Context: My mother, IW, was born in a suburb of Beijing and grew up under the late years of Mao Zedong. Her schooling, from childhood through high school, was dominated by Mao-era “education,” which, following the Cultural Revolutions expulsion of intellectuals from population centers (they were seen as bourgeois), was largely just party propaganda. After Mao’s death in 1976, IW vividly remembers doing significant catching up just to match the academic level of the generation immediately before her, who had received actual schooling. IW’s “schooling” revolved around Mao’s Little Red Book, and the many slogans therein stook with her. She emigrated to the United States in 1995 for graduate school and has lived in California ever since. 

Text: “打一枪换个地方” (dǎ yī qiāng, huàn gè dì fāng) translates literally as “fire one shot, change locations.” Its origins trace back to Mao’s time as a general in the armed communist rebellion, where guerilla tactics led the rebellion to victory. In our household it has long since lost the military reading. IW uses it to mean, in her own words, give it your all and keep moving, do not get hung up on a task, do not chase impossible perfection, do what you can and then move on. IW almost always imbues some humor into the performance of the phrase, often accompanying it with a finger-gun gesture. 

Analysis: Propaganda directed at children produces an interesting folkloric residue. The audience is too young to engage with the ideology behind a slogan, so what survives the years is rarely the political claim and almost always the language itself, the rhythm of the phrase and the situations it was attached to. In fact, it was not until after my mother emigrated to the United States did the political situation that shaped her childhood become clear to her. In using the phrase after so many years, after so much in her life has changed, I sense a deal of irony and humor in the performance. I’ve asked before if IW has any ill will toward the party that caused her considerable strain growing up, she does not. It is her opinion that it was simply the reality of her upbringing, and she’s chosen to make the most of it. The meaning of this phrase is twofold for me personally, of course the wisdom about effort and pace, but also as the manifestation of making the most of a lousy situation it is deeply inspiring to me.