Lijia Zhang’s Journey from Missile Factory to the Tiananmen Protests
“Socialism Is Great!”: A Worker’s Memoir of the New China is a firsthand account of China’s economic and social transformation in the late 20th century, written by Lijia Zhang, a former factory worker turned writer and journalist. Through personal experiences, Zhang paints a vivid portrait of the shifting political and cultural landscape of China, revealing the realities of daily life under a rigid socialist system and the emergence of a market-driven economy.
A Life Shaped by the Socialist Work Unit
Born in 1964 in Nanjing, Lijia Zhang was part of a generation that inherited the ideological weight of Maoist socialism. At the age of sixteen, she was assigned to work in a state-owned factory that produced intercontinental ballistic missiles. Her employment was not a matter of choice but a predetermined path dictated by the Chinese work unit (danwei) system, which controlled nearly every aspect of a worker’s life, from housing to personal relationships.
Life in the factory was defined by rigid discipline, collective dormitories, and ideological conformity. Employees were required to attend political study sessions where they were indoctrinated with socialist ideals, while personal freedoms were restricted by bureaucratic oversight. Zhang recounts humiliating monthly examinations by the “period police,” factory-appointed officials who ensured that unmarried women were not pregnant, reflecting the state’s tight grip on personal autonomy.
Intellectual Awakening and Defiance
Despite the suffocating constraints of her environment, Zhang cultivated a strong intellectual curiosity. She secretly studied English, a language associated with Western thought and opportunity, using an illegal shortwave radio to listen to BBC broadcasts. This act of defiance was the first step in her journey toward self-liberation. Learning English not only expanded her worldview but also fueled her desire for greater personal freedom and political awareness.
Zhang’s rejection of the rigid constraints imposed by the state was not limited to her private studies. She began dressing in bright, Western-style clothes, a subtle but bold challenge to the conservative norms of her workplace. Over time, her dissatisfaction with the system led to deeper political involvement, culminating in her role as an organizer in the 1989 pro-democracy protests that swept across China.
The Tiananmen Square Protests and the Cost of Resistance
As the momentum of the pro-democracy movement grew, Zhang played a crucial role in mobilizing workers in Nanjing to stand in solidarity with the student-led demonstrations in Beijing. Her involvement in these protests marked a turning point in her life, as she moved from silent dissatisfaction to active resistance. The brutal crackdown on June 4, 1989, when the Chinese government deployed the military to suppress the Tiananmen Square protests, had profound consequences. Many activists faced arrest, exile, or execution, and Zhang herself was subjected to surveillance and threats.
While the protests were crushed, Zhang’s personal transformation was irreversible. Determined to break free from the factory system and carve out an independent life, she ultimately left China and established herself as a writer and journalist abroad, documenting the struggles and contradictions of modern China.
A Nation’s Economic Shift: From Missiles to a Bronze Buddha
One of the most striking anecdotes in “Socialism Is Great!” illustrates the paradoxical shift in China’s economic priorities. Even as Zhang’s factory continued manufacturing intercontinental ballistic missiles, it also secured a contract to cast a giant bronze Buddha—a stark symbol of the country’s rapid embrace of capitalism. This episode encapsulates the contradictions of China’s post-Mao economic reforms, as socialist rhetoric remained intact while profit motives began to dictate national policy. The irony of a state-owned military factory participating in the booming market economy underscores the complex and often contradictory trajectory of China’s modernization.
Lijia Zhang’s memoir offers a detailed perspective on history, serving as a lens through which readers can understand China’s profound economic and political shifts in the late 20th century. Her experiences reveal the erosion of state control over individuals’ lives, the contradictions of China’s hybrid economic system, and the resilience of those who sought personal and intellectual freedom despite overwhelming state repression.
