We grew up in a big courtyard inhabited by army families in Tianjin. We called it Army Courtyard.
In 1969, in the height of campaign of 知识青年上山下乡 (Zhīshì qīngnián Shàngshān xià xiāng) educated youth going to the mountains and to the countryside, there was a huge interest among children of my age to join the army. The Army Courtyard was almost empty after this.
I don't know why, especially during the Sino-Soviet border crisis. Perhaps it was a better alternative to the countryside. I only remember it was super cool to wear green army uniforms. So I couldn't wait to join the army.
During the early stage of Cultural Revolution (1966-76), there was not much learning going on in school. People were busy with making "revolution." It was widely believed at that time that it was useless to study. Intellectuals were considered 臭老九 (chòu lǎo jiǔ), a derogatory label reserved for them.
But my father was against me going to the army. He firmly believed that, this revolutionary madness would not go on forever. No matter who came to power, no matter which dynasty we would be under, the country still needed production and developing economy, for that the country would need people with skills and expertise.
So the next year, in 1970, he sent me to Tianjin Foreign Languages School to learn English, believing that learning something was better than nothing, much better than going to the countryside.