Authors: Ben Ruhe
Date Submitted: November 30, 2004
Article Type: Journal

As one of China’s leading kitemakers as well as being a direct descendant of the philosopher Confucius (551-479 B.C.), Kong Xiang Ze was a marked man during the Cultural Revolution which swept his country in l966-76. Mao had instructed the young Red Guards to destroy the “old”—–traditions, objects, human exemplars of Chinese culture. Kong thus became the perfect target. “I was beaten up seven times by Red Guards,” the 84-year-old says. “My property was trashed.”

He reports this now in a remarkably matter of fact manner. He even smiles. He is at peace with the world, the evil days long gone. “I’ve become objective,” Kong says. If all is not forgotten, the past is apparently forgiven. Kong is living out the twilight of his life in the noble spirit of a superb creator and dedicated Confucian.

Kong lives with son, Kong Ling Min, 58, and grandson, Kong Bing Zhang, a 23-year-old university student, in the isolated farming village of Shang Zhuang, 30 miles northwest of Beijing. They retain a small property in Beijing. (Ling Min is of course a 76th generation descendant of Confucious, Bing Zhang a 77th; family records are precise in China.) Their village is an ex-commune, windswept and austere. Fields have rude wicker fences around them to curb the wind. Chickens wander the streets. Not far to the north are high mountains and beyond, the Gobi Desert.