Trio relive their Cuban adventure of 50 years ago
Print Edition
LIVING in a lakeside villa, enjoying bread and milk for breakfast every morning and listening to Sherlock Holmes radio dramas to hone their language skills are among the memories of Cuba that Chinese students of 50 years ago recalled at a recent gathering.
When the Cuban Consulate in Shanghai helped celebrate the 50th anniversary of the language program under which 108 Chinese students went to Havana to study Spanish, Shanghai residents Yan Yihua, Li Li and Chen Zhengming attended and relived their Cuban days.
“We have fond memories that will never be forgotten,” said Yan, who is now 68 and retired.
Cuba was the first country in the Latin America and Caribbean region that recognized and establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China in 1960. In 1964, Cuba received the first group of Chinese students who were sent abroad to study Spanish.
“This program was the beginning of cooperation in education between Cuba and China, as well as an important factor in the relationship that Cuba and China have developed in the last 50 years,” said Ariel Lorenzo Rodriguez, the Cuban Consul General in Shanghai.
Young and excited
In 1964, China recruited students to study languages abroad, after then Premier Zhou Enlai completed a visit to 14 countries, and was convinced that the New China needed talented people fluent in other languages.
The high school graduates who were recruited for the program had to have clean political records, excellent academic performance, pleasant appearances, good articulation and robust health.
“I was young and excited about the prospect of going abroad because there were few opportunities at that time for Chinese people to see the outside world,” Yan said.
In the summer of 1964, Yan, Li and Chen were among the 700 students — 200 from Shanghai — who were accepted into the program and sent to Beijing for training.
For two months, the students received lessons in patriotism and diplomatic policies and were taken on tours of famous Chinese factories.
Among the top-ranking officials who spoke to the students before they were dispatched overseas was Zhou.
“He asked us to study hard abroad and serve our country when we returned,” Li said. “We all felt the country had high expectations riding on us.”
The students were given 600 yuan (US$98) to buy clothing before their departure — enough for two suits, six shirts and other sundry necessities. They were told to keep their clothing modest. No high heels for the women.
“It sounds ridiculous today, but we were told to resist any temptation to project a capitalist lifestyle,” said Li.
The Cuba-bound contingent traveled by train to Moscow and then flew to Cuba. On board, flight attendants handed out chocolate. It was the first time most of the students had ever tasted it.
Life in Cuba was certainly a change from the environment of China.
The students were sent to the Pepito Mendoza language school in Siboney, a town in eastern Cuba. They were given free room and board and the best Cuban teachers. They lived in dormitories in a lake villa, and had milk and bread every morning for breakfast, which seemed like luxuries.
“Cuba used to be a holiday paradise for Americans, so there were a lot of villas and tall buildings, as well as the latest American cars,” Yan said. “The US trade blockade had just begun.”
After one year, the students were given a language skills test. The highest achievers were sent to Havana University to continue Spanish studies; the remainder returned to China.
Yan, Li and Chen were among those who remained. The curriculum was difficult because they didn’t have the proficiency in Spanish for classes in technical subjects. They listened to Cuban radio to try to improve their language skills.
Sugarcane harvest
“Our favorite radio dramas were Sherlock Holmes stories,” said Li. “We would write down beautiful sentences we heard and recite them again and again.”
The Chinese students had to take their turns on sentinel duty, with rifles at the ready on campus, as part of Cuban preparedness after the Bay of Pigs attack in 1961. They also helped with the sugarcane harvest.
In 1967, the Chinese students were recalled home as the “cultural revolution” had begun.
Back in China, Yan, Li and Chen were sent to Beiyuan Village in Hebei Province’s Tangshan City, where they worked for more than two years.
Then Yan worked in a radio factory in Changzhou in Jiangsu Province and later worked in the foreign affairs bureau in the city. He was seconded to work as a consul in the Chinese Embassy in Buenos Aires between 1995 and 1998.
Chen ended up working for a foreign trade company in Shanghai. In 1992 he was named a deputy director of the tariff-free zone in the Pudong New Area and later became Party chief of Shanghai Foreign Economic Relations and Trade Commission. Between 1996 and 1998, he was sent to the Chinese Embassy in Cuba as a commercial attache.
Li worked as a teacher at a school in Wuxi, in Jiangsu, and was principal of Fuxing Senior High School in Shanghai between 1995 and 1997. Then he was sent to Buenos Aires to work as a commercial attache at the Chinese Embassy.
The trio said they are happy that they eventually got to use their Spanish.
"We’re glad to have played even a small part in the good relationship between China and Cuba,” said Yan.
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