—you know salary. So that’s why, you know, I stay in the teacher’s college instead of going another college. That’s why I—I—I graduate from that Qiqihar, called

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the Qiqihar University now, but before called Qiqihar Teacher’s College. And what was it like there? What did you study? Study uh… we called it English uh—uh Literature .

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As actually just uh English Department but your major is uh English Literature. Uh, because you uh—your future is already set. You will become a teacher.

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And because of the—the shortage of the teacher that time be—the during the ten years no college, so there’s uh—all school no matter from the higher university to the uh local—I mean, to the uh—uh middle high school, there’s the extremely

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demands, it’s a huge demand for English or Russian, or any kind of foreign teacher—uh foreign language teachers. So actually uh, you know, it’s not good—not bad uh, um… uh choice for my family

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and myself to pick a English uh English as a major to study with. And uh, and so right after graduate, even you just uh get a bachelor’s degree but you’re assigned job to teach a bachelor immediately.

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You see, that’s how desperate that country need those uh, you know, teacher resources that’s—so that’s why . And so, how long were you in Qiqihar University? Almost uh yeah.

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Almost, uh I mean uh seven, eight years but during the time I was away for almost two years for my master degree as in, called the linguist—linguistics in Dalian University of Technology.

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Um, so um but to total for in ways that a teacher pro—occupation for eight years before I—I left the city uh… went to another city by the water, by the port, called uh, uh Weihai in Shandong

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province. I call myself just return to my ancestor’s home town, so I went back. But uh, a reason that uh—it was just luck that I was there uh just, you know, um

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just uh… for a visit. Because my student uh, was working there and he invite us to visit, so and I—I