SOH News

Kai Chen’s Life Story Of Breaking Free From CCP_Episode 1 of 4

Episode 1: My Path
1a The Time of being lost
I was in Beijing, China, in a family with a “bad” background. My parents had “political” issues (Kai chen’s parents wedding photo), plus relatives in Taiwan. Due to a civil war, my parents’ 10 sisters and brothers were separated to Taiwan and the mainland. My uncle Li Bangxun was an air force hero. During the anti Japanese war period, the American Volunteer Group granted my uncle, with 15,000 hours of flight time with no crashes, the award for best pilot. My grand father and father stayed in Beijing.
 Other relatives of mine and my grand mother went to Taiwan. My grand father and grand mother were never to meet again.

Due to their relationship with Taiwan, our family was “exiled”, to a small town called Tonghua in the Northeast of China, close to North Korea. During the Cultural Revolution, all young intellectuals were sent to the countryside. I had just graduated from middle school and also went to the countryside. I got an opportunity, i.e. I worked in a grain warehouse, instead of farming and planting. I worked in the Liuhe grain warehouse as a temp. Everyday I carried grain bags which weighed 100 kilograms. At that time I was only 16 years old and my body was not yet fully grown. Try carring a 100 kilogram grain bag walking on a swinging bridge. It was a dangerous job. During that period of time as a temp, I never stopped playing basketball. Every morning, first thing, I played basketball for an hour.
There was a water well, I had some water, then I took a shower with it. Later I thought about why I did it like that.
It looked odd. I also used to wonder why I had such a passion to play by myself . It was absolutely hopeless back then. I didn’t have any expectations. During that period of time there were no nation wide gymnasiums. None of the professional teams were performing at all. No careers at all. None of the career development in athletes existed. Despite all that, in the end I made it indeed. It was amazing stuff. As far as why I did it, I think it was because I found a way to let out my passion for life while playing basketball. I felt like I was living in that way, my spirit did not die. That’s why I always talked about how the US, to a great extent, saved my life because the US invented basketball. Basketball is where I started my relationship with the US. My passion for basketball has never changed, from the very beginning till my retirement, till I coached my daughter to play . I’m very committed to it. At that time Zhou Enlai instructed that they wanted to play the sports card to break though the diplomatic bottleneck Therefore the National team sent out a bunch of people to look for talent with professional potential. They were told that there were some tall young men including my brother and myself. I was selected and went to Beijing. I was put into an intensive training camp when I was 16 years old, not yet 17. Something happened during the training.
1b Potato skin affair
Once we had potatoes for our meal. Since the potato skin was dusty and dirty, my best friend and I peeled the skin away. Our so called “political in charge” saw us and instructed us to give a self criticism in front of the whole team for wasting the potato skin. I thought that my hope for my life and my career would vanish because of this piece of potato skin. Your life could be gone because something like that, because your life was controlled by others. I did the self criticism, ate “ bad food” and swore in front of the People’s Hero Monument, as well as went through propaganda sessions and brainwashing. Thank God ! this “political in charge” had an affair with a married woman. He left, therefore my friend and I survived. He was involved in such a scandal , even though he was educating us about ethics. That woman died by jumping off a building. That’s why that guy was expelled and sent back to his hometown. At that time I made a judgment based on ethics. What these people taught us is fake. Since that time, I began to doubt them. These people looked professional and taught us ethics, but what about themselves? Their behavior made me feel everything was deceitful. Nothing was true. However it was a big decision if I wanted to pursue the truth. The only truth for me was in basketball. I simply tried to play basketball well. When the “youth team for camp training” was dismissed, only I and a best friend of mine stayed in the “National Sports Committee”. We were treated as special talented candidates for further training.
Of course, for me, the only true relationship I could have was the truth between my basketball and myself. Because I was unable to find anything true among Chinese people. Therefore I concentrated on playing basketball and I played it well. Finally the youth intensive training team was dismantled. Only my best friend and myself stayed with the National Gymnastic (Sports) Commission, as special talented candidates for further training.
My best friend stayed with the National Track & Field Team. After a year long training program, one day he suddenly showed up in my dormitory, telling me that he was not allowed to take training here anymore since he had a family history issue, i.e. his father used to serve in the Kuomingtang’s Army. He was kicked out on account of his background. I went to the Beijing train station to see him off. I was full of despair but I didn’t let him notice it. He didn’t know anything about my family background, as my best friend. I understood that it would come to me sooner or later, i.e. I would be kicked out for sure. At the Beijing train station, there was a song called “Dong Fang Hong”(Red in the Orient”). When the train started moving, my friend tried to lean out from the window to wave at me. I never realized that it was the last time I would see him. I never saw him again! It is an eternal pain in my heart.
He returned to Harbin, Heilongjiang province, and was in despair. He began to drink alcohol. When he was drunk and fell asleep, he was killed by gas leaking from his stove. I had already been kicked out when I got this news. Of course after a while, the National Sports Committee found out my family background, and they gave me the “death penalty” – that I was not allowed to go overseas for games and that I couldn’t stay on the National Team because of my family background. I couldn’t believe it. I knew some well known coaches on the National team and gymnasts who went overseas for games. They also had some family background issues. However I thought I would be able to go overseas if my technical skills reached a high level.
In this respect, all Chinese athletes were simply a tool of the Communist government. They could dump you anytime, humiliate you with no regard for your dignity. At that time I made up my mind. I was kicked off the National Sports Committee, I was wondering what I should do. I loved basketball unconditionally. I told the people in charge that I could play basketball inside China if I wasn’t trusted to go overseas to play . However they didn’t give me any answer.
Then I tried to find a solution myself. I contacted some coaches in Guangdong Military Division to join the team and play there, as a new start in my basketball career. I didn’t tell anybody, since somebody from the Liuhe grain warehouse came to Beijing to look for me. I didn’t want to go there because there was no hope for basketball in the Liuhe grain warehouse. I didn’t tell anybody and left for Guangzhou Military Division.
Escape _ Fall 1971
I carried only a handbag with me, with no languages for travelling. Written on my bag in yellow was the slogan “Serve your people”. I had been keeping this bag with me for all of my basketball career. Why? Whenever I saw “Serve your people”, I thought about how this society lacked any ethics. The so called “people” were the Communists and its government.
The National Sports Committee paniced because somebody had escaped. They sent a team from the police department to look for me. When they were in Guangdong Military Division and saw me playing basketball, they didn’t notice any wrong doing. Cao Cheng, the chief director of the National Sports Committee issued an order – that Guangzhou Military must send this guy back.
I was in total despair when Guangzhou Military Division had a talk with me, trying to send me back. Before I came to Guangzhou, I thought I could start another career life here and move on. That little piece of hope was crushed when I was told that I was not allowed to stay. At that point in time I felt that there was no difference if I lived or died.
I was not allowed to make my own choices. I was like a doll. I cried indeed, with total despair. I was in my room alone, thinking of what I was supposed to do. I felt a big anger in my heart. At that time I didn’t have any idea about God. I thought that I shouldn’t give up, I should give it a try. Well, I decided to go back to Beijing with them. I could imagine what was waiting for me in Beijing, nothing good. Then I was isolated in Beijing, in order to confess my motivations for escaping. They thought that I would escape to Taiwan from Guangzhou and then Hong Kong because of my Taiwan relationship. That was their guess. I didn’t think of it at all. I did it for my basketball.
At that moment I made the most important decision of my life, I refused to be in despair. It is a significant choice when you refuse to be in despair. You can choose hopelessness in your life and you can reject it as well. Even though I didn’t see any hope, but I still rejected despair.
I went back to Beijing and made a self confession for a week in an isolated place. Then I made a complete self criticism in front of all of the National Basketball Team members.
The National Sports Committee was afraid that I would escape again. They sent 2 people to go with me to Liuhe. I remembered it clearly, I was sent back to Liuhe, lying on my small bed with a small oil lamp. There was no electricity in Liuhe at that time. I was staring at the oil lamp, wondering what I should do next. Should I wait and be manipulated by somebody else? Should try to survive by myself again? My elder brother came to see me and encouraged me. He said, if you stayed, the leaders of the grain warehouse would not be nice to you since you run away from here before. Besides, they knew that you didn’t want to come back to the warehouse. It was no good for you to stay here. I agreed with him. Then I escaped from there again through the wired fence.
This time I ran to a team in Jilin province in Changchun city. The province team knew me and my potential. They needed me . I stayed there for a couple of months, and I thought I could start my basketball career there. It didn’t happen either. Why? Shengyang Military Division took away my personal file and they knew I left the National Basketball Team. They also knew I was very talented. They needed me, and as a result of it I was serving in the Army. During that time I had an expectation to join the Army, because that would help my parents family benefit from it and they wouldn’t be discriminated by neighbors. My parents got investigated by their employers. If I served in the Army, it would be good for them. Then I went to Shanyang Military Division, wearing military uniforms. Then I thought I could start playing basketball. It didn’t happen then either. I was told that I had a record for running away.
The Army wouldn’t trust you. I was sent to the front for labor work, for brainwashing. Since I had been sent to the front, I wasn’t able to play any basketball.
In the Army there wasn’t enough food. I was starving. There was a war in Zhen Bao Dao (Treasury Island) against the Soviet Union. I am tall and eat more. I was often hungry, plus the heavy, labor intensive workload. At that time we were building a dam, in addition to the regular military training. My health was getting worse, I got stomach bleeding. I didn’t know it and didn’t know that it was a serious illness. When I returned to Shenyang Military Division basketball team, I was too weak to play any basketball. It was not a problem for me to shoot the ball into the net anytime before, now I could not reach the net even once. I thought, my God (even though I didn’t know the existence of God at that time), what should I do?. I still played with others, no matter what. However my health was getting worse and worse. I didn’t accept it and nobody could have known unless they had checked it out.
Till one day I couldn’t get up anymore. I remembered that I had a fever, but nobody came to visit me. It was popular the idea ,“love each other and help each other”, but unfortunately nobody came to help me at all. During the meeting,I felt dizzy due to the fever. But they sang a song of words like “People’s Army is a university, we held Mao Zedong’s thoughful red flag high up”. It irritated me. I was so angry and shouted with the dirtiest words in the world. My throat was sore due to the fever. Somebody heard me in the hallway and reported that Kai Chen talked fudge. I didn’t. What I said was true. They sent me to the hospital. I was there for a week and my fever was gone after pennicilin injection.
I continued training after my return. I did not recover at all. I had a gastric ulcer, but it wasn’t discovered , and stomach bleeding, which caused anemia, and almost caused my death. I was also bleeding. Then I was sent to the hospital again, for a month.
When I was hospitalized, I received a letter – my best friend had died. I got this letter when I was in the most hopeless situation. Needless to mention other unhappy stuff, not even talking about my basketball career. This bad news came. How would you deal with it? Usually people would be defeated and get it over with. No matter what, hopelessness was indeed hovering in my mind. My best friend had died. Death was also awaiting me. There was no hope then. But I still rejected despair. I refused it.
I asked to get out of the hospital once I heard my best friend had died. I wanted to work hard for my future. I started training right away. At least my stomach stopped bleeding, even if it still hurt. I somehow gained some motivation through the training, i.e. I wanted revenge for my best friend. Of course it was not an individual hatred. I had a vague idea: the most effective revenge in this society was to make myself happy. I didn’t see anybody happy in their lives, none.
I gave myself a promise – I wanted to be happy, and I believed I could find happiness. I must pursue it. Even though I didn’t see it, from people around me. They were not happy. But I believed I would be able to find it

Bookmark It

Hide Sites