Shanghai ( CNN ) -- Hu Rongfen had no choice . On November 14 , 1971 , in the whirlwind of Mao Zedong 's Cultural Revolution , the slender and soft-spoken middle school graduate was dispatched from Shanghai to a far-flung village in East China 's Anhui Province to work in the country . This was n't a punishment for any wrongdoing -- on the contrary , the quiet girl was a top student in class . The migration was an order from the central government to every urban household -- at least one of their teenage children needed to leave the city to work on the farm indefinitely . The ruthless political command lasted from 1966 until the mid-1970s and intended that the privileged urban `` intellectual '' youth learn from farmers and workers . As a result , China 's `` lost generation '' emerged -- deprived of the chance of education and the right to live with their families . `` We were told that city dwellers never move their limbs and could not distinguish different crops , '' says Hu , now 58 . `` So we were banished to labor and learn skills and grit from peasants . '' Hu spent four years ( 1971-1974 ) planting rice , spreading cow dung and chopping wood in Jin Xian , a mountainous county . Known in Chinese as `` up to the mountains and down to the farms , '' the urban-to-rural youth migration was part of China 's decade-long Cultural Revolution , a social political movement initiated to implement Communism and Maoism in China by eliminating any capitalist , feudalistic and cultural elements . Hu still remembers the luggage she brought : basic life necessities , the `` Little Red Book '' explaining Chairman Mao 's theories -- a mandatory read for everybody -- and dozens of notebooks with hand-copied chapters from `` Jane Eyre '' and `` Anna Karenina , '' which she sneaked in secretly -- these books had been banned for their perceived Capitalist connotations . `` I used to read those notebooks in secret under my blanket at midnight . '' According to Chinese media , as many as 17 million `` intellectual youths '' in the country packed their bags and moved to some of the remotest parts of China . There , they transformed from care-free students to farmers . `` I still ca n't bear to recall my youth spent on the farm , '' she says . One of Hu 's most vivid memories was working in rice fields in early spring in freezing water , on which lumps of ice still floated . There , she would bend down to seed for more than ten hours . She would slap her legs madly to rid herself of the leeches clinging to her limbs . Blood would ooze from her wounds and mingle with the dirt and water . Another time , she recalled walking 40 kilometers along mud paths against bone-chilling winds to the nearest bus station on Chinese New Year 's Eve to catch a ride to the train station to go back to Shanghai to see her parents . Hu was eventually elected by her commune to study mechanics at a college in Hefei -- the capital of Anhui -- in 1974 . Most people stayed as long as eight years in their commune and only started returning to cities from 1978 onwards . Many did not get a chance to return to their studies . Hu eventually found a job in Hefei after graduation and lived there until 1986 before moving back to her hometown for good . She worked as an office secretary at a scientific laboratory in Shanghai until her retirement in 2008 . But the memories from her youth still make Hu blanch . `` If the Cultural Revolution came back and I were to be dispatched again , I 'd rather commit suicide , '' she says , noting that the farming days tortured her physically and mentally . `` I stayed awake night after night at the commune , worrying if I 'd ever return to any city . `` After my retirement , I seize every opportunity to travel and exercise my body ( to stay healthy ) , '' she adds . `` I live a happy life now . I want to live every day like ( I were still in my ) youth because I was never able to enjoy my teens and 20s -- the best time of one 's life . '' However , she confesses she did gain something -- an iron will to live through the toughest conditions and four lifelong friends . Hu and her four dormmates on the farm have stayed in regular contact for the past four decades . Having experienced similar ordeals in youth , they encourage and support each other to enjoy the present and the future . They write memoirs , travel stories and nostalgic poems to share with each other or post to the web . `` It 's a way for us to act out our feelings towards the past , '' she says . `` Together my 'comrade sisters ' and I lived through some unimaginably tough times -- learning to live without parents and like peasants , '' says Hu . `` And now we want to live our youth again all together . '' As Leo Tolstoy wrote in `` Anna Karenina '' : `` All the variety , all the charm , all the beauty of life are made up of light and shade . ''
Millions of young people moved from city to country during China 's Cultural Revolution . Under Mao Zedong , the Communist Party was composed of ` ` bourgeois '' elements . Hu Rongfen was a middle school student sent away from her home in Shanghai . Hu : ` ` We were told that city dwellers never moved their limbs and could not distinguish different crops ''