Chasing Hepburn by Gus Lee

Author:Gus Lee [Lee, Gus]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-55501-4
Publisher: Crown
Published: 2011-08-03T00:00:00+00:00

thirty-six

A Heart for People

I’M FIRST OF all an honoring daughter,” Da-tsien would later say, thinking of her father. “And of course I’m wife to my husband, whom I love more than respect. And I’m a Christian lady and a mother to my unborn son.”

Asked if she were a Nationalist or a Communist, she’d say, “I don’t get the difference between right-wing Nationalists and left-wing Reds. They both talk about the same ideas, don’t they?”

But she saw other differences. Both sides had people of privilege, but the Nationalists had the wealthy bankers and business owners and the Reds had laborers and peasants. Not liking commerce because of her father’s views on foreign trade, and identifying with the downtrodden because of her mother’s lack of affection, she preferred the Reds. They were more passionate. As she matured and approached her twenty-first birthday, passion had begun to underline everything she did.

“We have to organize the workers so they can help!” she exclaimed to her friends, waving her hands like a person of no education.

“Radical talk,” said Elaine Yu. “Girls can’t do that!”

“I don’t think we should even talk about it,” said May Yang, fixing her hair and wetting her eyebrows.

“But Da-tsien’s right,” said Grace Sun. “If Chiang Kai-shek starts the Northern Campaign from South China, and beats all the jun-fa warlords from here to Manchuria, he’ll have to come to Shanghai. This is where the money is to feed his army. We have to organize the Shanghai workforce, or else the foreign armies will kill our army brothers when they get here. We have to shut down the city to make it safe for them!”

“My God, Grace, you’re a Communist!” said May.

Grace pulled her head back. “I’m not, but I’ve attended their meetings. They’re so smart, and so, so—”

“Passionate!” said Da-tsien.

“You go, too? That’s no place for a Christian girl like you!” said May.

“They’re nice to us,” said Da-tsien. “We even meet in a girls’ school.”

“Don’t say that!” said Elaine. “They’re Communists!”

“They let us talk very freely and openly,” said Da-tsien.

“Yes!” said Grace. “Da-tsien asked if they wouldn’t do better to ask questions when they were angry, instead of yelling. They agreed.”

“So, you’re a Big Cap, a big thinker, who can walk into a Hongkew factory and tell the workers to organize, and they will?” asked Elaine.

“The Party,” said Grace, “establishes relationships first—”

May almost threw down her hand mirror. “I think that’s really stupid and that you’re both going to get killed!”

“Oh, May,” said Da-tsien, “can’t we even talk without pain?”

“No, we can’t!” cried May, “and when the KMT gestapo investigate, I’m going to say I don’t even know you!” Looking about as if the Dong Tang Blue Gown secret police were already coming, she retrieved her cosmetics and fled. When she got home, she would burn the photos of Da-tsien’s Christian wedding, in which she appeared incriminatingly as a bridesmaid.

THE NEWS FROM the war front was driving Zee Zee into two moods—depression and anger. Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang army was pushing outward from Canton on the Northern Expedition.

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