Monica Whitlock is a writer,
broadcaster and producer who
works for BBC World ServiceLISTEN
Monica Whitlock explores Kim Gordon’s
story in Prisoner of the Cultural
Revolution, an episode of
Witness History: bbc.co.uk/
programmes/w3ct1x5kbolts of whether we were going out of the window or down
the stairs.”
All the while, the family watched from the window as
the Cultural Revolution unfolded. “We would often see
Red Guards parading people in trucks, with the dunce’s
caps and their arms pinioned behind their backs, being
harassed and beaten,” Kim says.
Each week, Kim was allowed a one-hour walk with
a security guard. Speaking was not allowed, and the
g ua rds were hosti le. K im says t hey revea led t heir disli ke of
foreigners more to him than they could to an adult, calling
him names such as “white pig” and “foreign ghost”.
“All along the roads there were big posters of people
who’d been condemned, people who’d been named,
arrested, identified,” he recalls. “You could see [who] had
been executed, [who was] going to be executed.” He also
spotted workers digging metro tunnels and a ring road for
this fast-changing capital.B
ack in Room 421, the family did their best
to make the evenings fun. They made packs
of cards and created a Monopoly-like game
they called Happy Hunting. But “after
months and months of playing the same
game... you completely understand the
next thing the other person is going to do”. Then they
would sing. Kim’s mother, who had attended a convent
school, still loved ‘Ave Maria’, despite her communist
beliefs. They created little plays, too. “My father would
write one, mother would write one, I’d write one... they’d
be done ver y much like radio serials, with trailers and a bit
of music,” Kim says. His tales included Attack of GiantKiller Scorpions, beautifully written in schoolboy hand-
writing on hotel notepaper. Each story stretched across as
many evenings as possible.
The following year came and went, with no trial,
no charges and no news. Then one day in 1969, Kim was
sent to put away some cleaning materials in the store cup-
board. There he came across a stack of Swedish newspa-
pers, which he smuggled back to the room. The family
managed to decipher an article that said that there were 30
foreigners under arrest in China. “Suddenly, we realised
that we weren’t alone,” Kim says.F
rom that point, things began to move.
Eric and Marie made progress in their inter-
minable negotiations with the guards, who
by now seemed keen to be rid of them. One
interrogator even denied that the Gordons
had ever been held captive, calling them
instead “uncommon guests”. Finally, in October 1969, the
Chinese authorities released the Gordon family and they
flew back to London. Kim was almost 14 years old.
“My abiding memory is flying into Heathrow,” he says,
“and suddenly seeing a city with lights. A huge, huge city...
[We saw] people with fashionable clothes and food in the
shops. It was just mind-blowing.”
Eric Gordon would later write a book about his family’s
experiences in China, but back home in London, Kim and
his parents never really talked through those two terrible
years in the Xin Qiao hotel. Somehow, they buried their
memories and moved on with
their lives. Yet Kim never forgot
how to speak Chinese, and still
keeps safe his models, writings
and possessions from Beijing.
“It is so strange to be free,”
Kim wrote in his brand-new diary
shortly after his return to the UK.
“It just can’t be true to be back in
England. I feel as if I’m in one of
my dreams and I’ll wake up and
be back in the Xin Qiao.”Guards revealed their dislike of foreignersi
to Kim more than to adults, calling him names i
such as “white pig” and “foreign ghost”i
The Cultural Revolution
ERICGORDON“So strange to be free”Kim Gordon on his release in 1969, aged 13, and (right)
YKVJJKUHCOKN[KP.QPFQPCHVGTʚ[KPIDCEMVQ*GCVJTQYsCPGZRGTKGPEGJGECNNUpOKPFDNQYKPIq