Preview: "Original Soundtrack: Zha Jianying (Part 1) | June Fourth: Watching This Regime Bare Its Fangs Again in the Square"

In the interview, Zha Jianying talked about the vastly different life paths of herself and her half-brother Zha Jianguo. Zha Jianguo was once sentenced to nine years in prison for organizing the China Democracy Party to challenge the authority of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). After learning the news in Canada, Zha Jianying said she was proud and relieved for her brother.

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Through that article you wrote, "Public Enemy of the State," I was also quite struck—I felt that you two are like two sides of a coin: bound by blood, yet with such different life trajectories.

Zha Jianguo is my half-brother. Actually, my father's first marriage produced two sons, and he was the eldest. After the Cultural Revolution began, when I was still a very young primary school student, suddenly a big brother came home—strutting in proudly, wearing a full military uniform with a red armband. I remember that on the eve of his going down to the countryside, he brought a group of his classmates over to see him off; the house was bustling, it felt like a very impressive group of people had arrived.

My brother worshipped Mao back then. His disillusionment seemed to come especially late—even after Mao passed away, he still seemed to be commemorating Mao, still mourning an ideal he had once believed in. Zha Jianguo was sentenced because he organized an opposition party in China to challenge the authority of the Chinese Communist Party—they called it the China Democracy Party—and he was arrested and sentenced to nine years for this.

As his sister, how do you view your brother's choice? The first time I heard the news of their sentencing, I remember I was that day at a friend's house in Canada, and I saw it in a Canadian newspaper. I believe most Chinese people didn't know at the time, the vast majority of them, but my first reaction upon seeing it was that I was extremely proud of him, and I felt deeply gratified that our family had produced such a man.