Ten years of madness : oral histories of China's Cultural Revolution by Feng Jicai

Author:Feng, Jicai [Feng, Jicai]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: San Francisco : China Books & Periodicals
Published: 1996-04-14T19:00:00+00:00

140 TEN YEARS OF MADNESS

flattering treatment was partly due to his colleagues' wanting him to buy them gifts on his trips abroad, now that he was a VIP with power and big bucks, his subordinates felt it their responsibility to humor him, even if he couldn't smile. He was like a god among men, though perhaps even the great deity would have had trouble figuring out how he had suddenly become such a major celebrity.

Now I'm going to tell you about the weird thing that happened last night.

My brother-in-law, my sister, and their son were sitting in their living room watching a two-person cross-talk"^ comedy show on their 24" TV screen. All at once a sort of cackling sound came forth from somewhere deep within my brother-in-law's throat, a sound resembling the frightened clucking of a hen just before laying an egg. He continued making this "ge, ge, ge" sound for some time, as if something was caught in his throat and was causing him pain. My sister thought he might have suddenly become ill, but when she looked closer she noticed the edges of his mouth beginning to turn up, gradually pulled higher and higher by an invisible piece of string, his facial muscles twisting and contorting in the process, and his eyebrows, which had never before been affected^by this kind of facial upheaval, looped in the shape of two small willow leaves. Suddenly their son cried out: "My daddy looks like Donald Duck!"

Their son's words had the effect of an explosive device. My brother-in-law immediately burst out in laughter, as if a long dead volcano had unexpectedly erupted. And his face was no longer contorted. There was no mistaking the genuineness of his laughter. Yes, he'd actually laughed. Later, my sister told me that, at that moment, his facial features seemed to be in full harmony, like a flower in full bloom with all its petals opening simultaneously, something none of us ever thought possible. Yet this display of genuine laughter so shocked her that she thought he'd gone mad. She asked him what was wrong. Apparently my brother-in-law's hands were shaking so much he couldn't reply, the two comedians on the television screen sending him into even greater paroxysm of laughter every time he glanced at them, his hands involuntarily covering his stomach, tears and mucous pouring down his

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