Wei Jingsheng - Early Years

Early Years

Wei was the oldest of four children, brought up by Chinese Communist Party cadres. In 1966 Wei joined the Red Guards as a 16 year-old student during the Cultural Revolution. Wei lived in remote rural areas in Northern China and was able to speak with peasant farmers about the widespread famines that had occurred a few years before, during the Great Leap Forward. Wei discovered the role that the communist government under Mao Zedong had played in causing the famines, and it forced Wei to start questioning the nature of the system he lived under. Wei would later write about this period: "I felt as if I had suddenly awakened from a long dream, but everyone around me was still plunged in darkness." In 1973, Wei began work as an electrician at the Beijing Zoo.