Veteran translator's retrospect: Life and work

When working at the May Seventh Cadre School, in his spare time, Gao depicted a head portrait of Lu Xun (1881-1936), a famous Chinese writer, on a broken pickaxe handle. Though much time has passed, it remains fresh in his memory, "The pickaxe was too hard to be carved; it really tired me out." [Photo by Chen Boyuan/China.org.cn]

Note: May Seventh Cadre Schools refers to cadre schools founded in agricultural villages during the Cultural Revolution in accordance with Mao ZeDong's May Seventh Directive. Their main activities were: political studies, physical labor, and thought reform. Intellectuals and the great majority of cadres in government organs were sent in groups at different times to May Seventh Cadre Schools to undergo tempering.