Li Ao: Life greatly improved under CPC rule
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-09-23 09:05

Well-known Taiwan writer and cultural figure Li Ao, an advocate of reunification who is visiting the mainland, said the Communist Party of China is responsible for the nation's prosperity.

Taiwan writer, historian, scholar, and critic Li Ao attends a talk show program with HK's Phoenix cable network in Beijing on September 22, 2005. Li is now on a ten-day cultural tour in the Chinese mainland. [sohu]

"I remember as a boy, I once saw a farmer walk into Beijing carrying a shoulder pole. At one end hung a basket of vegetables, at the other end a basket holding his son - both for sale," the 70-year-old Li said. He was recalling his childhood in Beijing in an interview with Hong Kong's Phoenix cable network.

"When he left in the evening, he had sold both the vegetables and his son. I could see the tears in his eyes," said Li.

Li, born in 1935 in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, had spent his first 14 years on the Chinese mainland before leaving for Taiwan in 1949 at the end of the Chinese civil war.

He lived in Beijing in most of this period.

Li Ao meets with his primary school PE teacher at the program. [sina]

He recalled that many Chinese people had difficulty getting enough to eat. To keep their children from starving, some farmers sold their children to urban families.

"China had experienced such poor conditions in the past," said Li. "But the situation now is truly much better. I thank the Communist Party of China."

Li, who was nominated for the Nobel prize for his novel about a Beijing temple, met with his primary school classmates and an 81-old games master at noon.

Li, author, scholar, and critic, arrived in Beijing on Monday for a 10-day "Chinese culture trip," his first trip back to the Chinese mainland.

He is scheduled to deliver speeches at prestigious universities in Beijing and Shanghai, meet old classmates and visit historic sites.

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