Ma Hongzhi Source: Website Date: July 2004-14

China civil aviation started in 1950s and 1960s. 1955 sino-Soviet joint civil aviation ended and began to operate independently. The initial flying team was mainly composed of insurgents from "two airlines". After 1954- 1955, several batches of pilots trained in New China were all transferred from the Air Force. Such as Zhang, Xu Bailing and Yin Qiangting, former flight captains of Beijing Bureau, and a large number of excellent pilots and co-pilots. Their arrival has added fresh blood to the civil aviation flight team. With the needs of the motherland's construction, at that time, more than a dozen new domestic and international routes were opened one after another. Improving the level of air and ground services has also become an important task for new China civil aviation. So at the end of 1955, with the cooperation of the Municipal Education Bureau, the Civil Aviation Administration of China secretly and carefully recruited the first batch of flight attendants in New China, totaling 16. Together with two female soldiers, Zhang Sumei and Kou Xiurong, who were demobilized to civil aviation, there were 18 women. Later, they were dubbed the first generation of eighteen sisters in the air in New China. The sisters were formally employed at the end of 1955 after strict interview, political examination and physical examination.

1956, our flight attendants have been trained intensively for half a year. The training content is on the ground first, then in the air, that is, check-in, stowage, meteorology, navigation, transportation, passenger transfer and other ground service knowledge. In terms of etiquette and dress, comrades from the Protocol Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were invited to give lectures. Then I got on the plane internship and started to take off and land dozens of times at will to adapt to the reaction in the air. At first, several sisters were not used to working at high altitude. After dozens of flights, they turned pale, broke out in a cold sweat and vomited, which made us feel the taste of eating this bowl of rice.

After several months of ground and air training, Zhang Sumei, Ma Hongzhi, Shi Xiuying and other sisters joined the flight in advance because of work needs. Then it is allocated according to the needs of the national flight brigade. Due to the heavy tasks of the route, the Beijing Management Office arranged 13 people, namely, Kou Xiurong, Ma Hongzhi, Guo Zhaoxian, Kang, Shi Xiuying, Wang, Shen Lun and Li Shumin. Chengdu Flying Tigers: Yuan,. Two people in Lanzhou: Chan Sarah and Kong Xianfang. One person from Guangzhou: Song Shumin. Before the flight, the first flight attendants made uniform work clothes. Winter is a dark blue gabardine suit skirt, with two rows of copper buttons, a suit skirt, a pair of trousers and a round hat with the bureau emblem on it, and a special sign embroidered with gold thread above the right sleeve (captain, co-pilot, mechanic, navigator, waiter and operator are different). Wear semi-high heel black shoes, stockings, round neck white silk shirt, sea blue tweed coat in winter, two rows of copper buttons with bureau emblem, dark brown leather boots with short burrs. Autumn clothes are made of gray wool serge, and summer clothes are thin verdin light bean paste color, just like winter clothes. In addition, I bought a small suitcase and a bicycle for commuting according to my work needs. At that time, the standard system of low salary was implemented. The first year of our flight was an internship period, and the salary was only 28 yuan every month. After one year, the rating was 44.5 yuan. Although before 1958, it was free to eat empty cooking stoves, that is, each flight could earn a kilometer fee according to different airline grades, but the monthly kilometer fee must exceed that of 30 yuan, otherwise it would subsidize the meal fee, and sometimes you have to pay for it yourself if you fly less. So every girl is heavily in debt because she makes overalls. Because there were regulations in the bureau at that time, according to the monthly income of each flight attendant, individuals had to pay part of the expenses in proportion to their income, and the rest was paid by the public. So what I wrote in the book "The First Stewardess in China" is really true.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the supply of airplanes and airplanes was far from what it is now. At that time, the planes were relatively small, mostly Soviet Il-14 and Li Er models at the first three o'clock and the last three o'clock. There are only a dozen passenger seats, up to 24. The plane has two propellers, flying at a speed of 300-420 kilometers per hour and flying at a height of more than 4000 meters. Because the cabin is not sealed, it will lack oxygen when flying high. In short, it is greatly affected by the airflow. So in bad weather, such as thunder and thick cumulus clouds, the plane will bump badly, and passengers will vomit because of turbulence and lack of oxygen. In addition, the voyage is short, for example, from Beijing to Kunming, you have to land at two or three terminals, and refuel in Taiyuan, Xi, Chongqing and other places along the way to load and unload passenger and cargo mail. At the same time, passengers and crew members can't eat on the plane, but prepare the meals of flight attendants and passengers in advance in the midway terminal. So after a day's flight, the crew was tired, the flight attendants were more tired and the passengers were uncomfortable. Especially when flying to the northwest route, where most of them are desert areas, the airflow is very unstable, and the plane is like swinging in the vast sea, shaking up and down and thundering. If the pilot doesn't have superb technology and rich flying experience, and makes a slight mistake in judgment, the plane will be destroyed and people will die. Our flight attendants have been trained for many years under the condition of small aircraft and poor supply equipment, which has increased their ability to serve passengers. Therefore, even under such circumstances, especially when the weather on the route is bad and bumpy, we can still go back and forth to the cabin and send a warm and sincere smile to the passengers. For example, if a passenger vomits because of the turbulence of the plane, we will quickly remove the vomit, clean the polluted vomit on the passengers, chairs and carpets, and send mouthwash and hand towels. According to the needs of each passenger, open or close the ventilation device and curtains and cover them with a small blanket. Or let passengers lie on their side, often because one person vomits and causes conditioned reflex, which causes other passengers to vomit. Although there are only a dozen or twenty passengers in the cabin and only one stewardess is working, they are often as busy as a bee and exhausted at the end of the day. Even some flight attendants couldn't stand it and threw up themselves. For example, Sister Sixteen, Shen Lun, feels like a serious illness after a day's flight and can't even straighten her waist. But she didn't affect the service work because of her physical discomfort. Once I flew somewhere and met a critically ill patient. The patient was carried on the plane on a stretcher. Because the cabin is small and there is no bed, we have to temporarily put the stretcher in the back cabin (that is, behind the passenger seat chair) to let the passengers lie down. Along the way, Shen was not afraid of hardship and fatigue, and sent her water and medicine again and again.

And wash her ulcerated abdomen and legs with medicine to relieve her pain and make her reach her destination smoothly. To this end, the passenger held Xiao Shenlun's hand many times to express his gratitude and said, "I will never forget your dedication and enthusiasm for serving a seriously ill patient." In short, as far as I can remember, our first generation flight attendants have never been criticized for their work in serving Chinese and foreign passengers or charter flights. On the contrary, they praised many things and put forward many suggestions.

I have been to Cambodia by Premier Zhou Enlai's special plane. Due to the hot weather in Phnom Penh, we wore summer clothes, namely a light brown suit and a white silk shirt. After getting off the plane, I attended the reception of Prince Sihanouk in the evening, and I was still wearing this dress. Therefore, Comrade Yu Peiwen, director of the Protocol Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who accompanied Premier Zhou on his visit, suggested making some casual clothes, such as China cheongsam. He said it's not only a matter of politeness, your clothes represent the culture of the country and China.