The Beijing of Possibilities by Jonathan Tel

Author:Jonathan Tel [Tel, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-59051-347-7
Publisher: Other Press
Published: 2009-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

LOVE! DUTY! HUMANITY! VIRTUE!

THE REAL STORY began a few years after the story I’m about to tell you. I’d been born on the commune, and knew nowhere else. This much I understood: things were changing. But was the change taking place in myself or in my country? Was there acne on China’s chin? Was hair sprouting in the armpits and groin of China? Were the wet dreams unreeling in my own or China’s night?

It was in the spring of 1979 that I had the first hint of an answer, when Uncle Ha received a letter. There was only one person who ever wrote him: his friend Zhang. The two men had fought side by side against the American devils in Korea, and had been injured in a bombardment during the Battle of the Chongchon River. Zhang didn’t live so far away—a couple of hours on the far side of the nearest town—but they seldom met in person, keeping in touch by mail every month or so.

Uncle was seated on his special chair, his wooden leg unscrewed and resting on a stool of its own; my job was to crouch beside him, massaging his stump and rubbing in Hundred Flowers Ointment. Slowly and carefully he read the letter, passing on gossip concerning his friend’s health and finances; I scarcely listened. What I cared about was the stamps! I already had quite a collection. (I was famous for it on the commune, making a pest of myself begging used envelopes, which I soaked in water till the stamps floated off. I had a complete set of the Centenary of Stalin’s Birth, and of Study Science from Childhood, and four out of the five Thriving Trades of the People’s Commune.) But these were like nothing I had ever seen. The colors were gaudy, the images jaunty. The stamps illustrated the legend of the Monkey King on his Journey to the West. On the five-fen stamp, Monkey was using his Magic Needle to defeat Princess Iron Fan. On the ten-fen, Monkey was somersaulting over clouds, 108,000 li at a single leap! I’d been taught these stories at school, as foreshadowings of Mao’s own strategy; Monkey and Mao had both set out on a kind of Long March; both had defeated wicked enemies by a combination of determination and guile. But since when was it acceptable for stamps to be fun?

“Hmm, interesting,” said Uncle, who liked to maintain an air of mystery about his dealings. “According to Corporal Zhang, certain kinds of private enterprise are now being tolerated. He has made a suggestion to me. I will write back to him this very afternoon.”

I dug my knuckles into the scar tissue.

“Ah, that feels good.” He shifted position on the flag-red armchair. “I think I may confide in you, Little Friend, that Corporal Zhang is prepared to offer me, at a most advantageous price, a machine that will make a special kind of candy, light as cotton wool, in the shape of a ball, which is attached to a stick.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.