A Different War Story: A Look at my Grandmother's Childhood

My father's home where he was born in Taishan county

I was telling my co-worker a time in my childhood where my grandmother (my father's mother) would put Frito corn chips on top of my and my brother's bowl of white rice.  It was our afterschool "snack", although it was really our second lunch because we'd never finish our actual lunch in school.  My co-worker thought it was very peculiar, so I explained that my grandmother lived through the time of the Chinese Civil War.  About the time the war broke out, she was a child and people didn't have much to eat, so they eat what they can and that's how my grandmother end up eating the way she did.

I realize I never really asked any questions from my grandmother what life was like in China during the time of the Chinese Civil War.  The little that I researched about the Chinese Civil War, it started in the late 1920's between Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) and Mao Zedong's Communist Party.  Prior to that the Nationalist Party had overthrown the Last Emperor.  My grandmother was born in 1919, so that would have made my grandmother 8 years old during the time the Civil War started.

There isn't much written about the lives of the people during the Chinese Civil War.  My grandmother did tell me a few things but not a whole lot.  Her family had money.  I'm not sure if they were considered "rich" by their standards but they had a considerable amount.  They had a big house with a center courtyard in the middle of the house.  She even had a personal maid who would tend to her.  The family had a few other servants who would take care of the household chores and cook the meals.  When the Civil War started, she remembered the Communist soldiers coming through their house and took all their money and jewelry to "share" with everyone else in the country.  And soon after, they had to stand in line and take food rations.  I am not sure at this point if their servants left to fend for themselves, but I heard that my grandmother personal maid stayed with her the whole time because my grandmother was still just a little girl.  She never really learned how to cook, and growing up, I remember she can cook a few simple things, but it wasn't big and elaborate.  

My grandmother lived with us when I was younger.  She was very quiet for the most part.  I think life when she was young was harsh; she never talked about it much.  I believe the Chinese people of that time during the Chinese Civil War through the Cultural Revolution did not say much about their past because of the hardship they had to endure.  I wish I can go back and ask questions, but I think it would have been difficult for my grandmother to say much about her childhood.  I actually hope to do more research about this time period and especially the lives of the people who went through this era of history.